Plans for 2024 - fall

At the library

• Collection Development
• I am about half way through weeding the juvenile nonfiction collection. I'm taking a break and switching to picture books, as I want to update the neighborhoods and the books are piling up. Then I'll go back to finish NFJ and go on to parenting  and juvenile fiction/JPOP. Not sure I will complete all of that this fall though!
• I want to spend some more time doing displays and focused recommendation lists/collections in conjunction with weeding as I see areas that need to be promoted.
• I am still trying to get to an overhaul of the Library of Things collection, making an improved inventory and updating the collection.
• Programming
• The updated summer reading programs were hugely popular and successful. I will definitely make some changes for next year, but they will be tweaks and minor fixes. I don't like to be too definite, but we may have finally hit on a summer reading program that will be successful for a long, long time. The low-key and drop-in programs went very well and I will probably do something very similar next year.
• We are going fairly low-key with programs this fall. My main focus is arranging the schedule so my part-time associate, Andrea, can cover when our school partner, Esther, is unavailable. The goal is two morning storytimes a week as consistently as possible. I'm expanding our monthly homeschool hangout with a general age separation that will hopefully include teens and older kids without discouraging families from attending as a group. I've cancelled or put on hiatus nearly all our after school programs, due to low attendance, and am sharing the Project Explore drop-in programs with my teen services associate, Jess. She's also going to change Pokemon Club to a drop-in and offer it more frequently. Esther is bringing her family preschool fun nights to the library, which should bump up our numbers as well.
• General plans
•  Staffing the youth desk from 9-5 in June-July was successful, and we are continuing it into August, but it's definitely a once-a-year thing. Next year we'll change the shifts a little. We definitely didn't have time to get to any projects and I am rather doubtful that we will manage it in August, even though we are taking the last week completely off of all programming and desk coverage. I did some work on grants this summer, but I am still struggling with the software/system of one and it's been very disheartening to work on something for TWO MONTHS and be RIGHT BACK WHERE I STARTED. Mind you, this isn't even the grant software itself, it's the third party verification system and payment apps. I am still unable to actually put in any grant requests! Our summer intern got a job after only a couple weeks, so that was great for them and they didn't need us after all! 
• I am still waiting to schedule outreach - school here does not resume until after Labor Day. I have several new outreach ventures that I am working on, just waiting to hear back from potential partners.
• I am very excited to be attending the ALSC Institute in Denver. I really enjoyed it the one time I went, but circumstances intervened every other time I attempted it, so I am looking forward to this, even though I don't enjoy traveling.
• A big grant was written this summer that we will hear back from in mid-fall. If we are awarded the grant, it will mean fairly big changes to the library, so I'm keeping things as flexible as possible. Regardless, we are facing some potential budget cuts next year, so I am also preparing for that.

Blogging

• This year I am planning to wrap up reviews by the end of November and take December for writing collection development and year-end posts.

Personally, I am continuing my goal of being more active. I am hitting my (very modest) step goals more regularly and have been very diligent about doing some simple stretches every day. I am usually too hot and tired to do much in the summer, but I'd like to get back to working on my sewing projects in the fall. I have bulbs on order and will be shifting things around a little to plant those. I am making some vague efforts to be more social, but so far this has mostly consisted of me thinking that I should, at least occasionally, go and do something and then thinking "but what would I actually do?" and "but who would I do something with?" and "how the heck do people have energy to do stuff after working, and laundry, and dishes, and cooking, and exercising?"

Plans for 2024 - Summer

At the library

• Collection Development
• The board book collection is almost done - I'm working through books as they are returned and have about 100 to go.
• Absolutely no work was done on the juvenile nonfiction. Maybe this summer.
• Programming
• Winter/spring - The Very Hungry Caterpillar celebration was a big success, Dewey love to read not so much, speaking purely to numbers. Book clubs had consistently low to no attendance, teen programs as always are a gamble. D&D was very popular in the winter and then died off as people got busy again. Drop-in programs seem to be the sweet spot.
• 
  Looking forward to summer, we are doing a very low-program summer. Kids are very busy with other things and continued staff shortages, especially as our circulation and traffic increases and additional pressure is put on our school partners, are leading to burnout for our department. I plan to start putting more margins in for staff to take time off and for unexpected things to happen and this summer we will focus on staffing the youth services desk, running the summer reading program, and having drop-in and self-directed activities.
• Overview of summer reading programs/Family Reading Adventure
• Logs from Everyday Reading
• Tween and teen summer reading
• Summer reading challenge 
• Summer event calendar
• General plans and projects
  
• This is probably the last year we will do extensive field trips, due to various scheduling challenges and stuff happening next year. There will potentially also be changes in outreach as well. I'll be ready to be flexible and work with whatever the schools can do, but I need to think of creative ideas to reach the kids in other ways.
• I am hosting an intern this summer, a MLS student, which will be very different from our high school volunteers/interns! It's been.... a LONG time since I had a "real" intern, and I hope they get a lot out of the experience.
• We will almost certainly be facing budget cuts next year, so I'll be spending some time this summer looking at next year's budget and any ways I can economize, grant-writing, etc.
• I'd like to get neglected projects taken care of this summer, from updating inventory of the storage in the basement to rearranging and labeling our Library of Things. I usually aim to cover the desk 9-12 and 3-5 on week days, but for June and July I'm aiming at 9-5 coverage, so we'll see how it goes.

Personally, I am continuing to work on being more active. I am doing a pretty good job of hitting my very realistic goals and although I don't necessarily feel like it's made a big difference, I'm going to keep going. I'm finishing my main garden projects this weekend. I need to finish some sewing projects I have, instead of continuing to wear my "experiments" lol and hopefully I will get to that soon. I had hoped to make some furniture purchases and rearrange my apartment, but an unexpected medical bill put a big dent in my savings, so right now I'm just shifting shelves around and working with what I have.

Plans for 2024 - winter and spring

At the library

• Collection Development
• Finish weeding the juvenile nonfiction
• Reorganize and relabel the board book collection
• New ordering plan - two orders each month, one backlist and one of items published that month. Additional orders in January - one extra order of backlist and replacement titles, one of prebound titles, and one of items I requested in prebound format.
• Programming
• I am personally running two book clubs (one was on hiatus last fall and I'm bringing it back in slightly updated format), and several self-guided afternoon crafting/sewing programs as well as monthly Dungeons and Dragons. I also have Homeschool Hangout and a few misc. things. I miss specific craft and project-themed programs sometimes, but I have to be realistic about what works and what doesn't.
• My teen services associate is trying several new programs and I will play around in those a bit perhaps as a "guest librarian" for some new crafts.
• Two new feature programs - a celebration of Very Hungry Caterpillar day, which I want to use as a big promotion for my Read and Grow (1,000 books before kindergarten) program and Dewey love to read, a stations-style Saturday program based around STEM/nonfiction.
  
• General Plans and Projects
• A monthly youth services social and unboxing of new books for my staff and any colleagues who want to attend.
• Webinar on programming - I am presenting this at the end of January, so it's a fairly immediate goal, although I do have a draft completed.
• I am hosting a work experiences intern for a few months. I promised our teen services person I'd handle it, as she has her hands full with the teen volunteers.
• Outreach - our school district is dealing with various issues and I'm at a point where I give them the option of visits, but if they don't request them or respond I don't push it. My half-time associate handles the four and five year old kindergartens and I do the older grades. If they don't ask for visits throughout the semester they'll almost certainly set up field trips and/or visits for the elementary schools in May. I've ended programs early to run those field trips and I hope to update them and get them scheduled earlier this year.

Personally I am working on recovering from surgery, getting back to being more active, and spending some time after four very tumultuous years figuring out what I want my life to look like. I have quilting and sewing projects, some plans for my garden in the spring, and right now I am just maintaining my blog and reviews without any big writing projects planned.

Looking forward to the fall and beyond at the library

This is at the back of my apartment building. I'm
ripping out the invasive ground elder so I can see 
where to put the new beds and pots. It won't be
eradicated, but it will be more manageable.
Very symbolic.

The last year has been very challenging. We ended all pandemic restrictions (excepting our plexiglass screens) right before the summer of 2021, our adult services librarian was promoted to director in September (which was awesome) and we've been dealing with a lot of alarming budget issues, staff turnover, and peripheral issues on top of trying to get library services restarted and recover from the initial stages of the pandemic. We went into the summer covering for not having a full-time adult services manager and also for the retirement of my school colleague who does a lot of our storytimes. My goal was to get people into the library, have a more or less familiar set of programs and summer reading, and give staff a chance to recover a little from the exhaustion and stress of the last year(s).

We're going into the fall fully staffed, with a great new adult services librarian and a wonderful new school colleague, most of our budget issues have been more or less resolved, and while there will always be changes and challenges, it looks, hopefully, like things will be a little calmer for at least a while. I've tried to plan a fall schedule that will use our resources most efficiently while not burning out staff. 

Fall program schedule

• Weekly programs
• Paws to Read (supervised by teen services associate)
• Family storytime (run by school colleague with me as sub/backup)
• Outdoor/movement storytime (run by youth services associate with me as sub/backup)
• Lapsit (run by school colleague with adult services associate as sub)
• Kids Make it/Project Explore (run by me with help/backup from associates and aides)
• Lego Challenge (drop-in stealth program, set up and run by me)
• Monthly programs
• Bookaneers (run by me, will offer more than once a month if time allows)
• Fact Finders (run by me, will offer more than once a month if time allows)
• Teen Advisory Board (twice a month, run by teen services associate)
• Special teen events (run by teen services associate and TAB)
• I like to move it (movement and healthy snacks, run by school colleague)
• Let off STEAM (run by school colleague and myself)
• Pokemon Club (twice a month, run by teen services associate)
• Anime Club (twice a month, run by teen services associate)
• Outreach and special programs
• Monthly field trip from the special education school (youth services associate)
• Monthly visits to two 4K centers and kindergarten/1st grade at our rural school (adult services associate)
• Two family Halloween programs, community outreach for Christmas parade, Christmas cookie program (school colleague)
• Collaborative events - puppet show for 4K, live animal show at school, play therapist presentation at library, resilience book club for parents

There will probably be lots more field trips and school visits but they aren't planned yet. One 4K center has moved down the street from the library and we expect them to make frequent library visits. I have an experienced aide ready to make monthly visits to an after school center. We're also looking to make a lot more connections with the middle school especially and I also hope to set up visits with the Head Start housed in a nearby elementary school.

I had hoped to have my weeding/relabeling project in the picture book neighborhoods finished before fall programs resume, but the attack on Baker and Taylor has temporarily halted that, so I will have to wait to resume work on that project. I am in the final stages and the Friends of the Library have given me funds for a lot of the replacements I need. We are working on additional prizes (book bags and reading buddies) for Read and Grow: 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten and I am hoping to have Reading Explorer: 500 Books before Middle School revamped and ready to resume in December. Teacher requests have already started (my teachers are great about asking in advance!) and I am doing a big overhaul of the library Pinterest boards. The last big project of the year will, hopefully, be the replacement of the flooring in our Storyroom.

In the new year, one of our two adult services associates will have their hours increased to half-time, which will mean my staff will only rarely have to fill in at the front desk. My youth services associate schedule will change to five days a week in the morning and they will take back the outreach that was farmed out to our adult services associate. We'll be bringing back our biggest library program, life-size candyland, and running it on both Saturday and the following Monday, and I hope to increase school field trips and individual class visits to the point where I will no longer need to try and see 1500 kids in the space of a few weeks right before summer. I'm also planning to revamp our summer reading program - it will not be a major change to how we do things, I will not go back to prizes or logs, but I will have more alternatives for kids to choose from and our take home kits will be adapted to be more environmentally friendly and less work for staff.

I am sure other things will happen, new emergencies will arrive, and there will be new crisis to deal with, but I'm hopeful that going forward we'll be less liable to burnout while still serving our patrons.

Summer Reading Reflections

 - I freely admit that I did not put a ton of work into this year's summer reading program. As I focus on expanding outreach and other services, and as I deal with changes in our community, I've been moving away from the traditional model for summer reading which involves a lot of time, money, and staff. My goal for summer reading is a simple, accessible program that encourages frequent library visits. This year, I am making the weekly activity bags an honor system - there's a sign on the top that reminds them to sign up, but they can just take one.

 - As far as reading, well, to be honest I don't personally think summer reading programs make any difference in whether or not kids read during the summer. The kids who would normally read will read anyways and the ones who don't probably aren't coming to the library in the first place. I have separate programs set up to reach non-reading kids and encourage them to maintain and develop reading skills over the summer.

 - This year I made several changes in view of various shifts in the school schedule and from feedback last year. I found participation in my 0-3 age program dropped significantly, while participation in our year-round reading program, Read and Grow (1,000 books before kindergarten) grew. Last year a significant number of kids were enrolled in summer school, which was run in two 3-4 week sessions in June and July and also included afternoon classes and free lunch. This year, due to construction, there will only be two 2-week sessions and all classes except pre-kindergarten will be located at the high school, not the middle school, which is farther from the library. The pre-kindergarteners will be at the closest elementary school. I also had a lot of growth in middle school participation, but it does not look like I'll be visiting that school this year, so I don't know if that will continue.
 - I also had major staff turnover last summer. This year I have one part-time associate (21 hours) who has not gone through a summer at the library yet and a second part-time associate (8 hours) who is primarily handling teen programs and a little desk time at the youth services desk (They've been here in the summer but only as a teen volunteer years ago!). Of my two teen aides, only one has gone through summer and they worked limited hours. The other aide will be leaving at the end of summer, so this will be their first and last summer! I will also be bringing back a very experienced aide for the summer only.

Summer reading proper will be running June 9 to August 11, although we will have programs before and after that date.

2017 Library Data and Reflections: Programming and Outreach

The statistics octopus. She grasps all numbers in her tentacles.

So, this year. Sigh. It was a very busy summer, but the numbers didn't necessarily reflect that. It was just weird overall. It felt like we had lower attendance at a lot of things, but overall our attendance was about equal to 2016. I did start a lot of new stuff, but I'm planning on getting it all under control and changing some things next year, now that my staffing situation is, I hope, more or less sorted out.

Programs

• 348 children’s programs; 11,531 participants
• 19 teen programs; 508 participants

Storytimes and Early Literacy Programs for ages 0-5

• 165 programs; average 30 attendees; 4,942 total participants
• 7 special events for ages 0-5; 836 attendees

Family and School-Age Programs

• 22 bookclub meetings, average 9 members, 207 total
• 19 Lego Club meetings, average 26 attendees, 485 total
• 10 Mad Scientists Club meetings; average 33 attendees; 327 total
• 12 Messy Art Club meetings; average 32 attendees; 387 total
• 8 Maker Workshops; average 11 attendees; 91 total
• 6 special events for families; 650 attendees

Outreach (an estimate, not including numerous school visits, author visit, and participation in school outreach events, which is included in total programming)

• 76 programs; 1963 total participants

Stealth and Drop-In Programming

• A total of 671 children and teens participated in SRP
• We offered 92 stealth activities and drop-in programs, with a total participation of approximately 1865

Pop-Up Maker Space

• 52 teens participated in our pop-up maker space activities

While our overall programs and attendance were about equal to last year, and the attendance mostly averaged out, there were some changes. After school clubs overall dropped a little; the attendance was very uneven but mostly lower. Fewer outreach visits, kids involved in more activities after school, and inconsistent marketing hit us pretty hard there.

I increased several smaller programs, working with our English-language learning families through the school and starting several initiatives; the Library on the Go in the summer and extending our pop-up teen maker space. I also started the basics of a school-age pop-up maker space at the very end of the year.

I took off from outreach for the fall, in order to have the time to deal with major staff changes and planning life-size Candyland; this affected both our circulation and our overall program attendance, in my opinion.

Our summer reading registration decreased, but it's not as straight-forward as just counting the numbers, since I've changed how we count registration and participation.

Plans for next year

• I'm booking outreach visits January - March and already have a slew of visits planned. In April and May I'll change over to field trips only, although I'll probably make exceptions for the school and daycare that are located outside of town. I have about 5-10 visits a week booked right now.
• I'm also getting more involved in outreach events at the schools; I'm participating in their first Maker Faire and a 4K family night in January and also have some additional collaborations with the EL staff planned.
• I'm also continuing to spend more time on remote collections, supporting the school curriculum and increasing our circulation
• I plan to make some tweaks to the summer reading program; a lot of families prefer to just do 1,000 books before kindergarten instead of signing up for an additional program for the younger kids. I also hope to expand Library on the Go in the summer, then offer both field trips and outreach visits September - November.

As I expand outreach and related tasks, I'm going to need to cut back and change the way I offer programming. I'm increasing "event" programming, specially on Saturdays, and focusing more on smaller events during the week. Meanwhile, I'm handing more of the everyday programs over to my staff and colleagues.

• My school colleague will be continuing to offer toddler storytime, an evening storytime, baby storytime, playgroup, and collaborate on special programs.
• I've handed most of the Winter Wigglers events over to her and my associate. My associate will also be focusing on garden/outdoor programming in the summer.
• I will be continuing our after school club programs through April then going on hiatus until next September. I'll probably have a few more drop-in craft and lego programs, but in the summer I'll be focusing on maker workshops, Library on the Go, introducing more Friday/Saturday programs. I'll also have my book clubs during the school year.
• I'm offering a few more maker workshops during the year and trying to do roughly one Saturday event per month. This means I often work two Saturdays a month, although my director does try not to schedule me on Saturday rotation if she can, but with our staffing it just works out that way.

I've handed most of the marketing over to my associate; I send out newsletters and flyers to the schools and create handouts on outreach visits. My associate is also taking over a lot of the stealth programming and activities in-house, as well as displays.

With a new teen intern, we're jumping into teen programs full-tilt, building on the good start my temporary associate made last semester. The plan is to offer 3 programs a month, Middle School Madness, Anime Club, and Teens Game On! They're all going to be casual and, hopefully, require minimal planning and work. They'll have to since my intern only has 8 hours a week and I don't have time!

To pack all of this in, I have to make sure I'm taking reasonable breaks. I will only be doing minimal outreach visits in April and May; most classes will be visiting me. The only programs I will be doing myself in May will be my three book clubs. I won't be doing any programs in August; my associate will probably do some gardening/outdoor things and I'll have drop-in Craft-o-rama and Free Lego Build, which anyone can set up. In December I don't do any outreach and just have the three book clubs and Life-Size Candyland. We did very well with our big holiday programs in November so I'll probably continue that. Overall, I'm moving towards more drop-in, casual programming.

2016 Budget Numbers, Circulation Numbers, Programming Numbers, I Haz Them ALL (part 1 the programs)

The Statistics Octopus

This year I offered fewer programs for fewer children. But I am ok with this. Really. Ok, mostly. Sometimes I get caught up in numbers. However, over the past few years I've realized that we need to scale back, not just because of staff burnout and what we can reasonably offer, but so that we have adequate time to spend on promoting the collection, outreach, and other duties. Also, as I work to reach different demographics I've found that some groups work better on a smaller scale. Our large, chaotic storytimes are fun, but it's good to have options for families that need something a little more organized and quiet. Smaller groups at book clubs and maker workshops lets me devote more individual time to the working with the kids on developing their skills and interests.

I'm not including teen programs here - we only offer a couple teen-specific programs each year, not counting outreach, and that's something we're slowly working on but I don't feel that the numbers are useful at this time.

My school colleague offers the bulk of our in-house storytimes, my associate handles most of our teen programming, stealth programming, and assists with outreach (specifically field trips) and I deal primarily with elementary school age programs and preschool outreach.

Total Programs: 356 (33 fewer than 2015)

Total Attendance: 11,607 (798 fewer than 2015)

Storytimes: 159, average attendance 26

• The highest attendance is at our 10am toddler storytime, followed by our baby storytime. 
• The lowest attendance is my We Explore Favorite Artists series, our Mother Goose on the Loose series, and Winter Wigglers series. These also have the fewest actual programs as well.

School age programs: 60, average attendance 27

• The highest attendance is at our Messy Art Club after school program.
• The lowest attendance is my two book clubs, Bookaneers and Rock 'n' Read.

Special programs and performers

• 15 special events for families; 1,233 total 
• 12 paid performers for school and family events; 1,206 attendees

Outreach Storytimes and Early Literacy Programs for ages 0-5

• 68 programs; 1327 total participants 

Outreach Storytimes and Field Trips for School-Age Kids

• 34 programs; 1694 total participants

The benefits of freedom; or, Fine free programs at the library

I'll preface this by saying that I'm not a "one-size-fits-all" library policies person. I think fines are just fine, if not necessary for some libraries. However, for my library and community, if given the choice, I'd clear out all fines for juvenile and young adult materials in my library and just block cards until missing items are returned or paid for. (I wouldn't make juvenile cards fine-free, as I know some libraries do, since the attendant issues with adults using their children's cards would be exasperating, to put it mildly). I've suggested this and a few staff are, if not completely in favor, at least in the "it wouldn't hurt to try" camp, but unfortunately the way our consortium is set up and other concerns mean that it simply wouldn't work. So, over the past couple years I've been working around it as best I can to make sure kids continue to have access to library materials.

Our current policy is 25 cents per day, per item, capped at $10 per item. When total fines of $10 accrue on your card, it is blocked. If you have a lost item and pay the replacement fee, any overdue fees attached to that item are removed (you don't have to pay both). If you have lost items that mount up over $50 (not just overdue fines) the police will eventually get involved (this is a process that usually takes up to if not more than a year and involves multiple letters, offers of payment plans, etc.).

I've instituted the following fine-free programs over the space of more than five years. It took a lot of research, discussion, argument, and waiting for the right moment, the right staff, and the right Board to support the programs. It's not something that happened overnight.

All year I have a "read off your fines" program for juvenile card holders. This would be kids under 16, since in our consortium when they turn 16 they get an adult card. The idea is pretty simple - read a book, fill out a form, get $3 off your overdue fines. You can clear off up to $21 every year. If kids really struggle with reading they can give their little "report" orally. If they only write two sentences, I don't care. If their parent writes it for them, that's fine too. They read a book at some point, I take some fines off and relieve a little stress.

In 2014 I started a summer fine amnesty program. Every child I visit before summer reading begins (which generall means four year old kindergarten through middle school) gets a coupon that will clear off ALL their fines. It does have an expiration date (end of June or July) and they do have to not lose it. The thousands of dollars some people thought we would lose over this did not materialize - in 2014 it was $900 (with one $300 fine), in 2015 it was about $400 and in 2016 back to about $860.

I have made "$5 off your overdue fines" certificates as a teen prize in the past, but they didn't get taken so either the kids with fines aren't reading much or they prefer to deal with the fines in other ways and have candy instead!

Finally, in the summer of 2016 our Board approved a "clean slate" policy for kids turning 16 and moving from a juvenile to adult card. The policy is as follows:

• Young adults who have reached the age of majority (age 16 for library purposes) and have a juvenile account with outstanding bills will have the opportunity to clear their account with a “clean slate” and start over with an adult (General) card. 
• The library is willing to forgive one half of the fines owed, if the young adult will pay the other half, with a maximum payment of $20.00. 
• Fees for lost items will not be forgiven, but transferred to the co-signing parent or guardian’s account. 
• The profile on the account will be changed from Juvenile to General. If the juvenile card is lost, they will not be charged for a new card.
• This policy is not applicable for juvenile accounts that have been sent to the police.

I'm super excited about this - it will mean teens who had fines years ago as kids can start clean, and it will also clear the cards of kids whose parents abused their children's library cards.

The main arguments I've heard about not forgiving fines for kids is that the library will lose money, that they won't learn responsibility, it's not fair to adults who don't get their fines forgiven, that kids won't return their books on time if there's no penalty, they'll just rack up more fines, and they're just going to use their cleared cards to go on the internet and check out movies/video games.

To the first argument, I tracked our first fine amnesty program last year and we forgave $900 in fines, $300 of which was one single fine. We got several hundred dollars worth of materials returned that we would otherwise have never seen again. Our yearly fine revenue is about $25,000 so that's really a drop in the bucket.

To the rest of the arguments my response is; I don't give a shit. What, you thought I was going to include some carefully reasoned points for debate? My job description is not "to teach kids to be responsible" or "to make everything fair for the grown-ups." My job is to get kids and families to visit and use the library. End of argument.

Budget Numbers, Circulation Numbers, Programming Numbers, I Haz Them ALL (Part 2: The $$$)

The Statistics Octopus. It's a Thing.

I wasn't as obsessive when taking account of all my supplies this year. The big difference is changing summer reading - I saved over $1,000 and used that money for additional performers. I'll have more specific numbers for my collection development next year.

Program Supplies: $3,500
Summer Reading: $250
Performers: $1,500
Toy Collection: $250

Book Budget: $16,500
Audiobooks: $1,500
Movies, Video Games, Music: $6,500

Grants

• Friends of the Library (programming): $1000
• Friends of the Library (juvenile biographies): $500
• United Way: $1200
• VIP Aktion Club: $200
• Kohls Cares for Kids: $2000
• LSTA mini grant: $305
• Pig Money: $85
• Franks Piggly Wiggly donated the cookies and frosting for Santa's Kitchen - about $100

Budget Numbers, Circulation Numbers, Programming Numbers, I Haz Them ALL (Part 1: The Programs)

The Statistics Octopus. It's a Thing.

Well, the overhauling of teen programs didn't happen. We still have virtually no teen programs. I cancelled a lot of our minor programs with small attendance and added more big programs. I also started two book clubs, which went very well. I stopped doing our big summer craft parties and hired performers instead. This was a great relief. I also continued to expand outreach.

Total Programs (including outreach storytimes): 389
Total Attendance (including outreach storytimes): 12,405
Average program attendance: 32

This was an increase of 25 programs from 2014 and an increase of 123 attendance. This was a much more manageable jump than the almost 1,000 that we went up in 2014! Summer attendance was down, due to the opening of the new pool, from "striped wombats we're not going to survive the summer" to "we are all having fun and can actually enjoy the programs".

Programs

• Storytimes and early literacy programming for ages 5 and under (*facilitated or offered by my school partner)
• *Toddlers 'n' Books: 36 programs, 1,346 attendees
• *Books 'n' Babies: 36 programs, 923 attendees
• *We Explore Science: 6 programs, 241 attendees
• We Explore Favorite Artists: 8 programs, 146 attendees
• *Playgroups: 25 programs, 756 attendees
• *Tiny tots, Family Game Night, Tap to play (evening programs): 27 programs, 333 attendance
• Winter Wigglers: 6 programs, 141 attendees
• Preschool Interactive (ended after winter/spring session): 6 program, 72 attendees
• We Explore Nature (ended after winter-spring session): 1 program, 17 attendees
• *Garden programs: 4 programs, 116 attendees
• Family and school age programs
• Lego Club: 14 meetings, 519 attendees
• Messy Art Club: 12 meetings, 642 attendees
• Mad Scientists Club: 9 meetings, 354 attendees
• Bookaneers: 7 meetings, 53 attendees
• Rock 'n' Read: 3 meetings, 24 attendees
• Special or One-Time Programs
• Butterfly Celebration: 49 attendees
• *Be My Valentine: 127 attendees
• Dr. Seuss Celebration: 75 attendees
• Annual Spring Break T-Shirt Party: 31 attendees
• *Under the Sea: 225 attendees (approximate)
• Dance into Summer: 60 attendees (approximate)
• Library Camp-Out: 22 attendees
• Toddler Drive-In: 29 attendees
• The Big Splash: 65 attendees (approximate)
• Star Wars Celebration: 60 attendees
• Fairy Tale Adventure: 150 attendees (approximate)
• Santa's Kitchen: 96 attendees (approximate)
• *Toddler Cookie Party: 138 attendees (approximate)
• Gingerbread Storytime: 15 attendees
• Performers
• Puppet Story Theater
• This was supposed to be two kindergartens, a total of about 200 people. Unfortunately, one of the schools came a week early! They got an impromptu version of my We Explore Favorite Artists instead. But I'm counting them here because it's simpler.
• Science Alliance
• Chemistry Show - two schools' fifth graders came, about 160 kids
• Rept-O-Mania (summer show): 125 attendees
• Chemistry Show (subbed for Storywagon): 117 attendees
• Welty Environmental Center
• We All Speak for the Trees: 42 attendees
• Storywagon
• Hillbilly Silly Science Spectacular (daycare attended): 150 attendees
• Magician Lou Lepore daycare attended): 140 attendees
• Jump Up! Family Music: 56 attendees
• Naturalist David Stokes: 85 attendees
• Ice Age Trail: Going on a mammoth hunt: 50 attendees
• Schlitz Audubon Center
• This was the cancelled storywagon. They came in the fall for two schools of third garders, approximately 180 kids.
• Kohls Wild Theater
• This included self-led tours and included two four year old kindergartens with approximately 145 kids and caretakers attending.
• Outreach
• Off-site outreach visits
• 3 year old preschool and 4K: 65 visits, 1,033 children reached
• 5 year old kindergarten: 21 visits, 420 children reached
• Elementary school visits for summer: 15 visits, 1763 kids reached
• On-site outreach (visits, tours, etc.)
• Preschool (Pete the Cat): 3 visits, 60 kids reached
• 2nd grade community walk: 3 visits, 165 kids reached
• 3rd grade summer reading visit: 107 kids reached
• Summer school pre-kindergarten field trip: 100 kids and caretakers reached
• 1st grade field trips: 4 visits, 80 kids reached
• Kindergarden field trips: 2 visits, 90 kids reached
• Other
• Cub Scouts: 2 visits, 16 kids and parents reached
• Early Literacy tour: 10 kids reached
• Special education school: 1 visit, 14 kids and caretakers reached
• Homeschool tour: 10 kids and caretakers reached
• Head Start tour: 15 kids and caretakers reached

Stealth Programming

• Reading Programs
• 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten: 162 new participants
• Reading Explorer: 500 Books Before Middle School: 191 new participants
• Paws to Read: Winter Reading Program (Dec. 14 to Feb. 15)
• 37 participants
• 26 at end party
• Summer Reading
• 808 participants in the main program
• 74 Rubber Ducky Readers
• 81 teens
• Activity Stations
• I Spy Aquarium: 4 themes; 335 participants
• Activity Table: 653 participants with a choice of 10 different activities.
• Take Home Storytimes: 260 families took home bags from a selection of 13 topics
• Art Station: 449 participants used this station
• Other
• Valentine's Drop-In: 30
• School Art Show Open Night: 100
• ARRL (ham radio): 20
• Battle of the Books (district): 80
• Chick Central (no attendance counted)
• Culver's Coloring Contest: 190
• *Safety Shower (no attendance counted)
• Stuffed Animal Sleepover: 29
• Read with Pearl: 3 meetings, 31 attendees

This is what summer looks like: The evaluation

I'm actually testing out the winning school librarian's
queen of summer reading crown but whatever.

How it went:

Pretty good overall. Having fewer programs and replacing the big craft parties with performers was less stressful. Our circulation wasn't as insane as previous years, probably due to the opening of the new pool and weird weather, but it was still quite decent. I still think the summer reading can be simplified more, but nobody complained about the lack of plastic crap and kids were perfectly happy with small candies and/or coupons.

I am trying to stop thinking of it as a "completion" thing and more of an ongoing reading program, so kids bringing in their logs at the end for a free book is more of a bonus prize and not a "oh no hardly any kids completed the program!" I think the more important number is the return visits, which were over 2,000.

The Numbers

Circulation

• June: 14,412
• July: 9,166
• August: 11,721
• Total summer circulation: 35,299

Programs and program attendance 

• Programs: 72 
• Attendance: 3,340 

Summer Reading 

• Registered for Rubber Ducky Readers: 74 
• Logs returned: 50 
• Registered for Every Hero Has a Story: 808 
• Return visits (June/July): 2,342 (approximate)
• Logs returned: 170 
• Registered for Teen Summer Reading: 81 
• Participants who won prizes: 52

Plans for next year

As I said, I do have some plans. I would like to break up the general summer reading calendars so the kids turn in the June calendar for passes, then get the July calendar and turn that in for their free book. However, because the passes depend on age, in order to do that I need a better Rubber Ducky Readers program and I am hoping to use the WLA early literacy calendars for that next year.

If all goes well (and I'm kind of doubtful about this) we will have a walled in area of some kind and be able to really expand the gardens next year and do more outdoor programming. We'll see how it goes, budget-wise.

I would like to partner with summer school for more things - possibly take boxes of books over there and have kids check out as they get picked up or something, or maybe collaborate on some programs.

2015 Summer planning

This has nothing to do with this post
I just like my reticulata irises

This year I've been trying to get my programming to a more manageable level. I made goals, I revamped the summer reading program, and this is what I planned for the summer.

One change I made is that summer will now run from when school ends, June 5, to August 1. In the past we've gone a week or two into August, but no more. Programs won't resume until a week after Labor Day (school starts the day after Labor Day).

Of course there's Summer Reading - three programs for 0-3, 3-12, and 6th grade and up. Sign up for summer reading begins after Memorial Day, but kids can't actually get anything until the second week of June.

Programs

• Mondays
• Morning - Pattie does Playgroup, Jess is at the desk, 1 aide helps Pattie and 1 helps Jess as needed.
• Afternoon - This is normally my off-desk time, but I will back up Jess and give her breaks as needed.
• Evening - I go on the main information desk and Pattie will do Tiny Tots twice a month (4 total for the summer)
• Tuesdays
• Morning - I cover the desk, Pattie does 2 sessions of Toddlers 'n' Books
• Afternoon - Jess covers the desk and I supervise Storywagon - a total of 7 performers this summer. 1 aide helps me set up (which usually involves breaking down all the tables so the kids can sit on the floor)
• Wednesdays
• I cover the desk all day, 1 aide is scheduled to give me a break for lunch. This is the day I told local schools they could bring groups to the library. They don't get a program (they can come on Tuesday for that) but I will be able to help them find books and sign up for summer reading.
• Thursdays
• Morning - 1 aide does summer reading until I come in at 10 and cover the desk. Pattie does Books 'n' Babies. 
• Afternoon - Jess covers the desk, I go on the main information desk from 12-2 and then do after school clubs with 2 aides scheduled to help.
• Fridays
• Morning - 1 aide does summer reading while I do either Go Go Garden with Pattie or We Explore Favorite Artists on my own. One Friday is the big field trip for summer school kindergarteners, Pattie and 2 aides will help me that day.
• Afternoon - I will cover the desk.

Other programs and schedules

   We're kicking off with a camp-out June 5th, Jess, 1 aide, and my director are helping me run it. Pattie and I are running a Safety Shower on kick-off day, June 6.

   The week ending in July 4th we only have two programs - a Toddler Drive-In on Tuesday afternoon and Stuffed Animal Sleepover for which people can drop their animals off on Thursday. 1 aide and myself and possibly some (carefully selected) teens are going to take the pictures on Friday while we're closed.

   August 1 we're having The Big Splash to end summer reading and programs.

So, overall for the summer I have planned

• 8 weeks of programming and summer reading
• 57 programs; 5 collaborative programs with Pattie, 32 storytimes or playgroups with Pattie solo, 7 performers (supervised by me), 14 family programs with me (not counting summer reading)
• Both Jess and I will be on desk for about 20 hours a week each.

Some unpredictable things - the local pool will be reopening this summer. Summer school schedules have been changed around this year. Who knows what will happen? I have $500 to purchase additional books for summer reading - I'm buying extra copies of the titles we can't keep on the shelves (Wimpy Kid, Dork Diaries, Smile, etc.) but I'm still kind of worried about having enough books. Last summer, especially when the big school visited, I had trouble finding enough books for everyone to checkout something they wanted and I'm already dealing with emptied shelves due to the popularity of the new Neighborhoods.

The Numbers: What am I doing with them? or, We have goals and we're not afraid to use them

Because my garden makes me happy

I love planning. In fact, sometimes I like planning things more than actually doing them. I am sure I am not alone in this. However, this year I tried to...plan my planning, if that makes sense. I have goals from my evaluation in May, from discussions with my director and colleague about where we're going with programming in the fall, and finally I put together a department mission and goals.

Mission Statement
The mission of the Youth Services Department of the Matheson Memorial Library is to provide informational, educational, and recreational services, in a friendly and supportive setting, to all families, children, and caregivers of the Elkhorn community. These services are available through quality materials and programs offered by a friendly and knowledgeable staff in a comfortable and welcoming environment. The Youth Services Department serves as a family gathering place focused on educating, enriching, and entertaining the families, children, teens, and caregivers of the public.

Department Goals

• Serve all age groups with a variety of programs.
• Serve all families and caregivers with a broad programming schedule
• Make the Youth Services Department a destination by offering a welcoming, fun, and enriching environment

2014/2015 Objectives

• Offer programs for each time slot (morning, afternoon, early evening, late evening)
• Offer a wider variety of programs for early childhood; active/movement programs and programs directed at smaller groups.
• Offer a wider variety of school­-age programs, specifically for smaller groups, which will enable us to build relationships and encourage use of the collection
• Revive middle school and teen programs, creating simple, sustainable programs that build on school­-age program participants 
• Expand outreach to four year olds to build an audience for the preschool programming schedule.

How Will We Get There? Meeting Objectives

• Alternate programs in time slots so we can offer more variety (monthly/bi­monthly instead of weekly)
• Alternate programs ­storytime/dance program/art program etc. instead of the same program every week
• Stagger programs ­ don’t start everything all at once, put in gaps when I know there will be heavy calls for outreach (end of October, end of April)
• Start with one middle school program (reviving middle school madness) and creating a teen volunteer program
• Implement a planning schedule to streamline marketing, budgeting and create better long­-term evaluation of programming and build word­-of­-mouth interest in programs
• November (Thanksgiving) finalize plans for January-May
• April (after big party) finalize plans for June-August
• August finalize plans for September-December

Budget Numbers, Circulation Numbers, Programming Numbers, I Haz Them ALL (part 2)

The Statistics Octopus
It's a thing

Budget numbers! Last year I tried ordering all the supplies for the year at once. This was easier than ordering in bits and pieces, but it was too much at once. I also made a budget error with my spreadsheets that ended up making me go about $600 over in my book budget. AUGH! So, I am planning new, better budget spreadsheets for next year. I have also set them up so I will be comparing invoices and not just expenditures, which is where part of the problem happened. I've added my book budget to this year's numbers. All numbers are estimates, performer costs including discounts by collaborating with other libraries. Highlighted items are those I still have a significant amount of, and I compiled these numbers whilst fighting a stomach bug.

Program supplies: $1728
SRP: $1213
Performers: $1295
Other: $494
Teen programs (including summer reading): $200

Books: $16,669
AV (dvds, games, audiobooks, cds): $6,070

General Program Supplies

• Construction paper (8x12): $40
• Construction paper (9x12): $20
• Jumbo craft sticks: $26
• Satin ribbon: $17
• Paper heart doilies: $6
• Cardboard wings: $150
• Tacky glue: $20
• Glitter glue (small bottles): $30
• Glitter glue pens: $18
• Pipe cleaners (striped): $18
• Pipe cleaners: $18
• Metallic pony beads: $12
• Glue dots: $43
• Colored masking tape (and dispenser): $67
• Glue: $28
• Pompoms: $8
• Sticker shapes: $27 
• Rhinestones: $20
• Sequins and spangles: $13
• Paint brushes: $14
• Popsicle sticks: $12
• Paper plates, styrofoam plates: $20
• Paper towels, wipes, brown paper lunch bags, and misc., etc.: $100
• Beans/seeds: $20
• Dinosaur foam stickers: $8
• Feathers: $12
• Acrylic paint: $15
• Stencils (not consumable): $16
• Duct tape: $30
• Cotton balls: $6
• Balloons: $15
• magnets: $20
• Mad Scientists Club mixing magic supplies: $40
• craft (washi) tape: $32
• colored sand: $28
• Clay pots and dirt: $25
• Messy Art Club: snap ornaments: $100
• Messy Art Club: ceramic ornaments: $20

Specific Program Supplies

• Annual Spring Break T-Shirt Party: $120
• fabric crayons: $15
• permanent markers: $35
• fabric paint: $70
• Santa's Kitchen: $90
• cookies and frosting: 90
• Dr. Seuss Celebration: $46
• pompoms: $10
• cupcake mix: $10
• decorations/misc.: $26
• We Explore Science: $96
• We Explore art and stories: $60
• snacks: $45
• watercolor pencils: $15
• Fairy party: $65
• Decorations and ribbon: $45
• Misc. tablecloths, food, etc.: $20
• Muffins for mom: $17
• Muffins: $12
• Scrapbook paper: $5
• Wimpy kid party: $50
• I have a LOT of toilet paper left
• 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten (stickers): $70
• Summer reading program: $1213
• CSLP marketing materials and prizes: $165
• S&S Worldwide prizes: $965
• Discount School Supply prizes: $83

Other Supplies and Expenditures

• Scholastic Warehouse Sale (books for prizes and the collection): $200
• Library hamster: $80
• Marketing: $13
• posterboard: $3
• desk candy: $10
• Birdwatching station: $10
• Family garden: $15
• Toys for baby lapsit: $223
• Circulating toy bags and maker kits: $25
• plastic tubs: $10
• caterpillar to butterfly: $7
• magnet kit: $8

Performers

• Smitty and Mary G.: $100
• Welty Environmental Center (2 programs): $220
• Great Scott (2 programs): $475
• Nature's Niche: $300
• TG Magic: $150
• Ice Age Trail Alliance (this is a donation): $50

Book Budget

• Junior Library Guild (teen): $700
• Teen fiction (which I messed up): $800
• Nonfiction and comic sets: $1074
• Replacements and additions to fairy tales for Neighborhoods (used grant money): $500
• Replacements and additions to transportation for Neighborhoods: $1600
• Tub books (I don't replace specific titles since they go in and out of print too fast): $50
• Replacements for missing/stolen items: $400
• Replacements for lost/claimed return items: $150
• General replacements: $925
• General orders: $10,500

AV Budget
I did order a couple cds, but they were as part of other orders. Midway through this year I got a new location for juvenile cds so I could actually tell how much they were circulating. I also weeded them. On the positive side, they circulate a lot more than I thought they did - however, on the negative side, I have absolutely no space for new cds. I added PS3 and XBOX360 to our Wii and small number of WiiU games.

• DVDs: $3,380
• Video Games (some dvds mixed in those orders): $1284
• Replacements: $1,006
• Audiobooks: $400

Budget Numbers, Circulation Numbers, Programming Numbers, I Haz Them ALL (part 1)

The Statistics Octopus
It's a thing

I really love numbers. Last year I did a series of posts on yearly numbers and it was very useful in my planning process, plus fun! so I'm doing it again this year. Programming numbers were kind of weird this year. Some regular programs were cancelled for part of the year, some had unexpected large attendance, some smaller programs we kept for reasons other than statistics. I had a lot more outreach, which cancelled out the cancelled programs. All these numbers are for our children's programs; I didn't even bother to include teen programs/numbers because they were minimal and we're completely overhauling the teen offerings (such as they are) this year.

Total Programs (including outreach): 364

Total Attendance (including outreach): 12,282

Average individual program attendance: 34

This was an increase of 6 programs and 723 attendance from 2013. I feel confident that my position at the top rung of the programming and attendance stats in our consortium is secure. Not that it is a competition. At all. Really.

Regular programs

These programs are run on a regular basis, weekly or monthly, except over breaks and holidays.

• Storytimes and Early Literacy Programs for ages 5 and under (*facilitated or offered by my partner through the school district)
• *Toddlers 'n' Books (10am): 37 programs, 1,068 attendance, average 29
• *Toddlers 'n' Books (11am): 37 programs, 938 attendance, average 25
• *Books 'n' Babies: 44 programs, 1,080 attendance, average 25
• Preschool Interactive (winter/spring/summer): 22 programs, 466 attendance, average 21
• *We Explore Science: 7 programs, 416 attendance, average 59
• We Explore Favorite Artists: 8 programs, 197 attendance, average 25
• We Explore Nature (fall): 3 programs, 44 attendance, average 15
• *Pattie's Playgroup, Pattie's CAFE, Moms with Multiples: 21 programs, 603 attendance, 29 average
• *Tiny Tots, Family Game Night: 25 programs, 372 attendance, average 15
• Family and School Age Programs
• Lego Club: 13 programs, 525 attendance, average 40
• Messy Art Club: 11 programs, 603 attendance, average 55
• Mad Scientists Club: 6 programs, 234 attendance, 39 average

Other (special) programs

These are one-time or infrequent programs. Some of them are annual, some of them are things we tried for the first time and did not continue.

• Defunct Programs
• Tail Waggin' Tutors: 3 programs, 24 attendance, 8 average
• We Explore playgroups: 3 programs, 69 attendance, 23 average
• Special Programs
• *Be My Valentine: 111
• Dr. Seuss Celebration: 67
• Annual Spring Break T-Shirt Party: 44
• *Circus party: 300
• Muffins with Mom: 25
• Very Fairy Flower Party: 52
• Angry Birds: It's science!: 60
• Toddler Drive-In: 20
• The Big Splash: 80
• The Book Experience: 52
• Fall Festival: 50
• Wimpy Kid party: 25
• Santa's Kitchen: 70
• *Toddler Cookie Party: 89
• Gingerbread storytime: 30

Performers

• Smitty and Mary G.: 83
• Musical performance for West Side kindergarten
• Welty Environmental Center: 2 performances, 50 and 35 attendance
• Summer kick-off and fall program on a no-school day (which was a scheduling snafu I made)
• Storywagon: Glen Gerard: 187
• Storywagon: Duke Otherwise: 175
• Storywagon: Wayne and Wingnut: 180
• Storywagon: Science Alliance: 138
• Nature's Niche: Weird Science: 105
• Ice Age Trail: Going on a mammoth hunt: 45
• Kohls Wild Theater: 123
• This performance is primarily for our biggest 4K school, but I usually get around 50 parents and toddlers showing up as well.

Outreach

These are all my outreach visits, on and off-site. Some include remote collections.

• Monthly off-site visits (3 kindergarten classes, 3 4K classes, 1 3 yr old class)
• 117 programs, 945 children (I think. My math feels shaky on this)
• Fall outreach (organized by month)
• On-site outreach (visits, tours, etc.)
• Lakeland (special education school): 2 visits, 10 attendance at each
• Elementary School Art Show - 100 attended the open house at the library (estimated)
• First Lutheran brought their 20 1st and 2nd graders (including teachers, chaperones, etc.) for a tour.
• Step Ahead Preschool: 2/38
• Battle of the Books District Battle was held at the library with 108 kids in teams plus teachers, parents, volunteers, etc.
• 6th Grade gold team visited in 3 groups, 150 kids total
• 5th Grades visited in 2 groups, 220 total, for 2 magic shows before summer
• I tried two outreach programs with the homeschoolers - a summer preview (13) and a tour (25)
• Safety Town, summer kindergarten: 80
• 3 classes, total 75 1st graders visited the library for We Explore Favorite Artist Eric Carle
• Jackson 1st grade visited the library in two groups, total 90 for the First Grade library bingo tour
• Jackson 2nd grade visited the library in two groups, total 90 for the Second Grade Community Walk
• Off-site outreach (school visits for summer)
• 6th Grade purple team - 150 kids, booktalks and summer promotion
• 3 elementary schools visited, 15 presentations, total 1,183 (summer preview)
• 3 storytimes for summer school kindergarten (session 2), total of 45 kids.
• I participated in the school's Project R.E.A.D. and reached about 70 people.

Stealth Programming

This includes my reading programs and all other stealth programming.

• 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten: 106 new families joined and participants read 8,950 books
• Culver's coloring contest: 100
• Chick Central
• Birdwatching station: 188
• Stuffed animal sleepover: 47
• Activity Table: 4 activities, 107 participants
• Take home storytime: 5 themes, all 138 bags taken (they would have taken more if I'd made more!)
• Summer Reading: 56 Rubber Ducky Readers, 516 for the general program, 128 super readers, 60 daycare, and 56 middle school/teens
• Paws to Read (Dec. '13 to Feb. '14): 26 kids read 158 books
• Paws to Read (animal shelter visits): 4 visits, about 100 people involved
• I Spy Aquarium: 10 (this was all the check off sheets I started with)

Budget numbers, Programming numbers, Circulation numbers, I haz them ALL (Part Two)

Now, on to program numbers; or, Was it Worth it? I have individual programs but mostly program series. I keep an average as well as individual numbers. So if we had really low attendance one month (flu, bad weather, general disinterest) and really high another month, it all averages out and I don't freak out (or that's the idea, I tend to stress out like crazy anyways.)

Total Programs: 358
Total Attendance: 11,559
Without outreach (see below) this was down 1,214 from 2012, but that is GOOD. I actually had a personal goal to decrease attendance in some areas because programs were getting out of control, especially some of our big summer programs and toddler storytimes. This year was much more manageable. However, the final number ended up MUCH higher (see outreach section below!)

Weekly Programs

• Toddlers 'n' Books, 10am session: 35 sessions, 1239 attendance, average 35
• Toddlers 'n' Books, 11am session: 35 sessions, 772 attendance, average 22
• Books 'n' Babies: 31 sessions, 1137 attendance, average 37
• Preschool Interactive: 35 sessions, 866 attendance, average 25
• We Explore: 30 sessions, 1124 attendance, average 37
• Lego Club: 18 sessions, 736 attendance, average 41
• Messy Art Club: 15 sessions, 665 attendance, average 44
• Mad Scientists Club: 3 sessions, 131 attendance, average 44

My outside person, Pattie, does Toddlers, Babies, and also a twice-monthly evening storytime and a monthly sort of playgroup thing, but the numbers for those don't really matter. Books 'n' Babies is seriously crowded and I'm trying to think of options to break it up a little next fall. I'm thinking if we shift our base morning storytime to 9:30am and have second sessions at 10:30am, I can do a Mother Goose on the Loose session myself at 9:30 on Wednesdays and then Preschool Interactive at 10:30, even though that gets close to lunch/naps, it's better than 11. Mad Scientists Club we just started in the fall, so there was only a few meetings. We Explore varies like crazy from 100+ when we have performers to lower storytime numbers. In the fall I stopped doing it weekly, so I probably won't keep it as an average next year but as separate programs.

Monthly, i.e. teen, Programs

Our cataloger, Lindsay, does Teens on Screen and I do Middle School Madness. She's gradually taking over more of the (hitherto nonexistent) teen programming and some of the collection development as well. That's what happens when you stand still too long in my vicinity. We also had a couple teen programs in the summer. We had a total of 17 teen programs for the year with 218 total attendance, which averages to 13 per program. Which is ok. (until I added in the middle school outreach visits, and then it average out more to 20, but it's not exact b/c I didn't keep the numbers quite right)

Other Programs

• Dr. Seuss Celebration: 75
• Clifford's Birthday Party: 250
• This is an estimate. It's a program that basically takes over the entire library, so we have no real idea how many people came. We did have a school class from the special school, about 8 kids, join us. It was chaotic and crazy, which is why we only do this once a year!
• Annual Spring Break T-Shirt Party: 65
• Muffins with Mom: 40
• Dance into Summer with Ella Bella Ballerina: 74
• My Fancy Nancy party was climbing over 100 and I couldn't handle it, so I instituted registration and that cut the numbers down to a manageable amount.
• Angry Birds party: 68
• The Star Wars party the previous year was a traumatic FAIL. I did registration this year and this was soooo much better.
• Book Experience: 43
• Our new end of summer party. I really like the new model I came up with, not least because my aides planned the whole thing...
• Santa's Kitchen: 77

Performers

• Smitty and Mary G.: 100
• A grade of kindergarteners, about 80 kids, were our main audience here.
• Welty Environmental Center: Wiggly Worms: 60
• This was our summer kick-off and Lindsay actually supervised, I was doing summer reading in the lobby.
• Creepy Crawly Zoo: 105
• This was a Storywagon program - they're selected by a committee and the consortium and go to all the libraries in the area.
• Puppet Story Theater: 80
• Storywagon
• Duke Otherwise: 82
• Storywagon - a local musician
• Great Scott: 118
• Storywagon - local magician
• Nature's Niche: 100
• This is paid for by the Friends and I book in conjunction with a neighboring library to get a discount. We've had Dino Tlachac for several years now and it's the highlight of the summer. Last year we had close to 200 people, so this year I really strongly emphasized that this is for older kids, like 6+, and the numbers, thankfully, dropped a little. I am really picky about live animals in programs and it took me a while to find one that I feel is ethical and responsible - Nature's Niche has animals for education, but they're also a rehabilitation center and all the animals are rescued or can't be returned to the wild for some reason.
• Kohls Wild Theater: 130
• All the 4k classes from our biggest preschool come to this, as well as other attendees, so it always pulls in a big crowd. And it's free!
• Puppet Story Theater: 140
• I had all the kindergarteners from the closest elementary school plus a LOT of other people. We liked this program so much in the summer that I decided to use a little extra grant money I had to bring them back in the winter!

Stealth Programs

• 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten
• I gave out 258 folders for 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten. This isn't an exact number, since I gave out several big stacks to schools, but close.
• Participants read 15,480 books (which accounts for our high picture book circulation!)
• Stuffed Animal Sleepover
• 42 people participated by dropping off their animals. I learned after the first year to not take any giant animals and photograph in groups!
• SRP: Rubber Ducky Readers
• 42 participants, which fell a little short of my hoped-for 50 this first year, but I was still getting people meandering back in the fall to pick up their board book and I have high hopes for next summer, when more people know about the program.
• SRP: Super Readers
• 157 participants, which was good, although I estimated 200. I'm not sure if I'll be able to do this program this coming summer or not, since it looks like I won't have enough pass/ticket type prizes.
• SRP (regular summer reading program)
• 470 participants. The last year I did registration I had 900, so every year is always a bit of a let-down since I only count actual participation now, but I am determined to get this number up!
• We did have 55 teens, which is a record high for us - and I think that's because I let middle schoolers move over from the younger program to the teen program if they wanted, which most of them did.

Outreach

• Learning Curve: 29 programs
• This is my most "traditional" outreach. I do a storytime for each of the three 4K classrooms once a month and also select and bring baskets of books for the teachers to use in their classrooms. In addition to my regular visits during the school year, I did two summer visits for the summer care kids, about 15 kids ages 3 to 8. They were my test site for the daycare summer reading program I put together.
• Tibbets Elementary School: 22 programs
• Tibbets is one of our three elementary schools that is the farthest outside of town - just like Learning Curve. In 2012 I put together a monthly visit with one kindergarten teacher and in the fall of 2013 I figured out how to adjust my schedule so I could do all three kindergarten classes. I do a storytime for them and it's fun to do older kids for a change. Right before summer, I visit the whole school to promote summer reading - each grade gets about 15-20 minutes of high-energy booktalking and summer reading promotion, which is a total of about 450 kids. I count each grade as a program, because I have to do a quick-change of all the books and promotions for each grade.
• Jackson Elementary School: 12 programs
• Jackson does the most walk-overs b/c they're closest. I had their kindergartens at two performances this year, which was great! I only visit the school for kindergarten through fourth grade and then all the fifth grades come and visit me. They have a scavenger hunt, booktalks, program promotion, and my patented 3-part lecture on "Library Policies and Yes We Do Enforce Them" "Everyone has to Compromise So We All Enjoy the Library" and "How not to have the Police Called on You When Hanging out at the Library During Middle School". I also have the younger grades come for visits, sometimes to check books out, and we are a stop on the 2nd grade community walk. This year I also got the 5th graders to start a monthly (hopefully) visit to check out books in the genre they're studying.
• 6th grade: 10 programs
• We have one middle school. 6th grade is divided into two "teams" of approximately 100 kids each. At the beginning of the year I went to visit them, and again pre-summer, but by the fall they were coming to visit me, which was awesome, since visits to the school usually involved lugging all my crates of books over there, set up, meet one or two classes of kids, move all the books, set up again, 100 kids for 20 minutes, move all the books, set up again, wait an hour, etc.
• West Side Elementary School: 6 programs
• This is the school I do the least with, even though it's really not much farther than Jackson. Right now they just get my pre-summer visits. I am planning to Change All That this spring and get the kindergarteners over for a program and maybe the 5th graders!
• Summer School: 5 programs
• This is the one that started it all, that got me asking my director to please let me count off-site outreach storytimes! I do five back-to-back storytimes for the kids going into kindergarten. It's fun and awesome and hot and exhausting and I always forget to bring water and cough drops!
• Step Ahead: 4 programs
• I started my remote collection service at this school, taking them monthly baskets of books (although they mostly come get them on their own now - their teachers are big library users and one is actually president of the board this year!). Every April, they bring all the preschool and 4k classes to visit the library and have a tour and storytime. This is pretty busy and for some reason I have been sick through it for the last two years. Oh well, the kids enjoy it. They also brought some 4k classes over to join in Preschool Interactive in the fall, but that didn't really work out.
• Lakeland School: 2 programs
• This is the county's special education school. What I do for them varies wildly, depending on the age/ability level of the kids involved, but usually I do some kind of storytime and craft and maybe a little tour if they're up for it. Some years I've had a regular monthly visit, but the class that normally visits wasn't able to work it into their schedule and in the fall their teacher said they weren't quite ready for a public field trip. Hoping they come in the spring! The little I've been able to do with them has had some results - several caregivers now bring the kids to the library on their own, regularly, which is awesome.
• Headstart: 1 program
• With the advent of 4K our local headstart program has shrunk mostly to birth through three, so Pattie usually does outreach with them. However, I occasionally add them in to a storytime or have them meet for lunch in the Storyroom.

A couple years ago, after doing yet another five storytimes back to back for the summer school pre-kindergarteners, I begged my director to let me count outreach storytimes, even if they weren't on-site and she said yes! Fast forward to this year and I listened to an awesome webinar about data and advocacy with our state consultant...and found out that I should have been counting ALL outreach, including school visits, tours, etc. for the annual report! I wasn't the only one either - apparently not many of us read the definition section of the state annual report (-:) I called her up afterwards to confirm this amazing information and, well, it's awesome. I figured out how to go back and add in those numbers for this year and well, let's just say I'm pretty confident in still having the highest program attendance of my consortium this year (-:) I put together a kind of comprehensive plan for future outreach and we'll see how long that lasts...You can see it here.