I've been putting this off and putting this off, since it's one of those topics that's incredibly tricky to write about. But the further away from it I move, the more I realize it's one of those things that should be talked about. Even if it's for no one's sake but my own.
I quit my job.
My last day was almost exactly three weeks ago, and no, I didn't switch jobs. I quit without a backup plan.
There are a whole host of reasons why I decided it was time, but the real thing it came down to was that I wasn't happy. Me. My needs weren't being met.
I think part of what makes this so tricky to write about is that anyone who works in a field like librarianship is so customer focused. Everything is about our communities and meeting the needs of others. That's precisely WHY we get into the field as it is. We want to help other people and we want to do things that other people ask of us. We want to offer them the resources we can because we have the knowledge to do so. We want to provide programs that meet their interests because we have the skills to do so. We want to connect them to the world because we ourselves have made these connections, and really, there's nothing more exciting than watching someone else feel that spark of understanding, of curiosity, of excitement.
Librarianship is a giving field.
With how much we're dealt as a field when it comes to budgets (that is to say, we get none, and then it gets slashed more), when it comes to staff (we get none, and then it gets slashed), and salary (laughable at best, then it gets slashed), we still rise above it. We can run crazy good programs on shoe string budgets. We can count on colleagues to help us figure out a way to run a crazy good program on no budget because as a field, we thrive on sharing. It's the spirit of librarianship.
We drive ourselves to constantly outdo ourselves. We keep statistics and measure ourselves against ourselves. We look at holes in services and figure out ways to fill them in. We look at our community and figure out where what we do in our buildings can be pushed and brought to other places where the community could benefit. We build programs to bring in every age group we can imagine. We keep our collections up-to-date and we keep tabs on what's coming down the pipe so that we stay on our game. We want to keep our customers happy.
One thing we lose in the process though is ourselves.
We're all giving people by nature. That's why we dive into the field and that's why we strive to keep doing better all the time. That's why I don't know a good librarian who doesn't work 40 hours in the building and another 20 or 30 at home, reading, networking, planning programs, researching, developing, and much much more. All for their job.
We beat ourselves up over the things we can't control. If we aren't getting enough people in the door to our program, we blame ourselves. We could have done more promotion. Could have jumped on an idea quicker. Could have made the program stronger. Could have written that grant application better. Could have recruited and trained more volunteers. Shouldn't have missed that book in that series when it came out.
But do we ever step back and think -- is this making me happy and satisfied? Am I being fulfilled?
It was too easy for me to come home after a day at work, one where I'd easily have done 3 outreach story times, emailed with various teachers about collections or program plans, put together ideas for the next day's program for middle schoolers, done a 4-hour long shift on the reference desk, shelved, and feel like I accomplished nothing. Or worse, feel like I'd accomplished all of the wrong things. It was so easy to beat myself up, especially when I saw or heard things around me. You know what I'm talking about -- the grumblings you hear through the staff grapevine or the community members who'd come into the library and suggest that there be more programs at night, on the weekends, that there be more offerings for one age group. It was so easy to take those things to heart. To want to deliver. To never, ever feel good enough because I was only providing 3 story times at the schools a week, a weekly program for one age group or another, keeping my collection in tip-top condition, performing outreach, keeping an active teen book club fresh and fun, and so forth. I could do more! I could offer more! I should offer more because my community wanted it and isn't my job to serve my community? I'm a failure because I'm not doing everything I can.
I forgot I'm only one person.
But then there's the perennial argument: recruit more volunteers! Get more staff to help out with programs! And those are things I did and thrived on doing. I could do that. The more volunteers, the easier it'll be. The more staff that helps, the easier it will be.
Yep, the easier it'll be to offer more. And the easier it'll be to forget that training and supervising takes time and energy. And it requires being even more conscious and prepared for everything coming up than doing it solo. And sometimes, it means people who shouldn't get chewed out about the stupid things librarians get chewed out about DO get it. Knowing your summer intern got yelled at by a parent because our library couldn't offer every kid at a big program a glue stick of their own sucks. It sucks more than when they yell at you, the librarian. You're not only not doing enough now for your community, but you're not doing enough for your own staff.
You're not taking care of yourself in the process at all.
Offering a million programs is great. I was offering a million and a half as the only staff person for youth in my library. It never felt like I was good enough. I could do more. I should do more. I'm told to do more. I'm told I'm not doing enough. I'm not giving up enough. As a newbie librarian -- I'm 27, librarianship my only career, having gone for my MS as soon as I finished undergrad -- I felt I had a lot to prove. I wasn't trying to prove anything to myself, but rather, trying to prove myself to my job, to my community, to the field as a whole. I was justifying coming home feeling crummy every night with the notion that it was just how it was. It was going to be hard and unsatisfying sometimes. It's easy to run yourself into the ground. Especially when you're new and unestablished. Especially when people are skeptical of you. If, for example, you've entered into a position after someone who left a legacy. Who people loved because of what they brought to the job. To what they brought to the staff. You feel like you need to fill that hole and then do it even more. Because that's how you establish yourself in a job, right?
You can love something you do and still forget you're not loving your job.
After summer reading this year, I felt let down and unsatisfied. I wasn't getting what I needed to be getting. I didn't feel like what I needed to be doing was being done, and I came to realize that this wasn't the right job for me. I wasn't fitting into the hole that I felt I should be. I was wearing myself thread bare with little satisfaction. Pressure inside and outside made me work harder and longer, but I wasn't feeling happy. I wasn't finding the challenge something worth pursuing. Instead, every day became another thing to get through. Another obstacle in the way of a weekend of reading which, you know, is another way of saying more work.
I worked hard to build my own knowledge, my own connections, establish a wealth of ideas worth trying. I was lucky -- I got to try them. I was in an ideal situation where nearly any and all of my wacky ideas were not only not laughed at, but they were implemented. It never felt good, though. It never felt like it they were mine or that my knowledge was valued for what it was. I don't expect parades, but not as much as a thank you for programs, for the hours of toil and worry and stress, it hurt. It hurt a lot.
I took it took personally.
I didn't take it personally enough.
That breaking point made me realize it was time to go. That jumping out while I still had most of myself in tact was what I needed to do to be happy and satisfied.
It wasn't easy.
More than one person got the oh-shit email from me.
More than one person told me I made the right call.
Three weeks later, I'm still wavering on whether I've dove into the crazy end of the pool or not. But I do know one thing, and that's that I don't feel awful at the end of the day, even if I've not achieved anything. Even if I'm not working. Even if I know that finding a job that fits my needs as a librarian might be challenging. What I've walked away with is an intense understanding of what I need in a work place. It's so easy to ignore our own needs. It's so easy to ignore our own happiness and need for fulfillment in the name of serving others. In the name of the idea that it's just how it goes. That work is work and isn't meant to be a place where we're going to be satisfied and happy.
I beg to differ.
I love librarianship. I love working with teenagers. I want to continue on that path specifically. But I need to find that place where what I bring -- my knowledge, my skills, my talents and my passions -- meld with what the library/community needs are. I wasn't melding in my last job. I was coming home fatigued, not energized.
I want to be energized by what I do.
This is the world I know I do well in and in which I can thrive. It's a field where there is much to do and explore. A field where what we bring as individuals matters a LOT more than we're ever admitting. It's a field where you can go on and on and do any and everything.
Stepping away from a job was the scariest thing in the world. Admitting it this openly was the second scariest. I've always been a hyper-involved person. Even in this sabbatical of sorts, I'm keeping myself busy in the librarianship world. Last week, I submitted an article with a colleague to be published in February's issue of VOYA. I purchased my tickets to attend ALA in Dallas this winter, and I'm presenting at ALA Annual this coming summer in Anaheim. I've also got plans to put together a proposal for Yalsa's Lit Symposium next fall. I'm always willing to go the extra ten miles for anyone.
Except myself.
I'm going to write more about this in the next few weeks, pointing out the triggers that made me realize it was time for a change, hoping it helps anyone else who might find themselves in that position. I realize, too, that there's an opportunity to talk about what would have made this work better for me, and there's certainly the knowledge that in posting this, I'm putting myself out there to be asked what I've learned from the experience and about myself. These are all things I've mulled over for months, and, I think, things worth sharing. When we own our feelings, it makes them easier to talk about and distill them into knowledge.
After crying on your shoulders, seeking your ever-brilliant advice, and sometimes annoying you to no end with my near-daily crises, a huge thank you goes out to those of you who know who you are. Without your pushing, without your encouragement, I could have never made the plunge. And as much as sometimes the days have sucked and as much as I know more days will suck hereafter, I'm -- for the first time in a long, long time -- happy. I have the best network of colleagues, both those in librarianship and those outside it, I could ask for, and for that I know I'm lucky.
Showing posts with label a day in the life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label a day in the life. Show all posts
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Library Day in the Life
It seems like last time I did library day in the life, my day was much busier than today. In fact, for being two weeks out from the end of summer reading, today was incredibly quiet and uneventful. I got a lot of little things done. I'll post another day in the life later this week, just to give an idea of how wildly different every day is. But for now!
7:45 am: On Mondays, I always get into work early. It gives me time to pull weekly prize winners for summer reading and to swap out the weekly puzzles and coloring sheets. I also spent this time refilling the empty spots in our new books display for picture books and juvenile fiction. I also updated our statistics for programming last week. I made up a box for people to drop toilet and paper towel tubes into for a program I plan on doing in the fall.
8:30 am: I knock out a ton of emails, including an email to a company that offered a donation for summer reading prizes which we haven't received yet. They wanted the names of all our participants, and I said there was no way I'd be typing out 500 names from our paper records. I then wrote up an email with all our stats and notes from last week's youth programming, along with a preview of what's to come this week and sent it to the entire staff and our dedicated volunteers.
8:45 am: I updated our teen blog with this week's events, and I drafted a post for later this week showcasing new books we just got in. I downloaded photos from our teen death by chocolate party and posted them on our facebook page. While these downloaded (I had 30 great photos!), I filled out a form for one of our summer prize donors to let them know how we used the prize.
9:00 am: I finished uploading the photos, organizing the album, and updated our Facebook status. I then scheduled out the drafted blog posts for the rest of the week. Done!
9:30 am: I talked with my boss about how burned out I am on summer reading club and we talked about hiring someone for a staff member who left not too long ago. We're so understaffed that this comes as a huge relief.
9:45 am: I dissembled last week's Lego Club creations that were on display in our children's room.
10:00 am: I finally get a chance to write out a weekly to-do list, which is much shorter than the last few weeks. I tracked down stamps to put on all of the thank you letters to our prize donors upstairs at the reference desk, and I tackle a quick reference question while up there. When my coworker gets off the phone, I pass the question to her then walk to the post office to mail my thank you letters.
10:15 am: De-newing time! I went through all of the new books on the teen shelf and on the picture book display and took off anything that was new before May (or in the case of picture books, I took off a few seasonally-inappropriate titles). I seem to have forgotten to do the juvenile fiction new books, so it's on the agenda for some time else this week. This makes all of our shelves look tidier, and it helps to make people see the real new stuff when it comes in.
10:30 am: I talked to our Friends Group about whether they had a meeting and needed the meeting room this morning, and I found out I could get it set up for Lego Club as soon as I wanted to. I pulled the tables to the side, laid down our table clothes, and dumped out the Legos. I went back to my office and cut some more name tags for displaying the kids' creations, and my regular adult volunteer came in. I chatted to catch up with her and to talk about the goals for this week.
10:45 am: I reviewed the fall programming plans and made sure all the dates submitted to the park district for their brochure matched what I had down, and they did. I made a note to myself to put holds on the books for teen book club and to update the teen blog with the programs. I'll be posting about my fall programming plans here soon!
11:15 am: It's collection development time. I like to buy a month ahead, meaning I like to buy September releases in August. So I began making a cart of September books, and caught up my cart with notes I'd made to myself from the journals I'd read earlier this month. September looks to be a pretty busy pub month! My intern comes in, too, and we talk about the mobile collection (which she's been in charge of).
11:30 am: My boss needs to help someone in the back, so I hop on desk in children's for a minute. I had a prereader bring back her log, and I was able to give her some prize money and her summer reading shirt, since she met that milestone. My intern helped me shelve some books, then she was off to the high school.
11:45 am - 12:45 pm: Lunch! During my lunch, I did some emailing, reading, and a little bit of writing. I so appreciate being able to come home for lunch, since it lets me take care of personal stuff out of the office and in my own element. Plus, it means fresh food for lunch every day.
12:45 pm: When I get back to work, I run into my intern and she gives me the run down on what was checked out at the school from the mobile collection. Then I got the news our internet was down again (this being about day 10 this summer), but for some reason, my wireless was working.
12:50 pm: Fortunately, I was able to access Baker and Taylor again and did a little more work on collection development stuff. I finished putting together teen books and began working on juvenile fiction and non-fiction.
1:30 pm: Lego Club time! I had 15 kids, mostly boys, building with the huge pile of Legos on the floor. While they did that, I read through School Library Journal, Library Journal, Publisher's Weekly, and Booklist for reviews. I kind of hate them all, to be honest, but it gave me something productive to do during that time.
2:00 pm: It's still Lego Club time, and my adult volunteer comes by to check in and see if I have any other things for her to do (I don't). We talk about cleaning my office storage space this week and make a plan to tackle it after tomorrow, since it's our last big staff intensive event.
2:20 pm: I had gone to the back to drop the journals off in my office, and one of my teens had come by to see me. I gave everyone at Lego Club the 10 minute warning, and I spent the time catching up with one of my most dedicated teens. As the kids bring up their Lego creations, I make up display tags for them.
2:30 pm: All of the kids have left, and my teen helps me clean up all the Legos! It was really kind, and we got to talk some more. We ended up chatting until 3 pm, wherein we touched upon Siobhan Vivian's book Not That Kind of Girl (which she plans on redesigning the cover for), Nova Ren Suma's Imaginary Girls (this week's book club book), our September lock in (which she gave me some great ideas for!), Summer School, Dr. Who, and whether or not there are secret messages embedded in our carpet. It was nice to catch up with her, and it's always fun with her particularly because she's a huge reader -- I send her home with piles and she always reads them.
3:00 pm: Collection development. I knocked out all of it except for media, and tomorrow's plan is to weed through what I've got down to just the things I really want. My method for collection development is to knock everything interesting into a cart, then go back and eliminate things that sound too similar, that don't really sound like they'd be great, etc. It's a long process of doing collection development, but I like how I do it, and I think I do a pretty good job of making a balanced collection this way. I like seeing my options and picking accordingly. I do have to say I'm a little tired of juvenile historical fiction, as it seems everything falls into that category lately, and frankly, it's not a hugely popular genre. Give me more DOAWK* readalikes.
5:00 pm: It took me two hours to get Baker and Taylor under my control, and it's time for me to head home! Like I said, it was a quiet day at work, and I got a ton of little things done. Tomorrow promises to be a little more insane, so if I remember, I'll try to do a day in the life for it, as well.
* You know you're a youth services librarian if you know what that means!
7:45 am: On Mondays, I always get into work early. It gives me time to pull weekly prize winners for summer reading and to swap out the weekly puzzles and coloring sheets. I also spent this time refilling the empty spots in our new books display for picture books and juvenile fiction. I also updated our statistics for programming last week. I made up a box for people to drop toilet and paper towel tubes into for a program I plan on doing in the fall.
8:30 am: I knock out a ton of emails, including an email to a company that offered a donation for summer reading prizes which we haven't received yet. They wanted the names of all our participants, and I said there was no way I'd be typing out 500 names from our paper records. I then wrote up an email with all our stats and notes from last week's youth programming, along with a preview of what's to come this week and sent it to the entire staff and our dedicated volunteers.
8:45 am: I updated our teen blog with this week's events, and I drafted a post for later this week showcasing new books we just got in. I downloaded photos from our teen death by chocolate party and posted them on our facebook page. While these downloaded (I had 30 great photos!), I filled out a form for one of our summer prize donors to let them know how we used the prize.
9:00 am: I finished uploading the photos, organizing the album, and updated our Facebook status. I then scheduled out the drafted blog posts for the rest of the week. Done!
9:30 am: I talked with my boss about how burned out I am on summer reading club and we talked about hiring someone for a staff member who left not too long ago. We're so understaffed that this comes as a huge relief.
9:45 am: I dissembled last week's Lego Club creations that were on display in our children's room.
10:00 am: I finally get a chance to write out a weekly to-do list, which is much shorter than the last few weeks. I tracked down stamps to put on all of the thank you letters to our prize donors upstairs at the reference desk, and I tackle a quick reference question while up there. When my coworker gets off the phone, I pass the question to her then walk to the post office to mail my thank you letters.
10:15 am: De-newing time! I went through all of the new books on the teen shelf and on the picture book display and took off anything that was new before May (or in the case of picture books, I took off a few seasonally-inappropriate titles). I seem to have forgotten to do the juvenile fiction new books, so it's on the agenda for some time else this week. This makes all of our shelves look tidier, and it helps to make people see the real new stuff when it comes in.
10:30 am: I talked to our Friends Group about whether they had a meeting and needed the meeting room this morning, and I found out I could get it set up for Lego Club as soon as I wanted to. I pulled the tables to the side, laid down our table clothes, and dumped out the Legos. I went back to my office and cut some more name tags for displaying the kids' creations, and my regular adult volunteer came in. I chatted to catch up with her and to talk about the goals for this week.
10:45 am: I reviewed the fall programming plans and made sure all the dates submitted to the park district for their brochure matched what I had down, and they did. I made a note to myself to put holds on the books for teen book club and to update the teen blog with the programs. I'll be posting about my fall programming plans here soon!
11:15 am: It's collection development time. I like to buy a month ahead, meaning I like to buy September releases in August. So I began making a cart of September books, and caught up my cart with notes I'd made to myself from the journals I'd read earlier this month. September looks to be a pretty busy pub month! My intern comes in, too, and we talk about the mobile collection (which she's been in charge of).
11:30 am: My boss needs to help someone in the back, so I hop on desk in children's for a minute. I had a prereader bring back her log, and I was able to give her some prize money and her summer reading shirt, since she met that milestone. My intern helped me shelve some books, then she was off to the high school.
11:45 am - 12:45 pm: Lunch! During my lunch, I did some emailing, reading, and a little bit of writing. I so appreciate being able to come home for lunch, since it lets me take care of personal stuff out of the office and in my own element. Plus, it means fresh food for lunch every day.
12:45 pm: When I get back to work, I run into my intern and she gives me the run down on what was checked out at the school from the mobile collection. Then I got the news our internet was down again (this being about day 10 this summer), but for some reason, my wireless was working.
12:50 pm: Fortunately, I was able to access Baker and Taylor again and did a little more work on collection development stuff. I finished putting together teen books and began working on juvenile fiction and non-fiction.
1:30 pm: Lego Club time! I had 15 kids, mostly boys, building with the huge pile of Legos on the floor. While they did that, I read through School Library Journal, Library Journal, Publisher's Weekly, and Booklist for reviews. I kind of hate them all, to be honest, but it gave me something productive to do during that time.
2:00 pm: It's still Lego Club time, and my adult volunteer comes by to check in and see if I have any other things for her to do (I don't). We talk about cleaning my office storage space this week and make a plan to tackle it after tomorrow, since it's our last big staff intensive event.
2:20 pm: I had gone to the back to drop the journals off in my office, and one of my teens had come by to see me. I gave everyone at Lego Club the 10 minute warning, and I spent the time catching up with one of my most dedicated teens. As the kids bring up their Lego creations, I make up display tags for them.
2:30 pm: All of the kids have left, and my teen helps me clean up all the Legos! It was really kind, and we got to talk some more. We ended up chatting until 3 pm, wherein we touched upon Siobhan Vivian's book Not That Kind of Girl (which she plans on redesigning the cover for), Nova Ren Suma's Imaginary Girls (this week's book club book), our September lock in (which she gave me some great ideas for!), Summer School, Dr. Who, and whether or not there are secret messages embedded in our carpet. It was nice to catch up with her, and it's always fun with her particularly because she's a huge reader -- I send her home with piles and she always reads them.
3:00 pm: Collection development. I knocked out all of it except for media, and tomorrow's plan is to weed through what I've got down to just the things I really want. My method for collection development is to knock everything interesting into a cart, then go back and eliminate things that sound too similar, that don't really sound like they'd be great, etc. It's a long process of doing collection development, but I like how I do it, and I think I do a pretty good job of making a balanced collection this way. I like seeing my options and picking accordingly. I do have to say I'm a little tired of juvenile historical fiction, as it seems everything falls into that category lately, and frankly, it's not a hugely popular genre. Give me more DOAWK* readalikes.
5:00 pm: It took me two hours to get Baker and Taylor under my control, and it's time for me to head home! Like I said, it was a quiet day at work, and I got a ton of little things done. Tomorrow promises to be a little more insane, so if I remember, I'll try to do a day in the life for it, as well.
* You know you're a youth services librarian if you know what that means!
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Preparing for summer reading club (a story in photos)
Preparing for summer reading -- which is less than one week away for me -- looks a little like this:
I'm getting in a lot of relaxing outside in the beautiful heat (the 90+ degrees and humidity are things I look forward to after a few years in Texas).
Then there's a lot of this, too:
All of those books are the galleys and finished copies of books I'm extremely fortunate to receive throughout the year for review consideration. A small number are signed, will be used for book club, or are appropriate for the mobile collection I'm building. But the rest? They are the prizes for my teens this summer. Virtually none have copyright dates before 2009 and many aren't even out yet, which means these kids are getting books they want to get their hands on.
It also means my bookshelves at home have breathing room for me to fill up with books I am dying to buy but have put off:
An entire shelf and a half!
But let's not fool ourselves. This is how it really is, both the shelves and myself in this final week before summer reading kicks off:
I'm getting in a lot of relaxing outside in the beautiful heat (the 90+ degrees and humidity are things I look forward to after a few years in Texas).
Then there's a lot of this, too:
All of those books are the galleys and finished copies of books I'm extremely fortunate to receive throughout the year for review consideration. A small number are signed, will be used for book club, or are appropriate for the mobile collection I'm building. But the rest? They are the prizes for my teens this summer. Virtually none have copyright dates before 2009 and many aren't even out yet, which means these kids are getting books they want to get their hands on.
It also means my bookshelves at home have breathing room for me to fill up with books I am dying to buy but have put off:
An entire shelf and a half!But let's not fool ourselves. This is how it really is, both the shelves and myself in this final week before summer reading kicks off:
Monday, January 24, 2011
Library Day in the Life!
I've been a bad library blogger, but not for naught. I have so much stored up to share. It's just sitting down and doing it. But today, I bring you an installment of Library Day in the Life!
On Mondays, I am the evening librarian, so my day begins later than most!
11:45 a.m.: Roll into work and remember the towering pile of books on my desk is meant to be checked out. Half are circ record check outs from story time (oops) and the other half are meant for two separate teacher collections, one on friendship and one on horses. Noted to self we need more horse stories -- we own more books about sea horses than ponies.
12:15 p.m.: Being by making up a blog post about our new teen book club and creating a GoodReads group for it. Email all the people who joined. Emailed the author of the book we chose about setting up a Facebook chat with my kids. Then tackle this box on my desk with a day care kit. I needed to update the contents, and as I opened the file I figured out someone already did. Print, print, print. Then on to going through the piles of new youth and teen books. I don't read them all but pay attention to titles, covers, and authors, as well as books that look like potential good story time picks. Write up my stats from Friday's programs. We had 60 kids at our 101 Dalmatian birthday party and 5 at my new high school book club. Then I wrote up my numbers from story times and remembered I had a baby bag to make up. Which leads me to . . .
12:45 p.m.: Make up a baby bag for a patron. We have a program where expecting moms can request a Welcome Baby bag. It includes a ton of new parenting information, baby's first board book, and a coupon for baby's first library card. I whip it up and call the mom-to-be.
1:00 p.m.: I remember I haven't even read through the stories for story time today. I breeze through them and make sure everything I need is together. I deal with a few questions from coworkers and talk to my boss about some things she wants me to think about, including putting the I Spy books together. I did a display of them a couple weeks ago, and now patrons are trying to find them but discover that they're by different authors. Sent an email to pubyac asking for help with how to fund a book club. See, we can't get enough current books to borrow from the system, and my boss and I are against the idea of becoming the default book club library (the one people know they can rely on). So we're toying with some other options.
1:30 p.m.: I'm out of the office for story times. I do preschool, kindergarten, and day care story time at the Lutheran school. This week's theme is transportation, and I bring Duck on a Bike, Freight Train, Sputter Sputter Sput, and Sheep in a Jeep. We sing "Wheels on the Bus" (huge hit!) and play a few rousing rounds of Little Mouse.
1:45 p.m.: Preschool story time. This is my all-time favorite group of kids. I get hugs before AND after I start. When I finish their story time, the kids tell me they wish I could come EVERY DAY to sing and read to them. My little heart? It MELTS.
2:20 p.m.: Kindergarten story time. This group is always so rowdy. And boy are they cheaters at little mouse.
2:40 p.m.: Day care story time. I don't do Little Mouse with them because we make a craft. We make Stop Light Necklaces. Yeah, I totally stole the entire story time from here. And the craft they LOVED and did with such pride. One issue I remembered too late from this, though, is that in Wisconsin, we don't have normal stop lights. So, we don't have the up and down kind but the side to side kind. One of the kids put his lights on backward. . .and the teachers? They said they were eager to play "Stoplight" with them. SWEET. Awesome craft as always.
3:15 p.m.: Lunch at home. The best part of where I work is that I get to eat lunch at home every day. I spent the hour catching up on critique work for a crit group I'm a part of, emailing some folks, and putzing on Twitter.
4:15 p.m.: Back at work. I email with the girl who works across town about a meeting we have Friday in the Milwaukee burbs. I do some emailing with a magician and finish putting the order of books together for our book club. My community service person shows up a little early and I'm caught without something for her to do, again. I get her started on shelf reading since she's pretty good at it. This is followed by talking with a coworker about summer reading for so long that. . .
5:05 p.m.: I make us both late for our reference desk shifts. Eesh. I relieve my coworker and set up shop. I'm VERY lucky in my job, since I can read at the reference desk. This is necessary because I need the mental break, and it's actually my thinking time. I have a few transactions all night, including one by a little boy who tells me all about the book he's getting. It's about microscopic bugs. Then he says they live all over our bodies and his mom must have a TON because she's so big. Mom and I were dying of laughter. Kid made my night.
6:15 p.m.: Boss is waiting for her program to begin, so we get to talking about teens and what mine want from programming. She's shocked and not shocked. I give my community service person another small task of shelving books.
7:00 p.m.: Coworker and I talk about what to do in the teen area since it's so crammed on space. I tell her I'll go up tomorrow and work on it because I've got some ideas for improvement. Space! We need it SO BAD.
8:15 p.m.: Write myself a to-do list for tomorrow after seeing I'm only on desk 2 hours. I can accomplish so much. My list includes making out the summer reading plans, booking a magician, making magic happen in the teen area, prepping a middle school book talk for February, and planning/buying the supplies for my huge story time next month on pets.
8:29 p.m.: Coworker asks to buzz out early to pick up her kid from sports practice. Apologizes. I am the worst supervisor ever because I don't think it requires an apology. Things come up. We have one minute before close. I lock up the kid's area, then head upstairs to help my other coworker lock up.
8:35 p.m.: I'm at home and popping dinner in!
This was a pretty average day. I didn't get enough done but then felt completely fulfilled with story time stuff. I feel like I am pretty bad at the administration stuff at work but am good at the fun and creative things. Nothing makes me happier than visiting 80 kids and making them fall in love with a story.
On Mondays, I am the evening librarian, so my day begins later than most!
11:45 a.m.: Roll into work and remember the towering pile of books on my desk is meant to be checked out. Half are circ record check outs from story time (oops) and the other half are meant for two separate teacher collections, one on friendship and one on horses. Noted to self we need more horse stories -- we own more books about sea horses than ponies.
12:15 p.m.: Being by making up a blog post about our new teen book club and creating a GoodReads group for it. Email all the people who joined. Emailed the author of the book we chose about setting up a Facebook chat with my kids. Then tackle this box on my desk with a day care kit. I needed to update the contents, and as I opened the file I figured out someone already did. Print, print, print. Then on to going through the piles of new youth and teen books. I don't read them all but pay attention to titles, covers, and authors, as well as books that look like potential good story time picks. Write up my stats from Friday's programs. We had 60 kids at our 101 Dalmatian birthday party and 5 at my new high school book club. Then I wrote up my numbers from story times and remembered I had a baby bag to make up. Which leads me to . . .
12:45 p.m.: Make up a baby bag for a patron. We have a program where expecting moms can request a Welcome Baby bag. It includes a ton of new parenting information, baby's first board book, and a coupon for baby's first library card. I whip it up and call the mom-to-be.
1:00 p.m.: I remember I haven't even read through the stories for story time today. I breeze through them and make sure everything I need is together. I deal with a few questions from coworkers and talk to my boss about some things she wants me to think about, including putting the I Spy books together. I did a display of them a couple weeks ago, and now patrons are trying to find them but discover that they're by different authors. Sent an email to pubyac asking for help with how to fund a book club. See, we can't get enough current books to borrow from the system, and my boss and I are against the idea of becoming the default book club library (the one people know they can rely on). So we're toying with some other options.
1:30 p.m.: I'm out of the office for story times. I do preschool, kindergarten, and day care story time at the Lutheran school. This week's theme is transportation, and I bring Duck on a Bike, Freight Train, Sputter Sputter Sput, and Sheep in a Jeep. We sing "Wheels on the Bus" (huge hit!) and play a few rousing rounds of Little Mouse.
1:45 p.m.: Preschool story time. This is my all-time favorite group of kids. I get hugs before AND after I start. When I finish their story time, the kids tell me they wish I could come EVERY DAY to sing and read to them. My little heart? It MELTS.
2:20 p.m.: Kindergarten story time. This group is always so rowdy. And boy are they cheaters at little mouse.
2:40 p.m.: Day care story time. I don't do Little Mouse with them because we make a craft. We make Stop Light Necklaces. Yeah, I totally stole the entire story time from here. And the craft they LOVED and did with such pride. One issue I remembered too late from this, though, is that in Wisconsin, we don't have normal stop lights. So, we don't have the up and down kind but the side to side kind. One of the kids put his lights on backward. . .and the teachers? They said they were eager to play "Stoplight" with them. SWEET. Awesome craft as always.
3:15 p.m.: Lunch at home. The best part of where I work is that I get to eat lunch at home every day. I spent the hour catching up on critique work for a crit group I'm a part of, emailing some folks, and putzing on Twitter.
4:15 p.m.: Back at work. I email with the girl who works across town about a meeting we have Friday in the Milwaukee burbs. I do some emailing with a magician and finish putting the order of books together for our book club. My community service person shows up a little early and I'm caught without something for her to do, again. I get her started on shelf reading since she's pretty good at it. This is followed by talking with a coworker about summer reading for so long that. . .
5:05 p.m.: I make us both late for our reference desk shifts. Eesh. I relieve my coworker and set up shop. I'm VERY lucky in my job, since I can read at the reference desk. This is necessary because I need the mental break, and it's actually my thinking time. I have a few transactions all night, including one by a little boy who tells me all about the book he's getting. It's about microscopic bugs. Then he says they live all over our bodies and his mom must have a TON because she's so big. Mom and I were dying of laughter. Kid made my night.
6:15 p.m.: Boss is waiting for her program to begin, so we get to talking about teens and what mine want from programming. She's shocked and not shocked. I give my community service person another small task of shelving books.
7:00 p.m.: Coworker and I talk about what to do in the teen area since it's so crammed on space. I tell her I'll go up tomorrow and work on it because I've got some ideas for improvement. Space! We need it SO BAD.
8:15 p.m.: Write myself a to-do list for tomorrow after seeing I'm only on desk 2 hours. I can accomplish so much. My list includes making out the summer reading plans, booking a magician, making magic happen in the teen area, prepping a middle school book talk for February, and planning/buying the supplies for my huge story time next month on pets.
8:29 p.m.: Coworker asks to buzz out early to pick up her kid from sports practice. Apologizes. I am the worst supervisor ever because I don't think it requires an apology. Things come up. We have one minute before close. I lock up the kid's area, then head upstairs to help my other coworker lock up.
8:35 p.m.: I'm at home and popping dinner in!
This was a pretty average day. I didn't get enough done but then felt completely fulfilled with story time stuff. I feel like I am pretty bad at the administration stuff at work but am good at the fun and creative things. Nothing makes me happier than visiting 80 kids and making them fall in love with a story.
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