Yes, I'm a Children's Librarian

Seeing how we are in a new season, a different year, and because I'm passionate about sharing my career, I decided it was high time I blogged again on what my day as a Children's Librarian is like. (Feel free to read my last day-in-the-life post if you want a refresher.)

Here's a look at last week's Wednesday:

Before I headed out the door this morning, I had plenty of time to juice. With the money gifts I received from Christmas this year I purchased myself a juicer. I wanted one for a while now and finally decided to do it. It's March and I'm still finding the time to juice three to four mornings a week. (Stay tuned for an up-coming juicing post!) This morning I had an apple, half of a large cucumber, half a lemon, a couple carrots, and a few celery stalks.

8:30-9:00 a.m. I allow myself this first half hour to answer emails, check the day's agenda (without my calendar I'd be lost), and get some minor office organization done. I had oatmeal at my desk while I made sure the box of toilet paper rolls were in deliveries to a co-worker at the Main (downtown) library. (Since my branch is bigger than other branches, meaning it has a basement, a lot of our--Youth Services-- materials are housed downstairs. Which means every time another Youth Services (YS) Librarian needs supplies, I have to hunt it down and send it to them. It's bitter-sweet; I have the luxury of just walking downstairs and grabbing all the supplies I need, while I have to make time to get stuff for everyone else. It's okay. Just don't ask me to get you stickers.)

9:00-9:30 a.m. Shockingly, I don't have a program today. However, this usually means lots of program planning and meetings. Once a year my library closes its doors for Staff Day, where every employee gathers for a day of learning, webinars, meetings, and other fun stuff I'm sure. (I haven't experienced one yet.) Staff Day is coming up in a few weeks, and in my email today I received the agenda. I had to choose what I wanted to attend, pick a webinar, fill out forms, and, of course, make my Panera luncheon selection.

After, I discovered one of our Summer Reading Program (SRP) [which begins June 3rd!] performers could not make my branch's kickoff party. I quickly had to dig into (<---haha, that's the SRP theme) our resources and schedule a new performer, a West African performer from Mansfield (small world). BUT, I could only check availability because we hadn't asked our Library Friend's for the funds yet. (My co-worker asked at the Friend's meeting later that night, and we did get the funds, in case you were wondering.)

Then I went in search of a missing Arthur book, which is still missing, and prepared for today's meeting.

9:30-12:30 p.m. The next three hours consisted of up-coming program planning.

Thursday's (tomorrow) Toddler Tales. I'm in the mood for teddy bears, so teddy bears it is. I gathered puppets, books, instruments, and rhymes.

Friday's Preschool Story Time (PSST). This week's theme was "Storyteller's Choice," but since I'm going to a workshop next week and won't get to do PSST, and since I have two PSSTs this week, I'm doing two separate story times. So, the theme I'm working on right now is "Seeing Green." Rhymes on turtles, frogs, and the color green will be featured along with music, three to four books, and an iguana craft.

Too cute, I know.

Next Wednesday's Crafty Kids. The theme is "March Madness," so pretty much anything March. I'm thinking hand-print frogs, rainbows, bunnies, and spring trees....

Love when I can get messy at work :)

Next Saturday's Butler program. For this program the library partners with The Butler Museum, and my part is to read the kiddos two books relating to the artwork on display at the time. However, at this time the museum has nothing on display (...huh?), so I'm going for green and kites.

Up-coming yoga programs. I have two yoga programs over the next few weeks at various branch locations, and this month I'm fitting the well-known Sun Salutation flow to Jean Marzollo's picture book, Sun Song. Right now I'm debating over which craft I want to work into the program. I'm liking the sun made out of paper plates and hand-prints.

12:30-1:00 p.m. Lunch time, my friends, which consisted of leftover green bean casserole (you can find the recipe here; I'm obsessed with this new recipe), some fruit, and a re-fresher on Beautiful Chaos.

1:00-2:00 p.m. Caldecott updates and 1,000 Books before Kindergarten project.

Because it's a personal goal of mine and now that I am going to ALA's Annual Conference 2013 in Chicago (did I mention that I'm going to ALA's Annual Conference 2013 in Chicago?!) which also happens to be the 75th anniversary of the Caldecott (awarded to the best picture book in children's literature), I've been hitting up some Caldecott's I haven't gotten around to reading yet. Taking notes. Being nerdy. That sort of thing.

The Caldecott is awarded to the illustrator of the most distinguished American picture book for children.

My co-worker really likes the idea of "1,000 books Before Kindergarten," so her and I have teamed up to, hopefully, make this a possibility at our library. The idea is to encourage kids to read 1,00 books before kindergarten, starting from the age of two. Meaning parents need to take the time to share books with their kids. If you bring your toddler or your four-year-old to a library's program, for instance my PSST, you're getting at least three titles right there in under 30 minutes. One thousand books is completely doable.

2:20-4:00 p.m. Meeting downtown with a few co-workers. Met with Ellen, our liaison, to look at new books and select a few for purchasing. Book titles I purchased for my branch included, a six-title set on foods/recipes without gluten, dairy, sugar, etc; OSU vs. Michigan; How a Book Is Made; a few composting/gardening titles; a few Hulk books for the little boys.

4:20-5:00 p.m. Weeding Y Books (picture books). The words every librarian hates to hear: We're running out of space.

I have new books coming in but nowhere to put them. Shifting hasn't allowed for much room, and now I need to weed through the picture book collection. My co-worker was so kind to start the list for me and pull a few titles. I then go through the titles, check their last out dates, number of circulations, conditions, relevance, number of copies in our library system, date added to the collection, and decide if I want to pitch it, put it in the book sale, add it to our professional collection which us librarians only use, or put it back on the shelf. (Most head to the book sale.)

FYI. I love weeding. Most librarians despise this part of the job, but I like knowing what I have in my collection and what is going out and what isn't. It's the nerd in me.

And that was Wednesday in a nutshell. And a very slow Wednesday.


With Love and God Bless,
Brindi