Favorite Books This Week

This is a look and find book which have always been interesting to me. I am more of a Where's Waldo girl, but hey, times are changing. Great illustrations!

This one is just so frickin cute. It's girlly, it rhymes and the illustrations are awesome. 

This would be an excellent girl story time book.

I have a bit of a crush on the Cronin books. This is really a great story, illustrations are cute and it's funny! 

This Week in J World

This week was a hot one! It was like 96 something degrees, which is a bit ridiculous for Rochester.

The week was still relatively quiet though. I started a project and am still kind of feeling my way through it. We have a section in my library called "midway readers". Only 2 other libraries in my system have it. I made the grand decision to do away with it. I started weeding books which is always a sad task. I want to save them, I want to make kids read them. But I know I can't do either.

The books that aren't series are mostly going into fiction. We have room for them in there, but, it means that section is on the list to be weeded as well. I think it's like 4th on the list as of now. I talked with the page there and she was super supportive. I always ask the pages for advice for this reason: they are the reason why we can find the books on the shelf when we need them. I wanted to make sure the labels I was using worked for her. We had a great conversation afterwards. She offered to help with the project. She said something along the lines of "I know I'm only a page...but...". I told her never to say that. I was a page once, I told her, if it made her feel better. Her job is important. She should know it.

There were no programs this week. So I did African American History bingo one day. I cheated. Three people had bingo, but they still wanted to keep playing. I said there could be one more winner... and then looked over the shoulder of a girl who was playing so intently and called out the number she needed. She won, game was FINALLY over, everyone was happy. Especially when I gave them popsicles.

Yesterday there was an instance with a boy, he's my little buddy (insert sarcastic laugh here). He wanted to get on the computer for the 4th time. We allow twice usually. If he wasn't being such a whiny butt I probably would have let him. I even called him a big whiny butt, which he didn't appreciate. But it was like it was the end of the world, he was laying on the floor making fun of someone else reading a story out loud. But then it was like a light bulb went off in his head, within a few minutes he was asking for drawing books. I tried to explain that he could take them home, but he just wasn't interested. I'll have to work on that with the kids, they think they're card is to just go on the internet with... how backwards it is from when I was a kid.

Something else I am noticing... Kids want to play on the computer, but, for some reason, I am finding that a third of the children don't know how to type in the web address, or read the instructions for a game. It's a literacy problem, but since these games are all the rage, how do we fix it?

Here I am Again...

I have a new blog every 6 months I am realizing. I feel like a blog tramp, flitting from one to another so easily. I keep switching age groups that I serve, so therefore my work interests shift. When I was working at the Toy Resource Center I loved writing about toys and the children who played with them. For a short time I was a Young Adult Librarian and therefore enjoyed the world of teens, their books and television shows. (I still watch Teen television shows, I will admit that now).

So here I am, backing working with the kiddies as a Children's Librarian. I thought it would be more difficult.  I thought the Toy Resource Center broke me. I didn't think I knew how to talk to kids anymore. I didn't think I had the patience. I am not going to say it's easy, because I am constantly yelling "In a minute!" to the 3 kids-at-a-time that are talking to me and doing two other things at the same time. I will say it's fun. I get to color and do crafts. They talk to me about the most random things. Teens don't want to color or talk! I am making myself quite at home.

It's my Third Week in, here is what has happened so far:

• I did my first story time last week. I was put on the spot and had no choice but to do it. There was a surprise group in and they wanted entertainment. I will not say it was perfect, but it has definitely helped me get over the story time fear. I will not sing in public though. 
• Ran a random crafty program... Can't wait to do more. 
• Signed up like 50 something kids for Summer Reading. Only one has claimed their 3rd week prize, maybe five have claimed their 1st week prize. I just wish that if they sign up, they'd actually DO the program so all the prizes we bought didn't go to waste. 
• I have discussed rearranging the picture + pre-school books radically. At first I was just going to combine the 2 sections... Then the boss lady told me about libraries rearranging the picture book area by subjects and categories. It would be easier to browse and work for most children. My brain is blown away. A children's room organized so the children can use it. Amazing!
• I am also about to weed the easy readers + midway readers. There is some confusion with these 2 sections since the reading level is about the same. And I can make a Series section with the space I am saving. 

It's been a great few weeks!