A day in the life ... of a children's librarian

After following some discussion on twitter and other places about Library Day in the Life Project I gave in and decided to participate, especially as I've been fairly quiet on my blog of late.  Part of the decision was prompted by my day yesterday - it was a fairly typical day, and I thought it would show what a busy life a children's librarian in a public library leads.

8.30am Arrive at work - start up PC, then gather storytime materials and set up activity room ready for storytime later in the morning.   On the way back to my desk grab book to read for rhymetime.

8.50am Open up the software I'll need to use during the day, check emails, and respond to any that need to be answered straight away.

9.00am Staff meeting called, then have morning tea.

9.30am Library opens!  Get cushions set up for rhymetime.  Go back to my desk and sort through my in-tray.

9.45am Rhymetime starts - have a larger than normal group today for rhymetime, with some newbies, very fun.  Manage to keep half the group interested for the full 20 minutes which was a win in my books.

10.10am  Back to my desk, enter in attendance stats for rhymetime, and re-read the books for storytime, so I can determine the best order to read the books in.  My rule is to read the longest and most complicated book first, when the kiddies pay the most attention, and save the simplest book for the end.  Also plan any particular rhymes or songs I wish to use during storytime.  Go back out and set up the cushions and junior area for storytime.

10.30am Storytime - the show begins.  The theme for this week is food, and I have three great books to read to the children.  The books go down really well, and then afterwards we head into the activity room to do the craft.  Kids take a lot longer than I thought they would to finish the craft - which is fine, shows they were enjoying it.  Clean up the activity room and back to my desk to enter in attendance stats, after which I head straight out to the front desk.

11.15am - 1.00pm My first desk shift of the day.  The library has been very busy in the lead up to school starting and today is no different.  Kept busy for the whole shift with check-ins and check-outs, memberships, patron enquiries, patron printing, patrons asking for assistance with photocopier, computers etc.

1.00pm - 2.00pm Lunchtime!

2.00pm Back to my desk for the afternoon.  First task is to deal with the new children's stock that has been processed.  Check all the books to make sure that they are processed correctly, and that they have been put in the appropriate collection.  Put aside any picture books that would be good for storytime, and any books that I'm interested in reading.  Only three books from this week's exchange, of which I only got to take one home, as the others had requests on them - Legend by Marie Lu, Blood Red Road by Moira Young, and Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler.  Put the new books on display.

              Next task was budget planning.  I investigated options and prices for capitol items that I wish to put up in the budget next financial year for the children's area.  This took longer than I expected, but I did manage to find some Australian companies that produced the items I was looking for, instead of looking longingly at overseas websites, wishing that we could get it here.

             Procrastinated over event planning that needs to be done - decided to put it off til Thursday, when I would have more time available, and instead did some work on my stock selection for this week.

5.00pm - 5.30pm Dinner break.

5.30pm - 8.00pm Second desk shift of the day.  Nights are usually very quiet at the library, and I use the opportunity to catch up on some of my professional reading. Had a few ILLs that needed doing first.



Halfway through the shift, a lovely patron arrived with a donation of 400 children's books for the library.  I now know what I will be doing on Thursday when I go back to work.









 8.00pm Lock up the library, and go home.  Day over!

Counting Storytime

 We had baby chicks at our library for Children's Week!.

Photos courtesy of K. Hall.

Chicks hatching in the incubator

Baby chicks in their pen

This made it easy for me to plan the theme for storytime, as I had the perfect book to read.  It did make it a little bit distracting for the audience though, as I had to fight the baby chicks for the children's attention.













The first book I read was Mouse Count by Ellen Stoll Walsh - it was the big book version, which made it hard to turn the pages, but easy for the kids to see the pictures.  We had lots of fun counting the mice as we read the story.

Next we read Spot Can Count by Eric Hill.  The library version was a lift the flap one, so I could ask the children what number they thought would be behind the flap.  Once again lots of fun reading this together.

Lastly we read Big Fat Hen - this was also in a big book version.  Very appropriate with the baby chicks and eggs hatching in the library.  

For the craft activitiy I adapted this chick craft.  Instead of a mobile, I had the children stick their baby chick to a popstick, and then we added some feathers.

Sheep Storytime

This week's storytime revolved around the theme of sheep.  My audience for storytime is a lot younger this year, than it was last year, so I ensure that I choose books that are short and simple.  Everyone loves fluffy sheep.

The first story I read was Who Sank the Boat? by Pamela Allen.  A classic book from a very prolific author, I managed to get a few children and adults joining in with me asking the very important question "who sank the boat?" 

Next we read Sheep in a Jeep by Nancy Shaw.  Once again a very simple rhyming book, great to have the kids joining in with uh-oh's when the sheep get into trouble (which they do a lot).

Lastly we read Where is the Green Sheep? by Mem Fox.  This is a fantastic book to read for storytime, both times I read the story, all the children were enthralled with it.  I started by asking if the green sheep was on the cover, then had the children tell me what colours they could see on the cover.  Each time we asked "where is the green sheep?" had the kids shrugging their shoulders with me.  Lots of fun, especially the reveal at the end.

For our craft activity, once again it was kept very simple.  I printed out a picture of a sheep that the children could colour in, and stick cotton wool balls on for the sheep's wool.  This is an activity that children of all ages can do, without too much assistance from parents.

ALIA National Advisory Congress 2011

So tonight I went to the ALIA National Advisory Congress meeting, to contribute my thoughts to the future of our profession.  I came away a little bit frustrated, because with the time constraints and such a wide range of library professionals there, discussion had to be limited, so I didn't get to say all that I wanted to say.

I'm in my fourth year of librarianship, and I have only worked as a Youth Services Librarian, so my experience in the library field is limited.  It means that I can only speak from what I have experienced, and sometimes it can come across as rather one-eyed.  So what I want to try and do is have this post say everything that I wanted to say at the meeting tonight, but couldn't.

The discussion topic was "The Future of the Profession"

• What are some of the changes being experienced in your professional life?  Working in children's services in a public library, there is pressure on us to bring in the punters, so to speak.  However this relates to the changes that are happening in libraries in general - redefining ourselves as community spaces, and moving away from being a repository.  It's important that we consider how we are going to serve our local community and provide them with services and programmes that will meet their needs and wants, both now and in the future.
• What do you believe the essential knowledge and skills to work in library will be in say 5 years? 10 years?  We will need management and leadership skills, advocacy skills, programme development skills, partnership development skills.  We will need to know how to promote ourselves and our services, and develop partnerships with other groups/organisations to be able to grow what we offer.  
• What are the greatest influences or drivers for change within the profession?  Outside the profession?  Technology is obviously one of the main drivers in changing how we work within the library, from what we can offer to even our basic processes.  Economics is also a big driver, not just in how people will use our service, but also in how our organisations will view our services and what we can do with them.  I also believe that the expectations placed on us by our users will also influence our profession, as we will have to change to meet them.
• What can ALIA do to support the growth of a strong and vibrant profession?  ALIA needs to provide us with training, professional development and recognition outside of our profession.  

This is my perspective on what the future of our profession is.  

Something else that was brought up was the fragmentation of our profession, which I totally agree with.  It would be useful to be able to have forums where library professionals from all fields could meet and discuss issues, and not just be limited to people working in the same area as yourself.  NLS5 provided the perfect opportunity to for this, providing inspiration and motivation to lots of professionals at the same time.

Pet Storytime

About two weeks ago I did a storytime based around pets.  This is a very easy theme to do, because it allows you to choose lots of different books to read. 

The first book we read was Purr by Alison Lester.  She has a whole series of these books, and I have already used Moo and Roar in previous storytimes.  They are great to read aloud, and give the children lots of opportunities to interact with the story. 

The next story we read was Peek-a-Pet by Marie Torres Cimarusti.  This was a well-loved book, with many repairs to the fold-outs, but it was still a great storytime read.  Each animal has their eyes covered (like in peek-a-boo), and you fold down the arms to say the animal sound, e.g. Guess who?  Peek-a-woof!  I had lots of storytime kids wanting to come up and point and touch the book as we read, always a great sign that they're interested.

The last book we read was I Love Dogs by Barney Saltzberg.  Another simple rhyming book that was fun to read aloud.  This book led straight onto our craft activity.

Our craft activity was very simple, we made an origami dog that the children could colour in and decorate with googly eyes.

Thing Five: Reflective Practice

Reflective practice is one of the first things to fall by the wayside when work gets busy.  It is a practice that everyone knows benefits and improves work, yet we don't often allow ourselves the time to reflect. 

Building some sort of  reflective practice into my programme development, is something that I've had to make myself do.  It allows me to review my programme, and think of ways that the delivery of it can be improved.  It helps that there is an outcome that can be seen by management, so there is some extrinsic motivation to push me towards reflecting on my work.

Being mindful and taking time to reflect is one of my goals for the future (*cross fingers*).

Beauty Queens

Beauty Queens by Libba Bray
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Having absolutely loved Libba Bray's previous book Going Bovine, I was eager to read her latest Beauty Queens. While I didn't enjoy it as much Going Bovine, I still found much to enjoy in Beauty Queens, and finished it in one sitting.

Beauty Queens starts with the contestants' plane crashing on a small, uncharted tropical island (rather like a little show you might have heard of called Lost), and the girls who survived having to find ways to stay alive on the island. While they are there, we learn more about them and why they are participating in the beauty contest. There is a lot more going on than this, but to say anymore would give away the story.

This book is very satirical, while at the same time hitting every single politically correct touchstone. It is fairly obvious with the messages and themes it is imparting to the reader, yet I still found the book highly readable and enjoyable. You could still empathise with the girls' feelings, as they are common to what most teenage girls will feel at some point in their life.

All in all I found this book to be fun and easy to read, but more of a popcorn book than one that made me think days after reading it.

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