Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Day in the Life of a Children's Librarian

9:00am - Leave apartment to drive to the NSLS office for meeting.

9:20a - Arrive at NSLS. NSLS is the North Suburban Library System, of which my library is a part. They offer professional development, meetings to share ideas and information, and a van service that allows patrons to return books at any NSLS library (along with a whole lot more).

9:30a - Preschool Partnerships meeting begins. The Preschool Partnerships group meets several times a year to share ideas about programming, early literacy, and other things relating to services for preschoolers and their teachers/parents/caregivers. At this particular session we share information and program ideas from our Summer Reading Clubs. It's a great way to get new ideas, share innovative services, and connect with fellow librarians.

12:00p - Meeting is over, I grab lunch on the way back home.

12:40p - Leave home and head to work.

1:00p - Arrive at work, check email.

1:10p - Go downstairs to Adult Services to meet with my grant co-writer about our final grant report. We've been working on it, so it's a quick meeting as we get everything ready to submit.

1:30p - Back in our office, I call local preschool to set up visits. We generally visit this group once a month and I set up visits for the fall.

1:45p - Fill out visit info forms for the librarians going on the visits, draft confirmation letter to send to the school.

2:00-5:00p - On desk. In between questions, I read Adam Rex's new book Frankenstein Takes the Cake (hilarious!) and read through PUBYAC emails. Here's a sampling of questions I was asked:

- Where are your CD-ROMS?
- Where are books by this author?
- Can you help me find books on this particular reading level?
- Can you help me with the copier?
- What is the first book in this series?
- Can I request a preschool loan bag?
- I have a new baby! Can I get a new baby bag?


(We have a Baby Book Bag program that was originally started with a grant. Any library card-holder who has a new baby gets a bag filled with library information, tips on reading to babies, a list of suggested books to share, a library card application, and they get to pick out a board book to keep.)

5:00p - Off desk, time to head home!