Thursday, April 29, 2010

Day in the Life of a Children's Librarian

8:45a - Arrive at work, get things together for today's outreach event. Today I'm going to an Early Childhood Fair put together by several different community organizations.

9:00a - Leave for the Fair. I have an activity for the kids and I'm bringing someone from our Circulation Department to make library cards.

9:20a - Arrive at the Salvation Army gym, sign in, and get our table set up. What did I bring? A tablecloth, program schedules, business cards, and a coloring activity for the kids. Need some ideas about what to bring on outreach visits? Check out this post on the ALSC Blog: Have Rolling Bag, Will Travel!

10:00a-1:00p - Families arrive for the Early Childhood Fair and we get busy signing up children and adults for library cards, passing out information about the library, and generally meeting and greeting.

1:00p - The last of the families leave the Fair and we clean up our table, pack up our stuff, and head back to the library.

1:20p - Arrive back at the library, put the outreach things away.

1:30p - Back at my desk, I return a call to a school scheduling a visit to talk about the Summer Reading Club.

1:40p - Stop by my boss's office to chat. She's recently back from PLA and went to lots of great programs.

2:00p - Chat with our Circulation Manager about a couple of school classes that are coming later in the week.

2:15p - Get the room set up for this afternoon's program. I arrange the tables and chairs, pull browsing books, pick out music, and make sure I have all the books and supplies ready.

2:55p - Plan next week's Mother Goose on the Loose program. This is our baby storytime that I do each Wednesday. The program calls for many of the rhymes and activities to be repeated, but I choose a new book each week and some new rhymes and songs.

3:30p - Program planned, I make some attempt to clean off my desk, but...

3:40p - I'm called away to take a photo for the library newsletter. Yep, after almost a year I'm finally being "formally introduced". :)

3:50p - Finish the last minute set-up for the program (set out nametags, etc.) and let the kids in for After School Adventures.

4:00p-4:45p - After School Adventures! This is our program for K-2nd-graders and we run it the same weeks as our preschool storytime session in the spring and the fall.

4:45p - Program over, I make sure the kids find their grownups and clean up the room.

5:00p - Reset the room for tomorrow's storytime (oh, to have a magic room that reset itself!). I rearrange the tables and chairs and set out the craft materials, etc.

5:15p - Time to go home!