An ending and a beginning

As I wind down on my internship at The Community Library, I am excited to be finishing some aspects of the Leadership program.  I am sad that I will no longer be corresponding with the other leadership students but am pleased to lighten up on the work load.  I will be staying at The Community Library as a volunteer several days a week and plan to continue preschool story hour for both HeadStart and the community and Character Education story hour.  I am looking forward to helping plan Summer Reading Program and already am planning several  teen programs to teach how to create movie maker videos as well as Prezi.  I am excited about acting on a suggestion I received, looking into getting a grant to provide free Skyping for families of servicemen.  I am also going to work on updating resources for homeschooling families.  

I created a Prezi to demonstrate many of the activities completed during my internship.  I still need to practice more but was able to include videos from Movie Maker and will try again to include a video with sound.
Prezi.com/wsrfpis06nef/internship-presentation/    Learning to use Prezi was easy and will be a useful tool to use with older students.  I look forward to showing the teens at the library how to use it.
Tomorrow I am attending another workshop for Reading Advisory Service with Neal Wyatt.  I am looking forward to getting a handle on that "never-ending to-read pile" that I seem to have acquired during the last few months.  Booklists, American Library, Library Sparks and Knowledge Quests have been piling up and I have vowed to make time for at least 30 minutes of professional reading every day.  I also have a pile of articles suggested by members of LM_NET, printed over the last few months that address the benefits of a certified LMS in schools.  With declining budgets and part time positions, I need to be armed with resources that will help convince administrators of the importance of a full time LMS in every school.  As I finish my certification requirements, I know I will need to be up to date on issues concerning school libraries.  It is a challenge I feel prepared to accept.

Winding Down

Last week's events at the library were awesome!!
All activities planned went great and we had terrific attendance at each event.  During the winter break we had sparse attendance and even a snow day.  The spring break was the opposite.  We advertised as we always do with bookmarks at the desk and advertising in the local paper.  We were able to attend morning program at the elementary school and shared with students in grades K - 5th and believe this helped attendance.   We are excited to be planning another morning program visit to launch Summer Reading Program.  Our circulation statistics were up in March and I hope Aprils were up as well.  Many children announced they were going to look for science books when they finished programming since they were excited about what we had just finished.
Today, Lisa mentioned to me that she noticed the science non-fiction display  in the children's room didn't move.  I had noticed the same thing and was planning to replace it with a display of classics today.  Other displays for non-fiction of poetry and biographies for black history and women's history did circulate a little.  Some of the display books for new non-fiction of mythical beings such as ogres and giants did circulate but the books on how the body works (mouth, nose, ears) did not.  The science books on the window sill don't move either and I wonder if children know they can take them or if they just don't notice them. I had a display of unusual animal books and another display of books on meteors, astronauts, space stations and the planets.   I have made colorful signs saying  Check Me Out and hope this will make a difference.  I have been weeding the children's fiction and putting out books that have not circulated recently but look interesting and many of them have gone out.  We just received many new books so I will create a new display of those as they are processed and identify them as new.  

Spring Break Week

Science week at the library!!!
When planning programming during school break, you'll never know how many participants you will have.  We have planned one or two activities each day this week and have been very pleases with the turnout so far.  We were optimistic that we would have a good turnout since we were able to share some of our activities with the elementary school morning program.  Many were interested in making the tornado tube.  Tuesday was very successful with twelve families for our science stations event and twenty-five teens and tweens for our Pizza and Karaoke event.  On Wednesday we had seven families for our growing story hour and a smaller turnout for our Multicultural teen storytellers but still many enjoyed their performance.  We are looking forward to tomorrows Moving machines program and the teen gaming event tomorrow night.  When I discuss with families that they can  pick up a bookmark at the circulation desk with events listed, they tell me that they have looked up events on the web site.  This is something new we are hearing.  We have also had several new families who are getting library cards for the first time.   It is exciting to be a part of bringing in new families and having children excited about coming to the library.  They are recognizing that there is more to the library than just books.
I am sad that this experience is coming to an end but look forward to continuing as a volunteer several days a week as their preschool storyteller and working the circulation desk.  I will also be a part of planning Summer Reading Program also.    

Observations

This week I began to notice a significant difference between the community library and the school library.  I have been running around town this week to gain support and supplies for several of our spring break activities.  Our focus is science and fun.  We went to the school and showed students at morning program several of the projects we are planning for the spring break.  One of the projects is making a rocket using alka seltzer and a film container.  I neglected to remember that no one uses film anymore so I could not get film containers.  Someone mentioned pill bottles with a non childproof cap so I went to the local drug store who was able to help me out.  Another activity we are presenting is a Teen Pizza tasting Karaoke night so my job was to solicit pizza from four local restaurants.  Everyone was great about donating the pizza.  We are also having teen storytellers sharing multicultural faith stories next week and I went to the local churches to share a flyer describing the program.  I began to realize that maintaining a connection with the community is a great deal of work and planning.  I collaborated with the local library and Stewarts when I was in a school library but did not spend as much time looking for additional resources to help support my program as I have during my internship at the local library.  I have contacted many local businesses asking for support of one sort or another for a series of programs that we have or will hold, and we haven't begun summer reading program yet either.  Luckily, we have a very supportive community when it comes to encouraging reading for our children.  One of the restaurant owners was asking about the other spring break programs we are having, he saw our demonstration at morning program and wanted to make sure he brought his children.  I am going to mention to the director we should call the local paper to repoet on our science programs and the grant we are using.
I am looking forward to the spring break kick off this weekend with a Saturday storytelling addressing the topic of Fairness,  Aprils Character of the Month.  Another opportunity for collaboration with the school.  

Message to New York State Senators

After reading the attached article on LM-NET today, I decided to write the following letter to our state senators.  As many schools  are struggling to retain teachers and programs all over the country, I felt the need to express my frustration to our state representatives.   Following is the letter I wrote.

 

 The Houston Chronicle had a great editorial last weekend.

At least they "get it."

http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl?id=2011_4958826

I am an unemployed elementary teacher ready to obtain my School Library Media certification, I am distressed about the lack of positions available in the upstate New York area due to the shortage of money going towards education.  I am sad to hear President Obama discuss the need for teachers and their importance and then hear about all of the teachers who are losing their jobs because schools do not have sufficient funds to adequately provide the means for what is necessary to adequately educate our young people.   I began working on a third certification as a librarian because of the need for librarians in schools two years ago but now many schools are eliminating the librarian because they are not required in elementary and middle schools.  A library is required in each school in New York State, but not a qualified person to oversee the lifelong learning that should be taking place.  Children do not just receive a book when they go to the library, they receive guidance about quality literature, a love for reading, knowledge about how to locate correct  information and how to discriminate between  accurate and false information, just to name a few.  Some children don't get read to just for the pure joy of listening to a story anywhere but a school library and many are losing this with the loss of a school librarian.  The schools who retain an aide in the library may get the story but won't learn how to locate information for a project or how to use technology to demonstrate knowledge because they don't have a library media specialist who can show them how.  With New York State trying to increase student ELA  scores, taking away a valuable resource as the school library seems a foolish decision.

 If states can't come up with the resources to provide a quality education for their children, I encourage the federal government to work harder at providing the resources necessary to keep teachers and aides in the classrooms.  Our country spends millions of dollars each day providing assistance to other countries and causes.  While many would believe these causes worthy, I believe we need to focus more on the citizens of our own country before providing assistance to others. If we are going to produce a nation of educated citizens, it begins in schools where students are encouraged to ask questions, and are provided the resources, including teachers and aides, to produce the answers.

I encourage you to pursue this issue for the sake of our future generations.

Making plans for spring break activities

Over the weekend I began to work on specific plans for the spring break activities planned for the week of April 19th.  We are focusing on a science theme since we were fortunate to receive a Stewart's Christmas Match Grant.  We will use some of the funds to purchase non-fiction science materials and supplies for our activities.  The week will begin with five science stations where children can explore water, air, sound, texture and color experiments and activities.  Teens will meet Tuesday night for a pizza tasting and Karaoke night.  Wednesday is an extended story time with planting sunflowers and popcorn.  Wednesday afternoon we have teen storytellers who tell multicultural stories.  Thursday is a day of motion activities where children will make planes, rockets and submarines.  Teens will have a gaming evening.  Friday, Earth Day, children will make an edible landfill and several other food related activities.  Saturday ends their break with a Super Hero Saturday Avatar creation activity.  We are going to the school on Friday to share this information with the morning program grades K - 2 and then give info to the librarian to share with the 3-5th grade classes.  We are planning to show several activities scheduled and I am trying to create a Prezi to show.    I am having some difficulty with the Prezi and making posters, brochures and  bookmarks.  We wanted to do a poetry slam with the teens but couldn't work it out, and still need some info on the storytellers.  We are working on what we can until all the details are worked out.   On top of all this, we finished working on our brochures and displays for poetry month.  Story hours and Headstart visit plans need to be finished for the month so we can advertise.  Wow, how do we get it all done in time!  Next month scheduling begins for Summer Reading Programs.   I am looking forward to staying on as a volunteer to help with the program.

Getting ready for April

Plans are getting underway for a busy month of activities.  April includes Poetry Month, National Library Week, Drop Everything And Read day, and spring break activities.  I am getting ready displays, brochures and bookmarks for poetry month, and displays for spring break's science theme. We are planning to expand on the Poem in the Pocket theme and provide a new poem at the desk every day.  Our spring break consists of science activities and I am going to create displays around each days theme and put out books that will generate interest in the topics of ecology for earth day, fun science experiments, moving machines, and growing plants.  The last Saturday activity is creating an avatar using Marvel comics website.
 I just finished weeding the juvenile 500's and have evaluated what we have and compared it to the school collection.  I created a list of suggested books to supplement the collection and submitted it to the director for purchasing.  I am looking forward to beginning the juvenile fiction collection next.
I added up the total hours worked so far this semester and will have completed 180 hours at the end of this week.  I enjoy being at the library and will continue to perform the tasks I have been completing for the last few months.  I enjoy working at the desk assisting patrons, setting up displays for new books or specific topics, and planning activities.  Last week we had a train program, a readers theatre and story hour.  We had attendance at each one and they were all different families.  Families are coming in now asking for a listing of activities going on.  I am making sure we have something at the desk all the time so families who come in looking for activities will know about them in advance and can plan to attend.  Events are advertised in the local weekly papers but I think we need more in library advertising.  I have been printing a poster that I put by the front door for the activities I have planned so patrons begin seeing it several days in advance.  I forgot to get materials for my candy train until Thursday last week so didn't have it displayed until Friday.  Once students came into the library and saw it they asked for information about the program and how they could attend.  Getting the activity information out early makes a difference. I could have had a better attendance with more publicity for that event.
 

Trying to Lead

I had a very big breakthrough yesterday and was extremely excited. In Michael's post,Lead, Follow or get out of the way, he addressed people taking the lead and making choices.   I have been leading the preschool story hour since September last year.  I have been trying to get the HeadStart students who are in the building next door to come since November. They came during October and then stopped.  We continued to go over to let them know we missed them but continued to get no where.  I went back last Friday and talked to them again.  This time I persisted and we discussed why they weren't coming and how we could get them back.  Through my persistence, they will now be coming back beginning in April.  We will now have a separate Story Time for them on Thursday's which is only a half hour and no activity.  I was very excited since they have always been sporadic when coming to the library.  Having the young children coming to the library was important to me and I needed to be persistent in my quest.  I will be going to HeadStart on Tuesday to reintroduce myself to each class and set up a schedule so I know which class is coming each week.  We think with a solid commitment, they may be more invested.
On the other end, today when I was discussing Saturday activities, it was suggested not to plan activities for every Saturday because they don't want patrons to get used to having activities since they don't have staff to do programs every week (this was not the director).  The programs that I create do take time to plan and implement but I was disappointed with the "Don't get them use to it because it won't happen when you're gone" comment.  I am still there another six weeks and was saddened with this statement.  I enjoy being at the library and had planned on continuing volunteering there after my internship was over since I don't have a job yet.  The library is very small and there is no chance for employment when I finish.  I have worked hard to increase the number of children coming to the library for activities other than checking out books and was disheartened by this attitude.  Circulation is up this month since it is PARP month, but I thought programming would keep them coming.
  

Collection Development

This week I began helping with the collection development for juvenile non-fiction. I began at the 599's and started working backwards.  With a listing of books with poor circulation records, I began to look at the books that had not circulated in the past five or more years and publishing dates.  We still had books that were published in 1950's and 60's on the shelves.  As I looked at each book, I began to remember the criteria used for weeding.  I looked at the content, age of information, accuracy and relevancy.  Many older books had black and white photos in them and I pulled them immediately.  Some books had never been taken out but were still current so I have tried to display them to generate some interest.  After weeding the books from the shelves, we look at the catalog to determine if they are the only book in the library system since we don't want to eliminate materials that may still be wanted.  When I weeded and purchased at the school library, I did not have to consider other library holdings before pulling.  We also look for other ways to recycle the materials if they are weeded from the system  We have a Friends group that has an on-going used book sale at the library and also have a company that will take some of our discarded books.  Others that are not reused are recycled through a recycling company.
I am looking forward to the next step of identifying holes in the collection and areas that can compliment our local school's curriculum.  I have subscribed to Booklist and am looking at the last two months to identify suggested materials that could be added.  Animal reports are common for second grade students so I want to make sure we have a good selection of lower reading level but high interest animal books.  Third grade students learn about world wide countries and cultures and also would need access to animal information.
We have a good selection of science project materials and more have been ordered since we have received a Stewart's grant to enhance the science section to help students research for Science Fair projects.  We are also planning a spring break program geared towards science and will hopefully generate more interest in science.  We recently received new non-fiction so I created a display for them in the children's section and several have already been checked out.
I am enjoying learning this process that is so important in serving our patrons.

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

Today I realized that I am signed up to attend a half day conference on identifying ways that patrons can better interact with the library web site tomorrow afternoon, work a table at the Parents As Reading Partners representing the library tomorrow night and I forgot to pick up the gift certificates they need for the PARP kickoff tomorrow. I am conducting weekly storytelling activities, completing Saturday activities, making bookmarks and creating displays for women's month, March themes and events and assisting with a collection development for juvenile nonfiction.   I was becoming anxious about all of the activities that I was trying to complete.   So, I have decided that I needed to make a decision as to what is more important to address the goals I have made for myself during this internship.  The conference tomorrow does not meet the goals for my internship so I needed to decide not to attend.  I already feel less stressed.
  I am gaining a following at the preschool story hour and by creating book marks for the front desk, we are getting more publicity for the activities planned.  People are asking for a list of activities going on so making a bookmark was an easy fix.  Displays are also helping showcase books on specific topics so I have been focusing on the juvenile collection.  This week after publicity and activities are set I need to refocus my attention on getting my resume ready.

At the Half Way Mark!!

This week ended with a scavenger hunt addressing their PARP theme Trains.  This is the first scavenger hunt I have developed at the library and it was very successful.  We had eleven children (that's good for us) take part in the hunt during the three hours we are open on Saturday.  One of the areas that we had the children looking in was the historical room where they could see pictures of the trains that use to run through the area in the early 1900's.  I had only assisted in the room once but knew the resource I was looking for, I wasn't sure how to find specific resources in the room so I learned their color coded method of locating information for patrons.  The children enjoyed looking at the pictures of the trains in our community.
At the end of this week I added the hours I have completed so far and found I am over 100 hours completed already.  I know I will be spending more than the required 180 that we need since I plan to stay with the library as a volunteer after my internship is over.  I want to help with the Summer Reading Program and continue with my character education story hour.  I will continue these activities on a volunteer basis just like my preschool story hour.  The children have a spring break and we are planning to provide science based fun for that week.  I also am planning activities for every Saturday, encouraging families to include the library in their Saturday plans.
I looked over my goals and objectives for this semester and was pleased to see that I have addressed half of my goals.  One of my leadership goals was to develop resources that I could use for collaboration with teachers in a school library setting, and I have acquired and organized many resource in a PortaPortal format.
I also wanted to build resources to advocate to administrators the value of having a library media center fully staffed and equipped.  While I have a few resources collected, it is difficult to advocate for resources with the current economic situation.  I have collected information addressing the ways a library media specialist can address standards through collaboration with the core teachers.  One general skill that I have developed rather strongly is technology.  I have learned how to create a movie maker video, save photos and videos to Facebook and You Tube, create an avatar and participate in a Skype conference call.  I have learned much of the operating system, Polaris,  used at the library and can assist patrons in most functions.  I have not tried processing a new card but can perform most other requests assisting the staff when it gets busy.  Lastly, I have been actively partnering with the school assisting with their Parents as Reading Partners program implemented in March.  I have been working with a team to collect donations and support from community businesses in support of their Read to Feed program utilizing the Heifer International program.  I am also supporting their Character Education program with a story hour and activities along with a resource listing of books addressing the character value of the month.
I am pleased to see how much I have learned during the last month and a half.  I also am eager to continue working towards addressing the rest of the goals set forth at the beginning of this program.                                

Summer Reading conference

Presentation of the You Are Here Teen Theme for the Summer Reading Program Conference at the Schenectady Library in March.

Summer Reading Program Conference

Wednesday we  spent the day having fun, identifying ways to present this years Summer Reading Program Theme One World, Many Stories.  The day began with presentations of activities that other libraries could incorporate in their summer programs by adapting them to fit their program at low or no cost.  I was one of the presenters, showing my display board for the theme You Are Here using google Earth which is free.  The display presented local attractions for our area, Schoharie County. Teens could adapt the theme to demonstrate their interpretation of You Are Here using their local library or local area or books from around the world.   There were five other presentations for ideas, scattered throughout the day along with presenters of crafts we could make easily with each age group.  We also saw eight different local performers who have science, music and art programs they can bring to our summer programs.  Other presenters shared information about various aspects having a successful summer reading program such as prizes, getting started and do's and don'ts.   The conference was a great way to see and hear the many different ideas and activities that make a great summer reading program.  We even shared food samples from around the world. 

Advocacy Day

Today I spent the day at the state capitol lobbying for library funds.  The biggest point we wanted to address was that library funds were disproportionately cut compared to municipal funds and school budgets.  Library funds have been cut five times in the last three years bringing library aid down to pre1994 levels.  With the state budget cuts, over $3 million in federal LSTA funds will also be lost.  Library usage is increasing faster than population isncreased in the last five years.  Many patrons are using library resources to find and apply for jobs and keep current with technology, acquiring computer skills that will assist with job placement.   The two senators and five asemblymen that we talked to were sympathetic to our points and assured us they would plead our case to the best of their ability but many cuts would have to be made and everyone wants their funding to stay the same or increase. 

When we weren't talking with state senators and assemblymen, we were discussing our libraries.  I explained how I was frustrated by our strange turnout at winter break events last week and was assured that it was normal.  Maybe families were gone the beginning of the week, or gaming choices were more appealing to the children.  Story Hour need to build up a following and that takes time also.   Since my previous experience has been in school libraries, I am still learning the different ways they both operate.  When I prepared lessons, I knew specifically who would be coming and what I was teaching.  At the library, planned activities could have two children or twenty attend.  Book displays are changed much more frequently in the public library since we are addressing a wider population.  In the children's section, I will be creating a display for Dr. Seuss, Women's History Month, trains, Perseverance, Spring, and Mardi Gras.   Women's History month will be displayed throughout the library with displays by the biographies, on the windowsills and also a poster by the front desk.  I do miss making bulletin boards since we do not have any area big enough to create a display on.   

Great finish to Winter Break Activities

Friday was a snow day so we weren't able to make our video and have the teens perform.  Saturday we showed the Movie MegaMind and had a great turnout.  We put out snacks and juice for everyone during the movie.  Over all for the week, we had around fifty children and thirty-five adults attend the scheduled events. We never know how many will show up for an event and that is frustrating for everyone.  We had good attendance for our movie and game playing but not for story hour and the storytellers.  We have consulted with neighboring libraries who experience similar event attendance.  I have been putting flyers out in the children's section and in the foyer hoping to generate more interest in the activities I am planning.  
During the movie I was preparing prize bags for the Dr. Seuss quiz planned for next week and children asked what they were for.  When I told them, they wanted to have the quiz today so I put them out with the display for Dr. Seuss' Birthday.  I am afraid we won't have any Dr. Seuss books left by midweek when we have Storytime.  Oh, What a problem!!  Display books go very fast.  I will put out a display this week for Women's History Month with a poster at the front desk also.  I have been trying to put a new display out every week.  This month we will also have St. Patrick's Day, Spring, trains and  Perseverance displays.  We have three places we can set up individual displays so I will alternate them throughout the library. 
This coming week will be a busy one also as we have Advocacy Day on Tuesday, Dr. Seuss Story hour Wednesday, Summer Reading Program conference on Thursday and a Scavenger Hunt on Saturday.   We are also getting ready for Parents as Reading Partners (PARP) kick off this week.  We are offering a goodie bag to every child who comes in and gets a new library card. 

Great Gaming Day

Today was day three of our winter break activities.  Tuesday and Wednesday were disappointing since we had very few people at our scheduled activities.  Today was gaming day with making games this morning using recycleables and file folder games for elementary students and this afternoon gaming for older kids using Wii or board games. We had a great turn out.  Families worked together making and playing games.  We have no idea why todays program was more successful than the other ones but hope that tomorrows activities, showing teens how to make Movie Maker Videos and having Teen Coffee House performers will be just as successful.  I have created how to sheets to assist those who don't know how to use the program yet.  We are going to create videos for the You Are Here contest for the Summer Reading Program.  Weather permitting, we hope to  have another good turnout.  Several bands and individuals are scheduled to perform at the Teen Coffee house.  We also are showing the video MegaMind on Saturday to end our week of activities.  Many people don't take advantage of the programs we are offering at the library.  It's frustrating.  Besides the chilren's programing this week, we have had a Battle of the Books practice and a book club meeting. 

Winter Break Begins

Today began with both the director and Senior clerk out of the library most of the day, so many of my questions were not going to be answered.  This is Winter break for our schools so we are planning events every day.  I am trying to get plans finalized for several activities at the end of the week.  The teens are going to have several events using technology and I want to make sure we have everything in place.  One of the pages has volunteered to help with the Teen Cafe and she will  help with getting the computers set up for making the videos.  If all else fails, ask a teen to help figure it out! 
I have decided to create a new display everyweek with my storytelling themes or  monthly themes in the childrens section.  My hope is that the children will begin to notice or look for the next themes and activities that I am planning.  Today I put out six new books for the Trustworthines/ Character development theme I did last weekend and before I got back to take pictures three hours later, five of the new books were checked out.   Saturday, I will create a new display for Dr. Seuss' Birthday next week.  I have already put out activities for Dr. Seuss books and am planning a quiz for next week.   
Our activity for today is a husband and wife team who are musical storytellers.  They were scheduled for 6:30 tonight. Unfortunately, we did not have any children come to the program.  This again is something we are struggling with as a library.  We discussed this issue after they performers left and will look into a program mentioned at a conference last week that can email our patrons whenever we have a program scheduled.  We also have a very small sign in front of the library that allows for only one event at a time to be posted, so we don't get much advance notice for events during a week where we have more than one event  scheduled.  This week we advertised in our usual places but didn't get the publicity we needed.  We are going to post a video of part of their performance on You Tube ( with their permission of course), which we just created last week.  I love learning all this new technology. 

Disappointing Day

Today only two children came for the storytelling hour planned at the library.  I am trying to make a connection between the school and the public library through the character education program they have.  This month's theme is trustworthiness.  I composed a list of books the library has or has access to through ILL and chose ten books that would be appropriate to address this topic.  I also created a bookmark with the theme Trustworthiness with characteristics of the trait on one side and a listing of suggested books on the other which was part of the activity planned.  I created characters for the tale The Boy Who Cried Wolf so the children could be interactive with the story while I read it.  The last activity had them making a Trustworthy Friend Kit.  The two children who came enjoyed the hour very much but it would have been better with more participants. Several families who came into the libray were told about the activity but stated they were too busy to attend.  If they had known earlier would they have made time?
The library has been focusing on getting more participation at programs the last few months, but we are limited in our advertisement options. I am having difficulty in getting a consistent group for Preschool Storyhour as well.  I tell people who come in with children while I am working that we have a storyhour on Wednesday, many don't know it. And then they need to remember, since it is not posted on the outside sign every week although it is listed on our library home page.    We have a newspaper that is published once a week and they are very good at posting our library events, the other print source is a county wide Shopper advertisement paper published once a week and they will post our advertisement if they have room.  We also have a local television station that will post our weekly events which are sent to several other local web sites as well. We are still not reaching everyone we should be.  The conference last week identified that there are many high tech ways to reach patrons now and it appears we need to begin using them to reach our intended audience.  
To reach more people for todays storytelling, I could have put a display in the childrens section and advertised it more that way. I created a display and activities for Valentines Day, next month I will crete a display in the childrens section early.  We are having a series of activities next week while the children are out of school and have gone to the school and asked them to publish the events in their newsletter. We have also given bookmarks to the fourth grade students with the schedule of activities during the winter break.   Activities are also published in the usual places and there have been bookmarks at the circulation desk all week for families to take.   I hope that we have better participation with this coming weeks events. 

Snapshot New York

Today at the library we let the public know how important they are to us.  We took pictures, statistics, and statements documenting a typical day at the library  to share on Advocacy Day in Albany on March 1st.  I created a poster for I Love My Library Because ... and had patrons write comments on a post it note and attach it to the poster.  We also had patrons complete a statement that said "The library is essential to me because... The circulation desk staff recorded how many reference questions were asked and we will get circulation stats tomorrow.  I will be going to Albany with the information and pictures to share with our legislators Tuesday.  I am going with the Mohawk Valley Library Association staff and will follow their schedule to meet with members of hte legislature. 
We are very busy getting ready for next week with the children off from school for winter break. I am looking forward to being active with the student population in our community.  I am actively participating in Parents As Reading Partner activities, Winter Break activities, Summer Reading Planning, Advocacy Day plans and Storytelling activities.  Today we scheduled activities for March and will be planning a science based spring break program.  I am noticing that publicity within the library has not been created for next week and will address it tomorrow.  I am going to create a bookmark and put flyers in the children's section.  I also noticed today while I was sitting at the table keeping record that I am more assertive in talking to people about programs we have than other staff members and will mention that tomorrow to Lee.  In the last month I have worked 50 hours. I typically work 16 hours a week but am planning weekend activities so will be putting in more.  We have scheduled childrens activities every Saturday in March to support the Parents as Reading Partners. When I was teaching full time I completed a great deal of prep work at home and notice I am doing the same now.  I need to spend more time working on completing reading and projects at home and more library work during library hours.  I guess that is a key part of scheduling and organizing.

Polly Farington Workshop

This morning Lee and I attended a workshop at the Mohawk Valley Library System called Expanding Connections workshop.  It focused on helping incorporate a varitey of online tools to help better serve our library patrons.  Polly gave an overview of a variety of tools such as Twitter, Facebook, Wordpress, Blogspot, You Tube , Flickr, etc.  Those of us attending, were instructed to send issues we might have that we want to address to Polly so she could get an idea of what we wanted to cover.  Many librarians stated they wanted to find ways to better inform their patrons as to events and programs going on.  Polly covered some of the specific questions and then let us loose to explore new tools and she would guide whoever had questions.  Lee and I both decided to investigate Facebook since we would like to include photos and videos on our site.  We created a Library account and then downloaded movie maker. Polly encouraged using free sources if possible.  We downloaded a video we recorded yesterday at school, but chose not to post it since the video showed students and we do not have permission to show faces.    After  setting that up Lee began exploring Polldaddy since he wants to create a survey for patrons about resources they use.  We also are going to create a survey asking patrons what services such as facebook, twitter, etc. they use that we can develop to further meet their needs. 
I worked on finding out how to add a link to our library webpage, Jan Brett has a contest going and we are adding a link and asking patrons to help us get more votes to help us win an author visit.   Polly also helped me add a link that I was having trouble with to my Wiki about character education which we are going to add to the library web page as a resource for parents and school personnel. 
Polly mentioned setting up an RSS feed connecting libraries.  I will work on trying to connect all country libraries later.  She also mentioned Chimpmail for sending mass messages to patrons quickly and 4 square and Yelp as sites that people are using to keep track of where friends are.  Front Page is a free web based site many libraries are now using.  MVLS is considering updating the libraries in the system to Front Page.  
  Polly mentioned Linked in as a resource rthat many libraries are using.  Lee said he would show me how to create an account.  I already subscribe to LM-NET.  They explained Linked-in as a resource more useful in finding connections to resources.   The workshop was very informative and I felt very worthwhile attending.  Since working in the public library, I have begun to identify the many different leadership roles of the public librarian as opposed to the school library media specialist.  As the director of the library, Lee has to identify priorities and determine which tasks to designate to staff members. For some people, delegating is difficult.  I have even noticed that some of the activities that I like to do such as shelving and circulation activities, I need to allow others to do so that I can focus on activities I need to accomplish for my internship. 

Making progress

Over the week end I was able to put together a Black History poster for the Library.  Last week I created a bibliography of books we own and one of the pages pulled and displayed them.  They displayed the poster by the front desk today and brought attention to some of the resources we have.  I also created a "Make and Take" for Valentines Day.  I put materials into baggies that children can take home and make a valentine.  They are put into the children's section where children help themselves.   I also display a finished valentine.  Tomorrow when the children come for story hour, I will remind them to go upstairs and look for them.  The staff tries to provide activities that children can take with them since childrens programs are slim during school months. 
Today I also attended a meeting at the school for their PARP program.  We discussed the role the community library will play in encouraging families to visit the library during the schools program.  During their family fun night we will be providing bookmarks and flyers with our months activities and applications for families to fill out if they want a library card.  Yomorrow we will also begin going to the school library talking with fourth grade sharing a video tour of The Community Library.  We will give them a flyer with all of the winter break activities and events this month.  Some of the students already are part of our Battle of the Books and chess club that meets at The Community Library.
I started a brochure today also for Women's History Month and will finish it tomorrow for printing for March.   Quite a lot going on at The Community Library.

The end of another week

I never realized how much goes on at a Public Library!  Aside from all of the normal exchange of books and information, tutoring, art exhibits, author visits, book clubs, chess and Magic clubs, Teen Coffee House and now a string quartet! I never knew.  We started with a staff meeting this morning and discussed many items for this month.  We will be busy.  Besides the winter school break, which will be very busy,  we are participating in Snapshot New York.  We will be documenting what goes on in our library with stats and photos and send them to the capital on library advocasy day in March.   We are also getting ready for PARP and  Battle of the Books.  We discussed the benefits of adding a fax machine for public access and will debate more before bringing it up to the board.  Lee wants to develop teen resources by purchasing more teen magazines, fun non-fiction resources, carreer, college and health information.  We have a cozy teen section upstairs that is used often.  The library staff tries to offer teens many activities with gaming nights, coffee house and poetry slams and will be offering them an opportunity to create a video for our summer reading contest. 
After the meeting, I met with Lee to go over what I had accomplished this week and what my goals were for next week in writing.    He provided me with several articles from School Library Journal on the importance of summer reading programs and reading habits since we are working on this years Summer Reading Program.  He also had provided  felt board activities, finger plays and storytelling resources to asssist with story hour.  
I worked at the circulation desk also and was amazed at how different the circulation process is from a school library.  In the school library checking books in and out didn't involve so many resources from other libraries.  We can borrow from three different library systems so items circulate quite a bit.  I also finished training on the desk and checked in and out and directed materials to all three library systems and made patron calls to notify books were in.  I love to pull items for the send list as it helps me to identify where things are located but I tend to spend a lot of time reshelving when I am looking.  I love working on the desk on Fridays and performing all of the activities that keep the library functioning. 

On the Move

Tuesday began with lots of snow.  I have been concerned about stepping on toes with some of the projects I am planninfor February winter break.  The library has always provided activities for students while they are on break from school. With a new director who is a childrens librarian and a senior clerk who has previously taken care of these activities, I needed to clarify who I need to discuss ideas and issues with.  I will discuss program issues with the director and any maintenance or advertising issues with the senior clerk.  They are both very willing to share examples and ideas from events they have provided before.   I need to remember to ask questions and look at examples to ensure I cover all bases.  Lisa usually completes all advertising but I am creating the poster and bookmarks for the February break this week so we can get them to the school to distribute early.  Lisa will provide suggestions and changes necessary. 
Lee provided me with an opportunity today  to actually create a conference presentation which is one of our assignments.  In March, we will attend an all day conference for Summer Reading Programing. Volunteers are asked to create a "Sprinkle" which is a mini program idea that can be used in any library at little or no cost. Our theme for the summer reading program is One world Many Stories for elementary students and You are Here for the teens.   The Sprinkle idea should be a three minute presentation.   I am hopefully developing an idea for each group and will choose the best one to present.  My idea for You are Here is to create a pathfinder which identifies all of the wonderful places to visit in the county.  We can identify each attraction and any resources we have to learn more about it. We could have the children/ teens create pictures to illustrate each attraction.  I'm excited to be able to use this for the assignment and actually present it, but I'm a little anxious also.  
Wednesday school was closed so we had a snow day!

What a day!

Today I completed a little bit of everything.  I started with opening activities by emptying the book drop and going for the mail.  Then I was given the fill list for requests that had been made from our library.  It gave me a chance to look around the library and find different resources.  I was able to locate most of the items on the list from audio and video recordings, DVD's, graphic novels, YA fiction, adult ficiton and nonfiction, and juvenile fiction and non fiction.  The five items I could not locate, a page will look again for tomorrow, they might be misshelved or missing.  Unfortunately, DVD's have been missing a great deal recently.  They have been moved to the front by the circulation desk to try to stop some of the thefts. 
I sat at the circulation desk for a time to help and  I was pleased to see how much traffic went through in just a few hours.  I checked people on and off computers, checked out books, took fines, helped with the copier and printer and observed a new card being issued in between looking for books.  I have used the OPALS operating system so this is similar, I just need to rememeber what all of the icons are used for. 
I also was part of a meeting between the director and the Arts Council representatives who are asking to display local art in the library.  They discussed using the program room and various wall spaces through out the year to create displays.  We do have busy times such as school breaks so they will work around our programs.  It will be a great partnership between the community and the library.
At the end of the day, I was able to meet with Lee to fill in my calendar for February.  We have a workshop and a PARP meeting scheduled for the first week, Board of Trustees and Friends of the Library meetings the second week, a quiet third week which leads into our busy week for school break where we have tried to schedule some type of activity for every day students are out of school.  We also briefly discussed having make and take activities for Chinese New Year, Super Bowl Sunday and Valentines week.We are also participating in Snapshot New York where we are gathering pictures and examples of what patrons are doing in our library to display at Library Advocasy Day in Albany on March 1st. 

Goals and objectives for Internship

I figure posting my goals here would help remind me of what I want to accomplish these next few months.

5 leadership skills to develop

1.       I would like to become confident in my ability to discuss the value of all types of literature with teachers and administration.

2.       I would like to develop some collaborative resources that I could share with teachers when they ask for resources to enhance their curriculum.

3.       I would like to become familiar with the grant writing process and possibly submit one.

4.       I would like to develop better oral communication with supervisors and co-workers.

5.       I would like to build up enough resources to advocate for services for teachers and students demonstrating to Administrators how important these services are. 

5 general skills to develop

6.       I would like to develop a cache of professional research to advocate having a LMS actively teaching students literacy skills in the library.

7.       I would like to develop my technology skills so I could teach students and faculty ways to enhance their learning through technology.

8.       I would love to organize my resources to better access the wide range of information I have.

9.       I would like to learn the operating system and become a part of a library team.

10.    I would like to begin a collaborative relationship between the public library and school librarians.

Off To A Great Start

This week I am starting to settle in.  Monday started with an Author visit by Jon Katz, author of Rose in A Storm.  He was a great speaker and after a brief discussion of how he wrote the story based on his life with his dogs on the farm, he answered questions. There was a great turnout.  Tuesday we established a schedule where I will be in the Library Tuesday through Friday 10:00 to 2:00.  Many of our workshops are on Thursday and I will be at all of the activities held during school breaks, Battle of the Books, and PARP activities.  Tuesday, I also received my first training on Polaris the library operating system, with Lisa who is the Sr. Clerk.  Since I have worked with OPALS, I am familiar with the basic functions of the system, I will just need practice using it.  I will be sitting at the circulation desk on Friday's as a volunteer with a paid staff member.  I will continue Wednesday morning Preschool Storytelling from 10:00 to 11:00 and  work wirth Lee on setting up something for Headstart.   In addition to making plans for our February Break, I will also help work on the juvenile nonfiction collection development.  We will be comparing our collection to the curriculum of the elementary school. Tomorrow I will be creating a listing of resources available on our character development theme and making a schedule of February Activities for families and students.

Where the Boys (and Girls) Are: Developing Effective Partnerships with Schools

I went to a workshop this week with the director of the library at the Colonie Library presented by the Upper Hudson and  Mohawk Valley Library Systems.  Presenters Mary Fellows and Sue Rokos outlined the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners Policy as a policy that recognizes the importance of cooperation between school and community libraries.  Recommended activities to achieve cooperation between the two were discussed and suggested programs and services were also provided. Many ideas and suggestions were given to develop a better collaboration between school and community libraries. Several suggestions we will try to implement are providing a multicultural storytelling and creating pathfinders for specific topics that patrons can use to find resources addressing issues important to them.  Another suggestion was to find a shared goal.  We will try to collaborate with the school to win a visit by author Jan Brett to either the school or library benefitting the whole community.  We are also collaborating with the school for their Parents As Reading Partners program encouraging students to read and businesses to support the school. The Community Library is helping approach businesses asking for support. We will also hold special events during March to encourage reading for families. I will be incorporating the elementary school program for character development into a storytelling Saturday.  I will use the theme of the month, Trustworthiness for February and read books with the theme and provide an activity related to it. 

Community Library Internship

I began my internship with a meeting with Lee Ricci the director of the Community Library.  I have been "working" at the library for several months as the Preschool Storyteller and am anxious to begin learning all aspects of public librarianship.  I have previous experience working in school libraries and hope my previous experience will enhance my learning here.  In the last two weeks, I have attended a Board of Trustees meeting, a Friends of the Library meeting (I am a member), a workshop on building collaborations between public and school libraries, and working on the PARP (Parents as Reading Partners) program for March.  I have also missed several days due to snow.  Our library closes when schools are closed due to the weather. 

At our first meeting we discussed many of the requirements of the internship, goals and objectives and projects to be completed.  Lee is new to the Community Library and has previously worked as a children's librarian.  We are going to focus on youth services for my internship since my goal is to be a school library specialist.  At our meeting we discussed many ideas and activities for the school breaks, focusing on the February break, providing daily activities for students geared towards the theme of winter.  I will be creating activities to connect the PARP theme Read to Feed during the month of March. I would like to begin connecting the schools character program to the community library creating displays each month that would reinforce the character of the month. We will also begin planning the kickoff for the Summer Reading Program.

Several other areas I will be exploring are learning the Polaris operating system for the library and assisting with collection development of the juvenile non-fiction collection to enhance materials useful for students needing additional resources for school assignments.  I hope to be able to develop some resources that will be useful to our home schooling families and expand on our storytelling times, going to the local Head Start to share stories, poems, finger plays, etc.  I haven't established regular hours yet but will next week.  Many of my hours will be completed during the school breaks as we want to provide activities daily. Right now I am focusing on establishing a routine and organizing requirements for all aspects of the internship and  the 21st Century Leadership Skills Program.