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.