Monthly Archives: April 2007

Librarianship

What to do?

When I was a kid, the after school hours worked a bit differently than they do now.  My mom didn’t work outside the home (except for a part-time gig for a few years teaching at a preschool), so most afternoons she was home when I got off the bus.  We had a big back yard bordering on woodlands, so I could go outside after grabbing a snack and run around and play with the neighborhood kids (or by myself) while Mom did her thing inside.  On the days that Mom wasn’t home when I got off the bus, I’d sit on the front steps and wait for her.

Things are a bit different now, obviously.  A lot more moms work full-time and can’t be home to greet the school bus when it arrives.  And every day there are scary stories about kids being abducted from their driveways or streets or yards – those woodlands of my childhood home would look a lot more sinister to a parent today than they did to my mom, and sitting alone on the front steps just wouldn’t be safe anymore.

Because times have changed, there are kids who can’t go home after school, and end up spending their afternoons in the local library waiting for their parents to finish work.  These are great kids; I’ve gotten to know a lot of them in the town where I work, and they are smart and interesting and creative.  But they’re also kids, who have been sitting in school all day and who are itching to do something beside SIT and be QUIET all afternoon.  I don’t blame these kids one bit – when I was a kid, I needed to run and be active after a long day of education.  And I don’t blame their parents, either – Jim and I keep delaying parenthood because we can’t imagine how we could afford it, even with both of us working full time.  But the fact is that the library needs to be a quiet place for the people who go there to study and research.  So what to do?

We’ve been running a Thursday afternoon game hour, run by teen volunteers, that has become pretty popular.  It’s a good outlet to be kind of loud and have fun playing games in a safe atmosphere.  So there’s an hour on Thursday taken care of.  On most Tuesdays I run book groups, but those are grade specific (the fifth grade group meets only once a month, and so on), and let’s face it, book groups are still a bit like school.  But at least they’re fairly popular.  So there’s Tuesday afternoons taken care of, as best I can.

But what of Wednesday and Friday afternoons?  The library closes at five on both days, so any activity I add would have to be finished up by 4:30 or 4:45.  Mondays I have a bit more leeway, since we’re open until nine.  And there’s also the issue of staffing, since I really do have other tasks that I need to be accomplishing besides running programs: I need to order books, I need to assist patrons who need help finding books, I need to plan storytimes and coordinate volunteers, and any number of other tasks.  Mary tells me that we have been gifted a soccer ball, which we could “check out” for kids to use on the front lawn; maybe we need to invest in a few other basic pieces of sports equipment, like a frisbee and a football, that could also be loaned out.  I’m not really sure what the solution is, but would like to spend less of my time “speaking to” kids who are really good people, just in need of some structuring of their free time.

Children's book reviews, Young adult book review

Reading Update

This was a tough week – long exhausting days – and I didn’t get much reading done.  Though I had been excited about it, I finally gave up on Keturah and Lord Death midway into the book.  There is something about Leavitt’s use of language that annoyed and frustrated me: she was aiming to create an atmosphere of lords and ladies and Black Death and the poor farming folk in the village, but the atmosphere became too heavy-handed and self-conscious by about the fiftieth page, and I just had to stop reading.  Blech.  What a disappointment.  [It should be noted that I rarely give up on books; I’m more likely to keep with a bummer of a book through to the bitter end, complaining loudly the whole way about how much I dislike it.]

Tuesday was the fifth grade book group, and we discussed Larklight by Philip Reeve.  I thoroughly enjoyed Larklight, but wasn’t sure how the melding of Victorian England culture and space travel and colonization would sit with the kids.  For the most part, the kids enjoyed the book, but they did struggle with the idea that the British could have had colonies all over the galaxy if they had had the technology to travel through space back in the Victorian era.  We talked a lot about suspension of disbelief, about finding the bits in the plot that work to tie everything together, and about why the prissy, overly feminine character of Myrtle makes sense for the times.  We also discussed whether it’s necessary to always like the characters in a book, or if, in fact, things get more interesting if you don’t like some of the characters.

And surprisingly, the kids in the book group weren’t very impressed with the packet we received from Andrew Clements.  Back in October, each kid in the book group had written Clements a letter, which I packed up and mailed with a cover letter talking about the kids and their discussion of Room One: A Mystery or Two.  Clements very graciously answered back with a personalized form letter complimenting the kids on their letters, a signed and personalized bookmark for each child in the group, a bookmark for me, and even a note to me that says:  “To Abby Kingsbury, a librarian who loves good books almost as much as she loves the children she shares them with.”  I love what Clements sent, and plan on framing my portion of it to hang in my office; hopefully the kids were more excited about it than they let on.  At least they now want to write to some more authors!  (Suzanne Collins probably will be the first choice.)

And that’s the update for this week.  Next Tuesday is the 6th through 8th grade book group, and we’ll be discussing Jennifer Roy’s Yellow Star and Julius Lester’s Day of Tears.

Children, Teaching

One of those great moments

2 Comments

Thursday night, while tutoring A________ on one of the more difficult phonological concepts, I had one of those great moments that make teaching worthwhile.  A________, a third grader who had been totally confused and frustrated by schwa when taught it in school, excitedly declared mid-lesson: “I get it!  I understand schwa!”  And then, a bit later in the lesson, she looked up from her dictation page and said, “Thank you for teaching me about schwa,” then ducked her head and shyly added, “thank you for teaching me.”

Summer reading

New and Cool

On Wednesday, Maureen came from the Central Region to show me (and Lisa) how to use the really cool new summer reading computerized logging system.  In the past, kids always kept track of their hours spent reading by coloring in clock faces on a paper log.  Then they’d bring their logs in to the library to show to a librarian and receive the appropriate prizes.  This new software works on the same priniciple, but makes everyone’s lives easier:  kids can go to their local library’s website and follow a link to set up an account; once their account is set up, the kids can log in their hours read on the computer and the software will figure out what prizes they have earned; and then the kids can visit the library and talk to a librarian, who can access each child’s account from the library end of things, recording what prizes have been picked up, etc.

There are a few great reasons why I like this software.  First of all, at the end of the summer I can generate much more accurate reports than I was able to do previously, including exactly how many kids participated in the summer reading program, how much time participants spent reading, and the age distribution of participants.  Also, the software has a nifty feature built in that asks kids to write reviews of the books that they have read.  The reviews can be anonymous, and I can moderate the reviews to ensure that proper language and decorum are used, and the reviews are accessible to all participants.  It’s a nice way for kids to share with other kids what they’ve enjoyed reading, and it’s quite useful for me to see what kids are really interested in reading.

In addition, if kids go away for part of the summer, and have access to a computer while they’re away, it will be quite easy for them to keep track of their summer reading without worrying about lost paper logs (I can’t tell you how many logs get lost or mutilated over the course of the summer).  And, for those kids who either prefer to use the paper logs or are too young to happily make use of the computerized feature, we will still have the paper logs available, and we librarians can enter the information into the system for them.  Best of all, the software can be set up to automatically figure out prizes earned, making for a smoother summer for the library staff (it can be a bit overwhelming to calculate prizes while a group of six kids jostles for position in front of the desk).

Thanks to Maureen for discovering this software and for being willing to come out to the library to train us in how to use it!  I can’t wait to see how much easier this will make everyone’s lives this summer!

Etc.

Perspective

So I’m sitting here watching Idol Gives Back (as I’ve mentioned many times before, I’m an American Idol addict, big time), and feeling immensely guilty at the cush life I lead.  The library I work for is located in an idyllic, very wealthy, small country town, and despite long hours of work, I am comfortable and happy and fed and sheltered.  The images on the television right now are of sick children and adults, people living in illness and poverty, in conditions that no one should endure.  These orphaned children in Africa have so much more to worry about than the many children I see over the course of a day: not just what grades they’re getting, or the intricacies of the fifth grade social strata, but the most basic worries of surviving.  And then there are the children in New Orleans and Kentucky who seem to genuinely understand the value of reading and learning.

Am I doing enough for the world?  Am I contributing enough?  What more can I do?  Surely I could bring more to the world.  At the moment all I can think of is partnering with a library in a less privileged part of this country, but I’d like to do more.

Children's literature, Spare time - Culture

I can’t wait to read…

1 Comment

Here are some of the books in my to-be-read pile on the coffee table:

Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt

This looks like a great read-in-one-sitting, totally engrossing book.

The White Darkness by Geraldine McCaughrean

I picked this one up at my favorite used bookstore, The Barrow Bookstore (see link at right) – they are fabulous because they have so many brand-new, recently published books for sale.

The Dragon of Never-Was by Ann Downer

This is for next week’s fourth grade book group.

Ghosthunters and the Incredibly Revolting Ghost by Cornelia Funke

Patrons have been raving about this series of books by the author of The Thief Lord.  Many patrons have commented that they especially love the book on CD versions, because the reader is so good.

Dreadful Sorry by Kathryn Reiss

I loved Blackthorn Winter, which we read for the last teen book group, and can’t wait to devour this thriller by the same author.

What’s in your to-be-read pile?  I’d love to hear what is tempting you!

Library move

Weekend update

Things are nearing completion…

On Thursday, all of my office furniture was delivered and installed, and I was happily surprised to find that the children’s office has a large, l-shaped desk, a bookcase, AND a storage cabinet with doors to hide messy things.  I immediately unpacked the ten or so boxes of office stuff, and it’s looking pretty settled in there.

Also on Thursday, I received an email from the head of a local preschool.  I had known that the preschool would be donating the proceeds of their yearly fundraiser to the children’s room, for the purchase of new toys, but it wasn’t until Thursday that I found out how substantial that donation would be.  Very, very generous!  Now the children’s room will have shiny new toys to match the gorgeous decor.

And so on Friday, I went on a reconnaissance mission to make a list of toys (stuffed animals, puppets, games, puzzles, and baby toys) and “pre-shop” so that I’d have a sense of how to use the donation.  It was hard work, let me tell you.  I’m a Yankee/Pennsylvania Dutch hybrid, and spending that much money is not in my nature.  But it’s also awfully good fun to shop for toys and know that the library will finally be equipped with a variety of safe, cool, washable toys.  I’ll be doing the actual shopping trip on Wednesday, so that the toys will be in place in the building for the Grand Opening Celebration next Saturday.

Friday was also the day that the computer experts from the region moved our server and set up the connections for all of the internet-linked computers in the building.  They were very nice, efficient people, and we’re now up and running, ready to start all the computer-based tasks on Monday.

And for now, I’m trying hard to finish the book reviews that I need to write by Friday, while Jim works just on the other side of the sliding glass door removing the vinyl siding from the house.  Not only is the new library about to open, it’s also the start of project season at home, and we do have a lot of projects planned.  (Happily, the old clapboards underneath the vinyl siding are in awesome condition; looks like we’ll just have to choose a color – current color is mold-on-cheese-green – and paint.)