Programming.  The term programming encompasses both library-run programs such as storytimes and performers hired to give a show or educational presentation.  As I’ve discussed ad nauseum in past posts, I’ve been focusing a lot of my energy this past year on changing the structure and format of the library’s storytimes to reflect the current philosophies on age division and program content for library storytimes.  Perhaps research in the future will suggest additional changes to storytimes, and it will be important for me to keep on top of that current research and not rest on my laurels.  But also it probably would be a bad idea to change the storytime structure too frequently: patrons like and appreciate a certain amount of predictability in their library programs. 

As for performers, the challenge lies not just in how much your budget can afford (see Part IV of this series), but also in finding those performers who are worth hiring.  There are several great resources available, including the Massachusetts performer’s directory; a new blog that has been established for MA children’s and youth services librarians to leave comments on specific performers (though the blog doesn’t seem to be getting much use or attention, which is a shame); the MASSYAC list serve, which I have found to be extremely useful; and regional roundtable discussions.  I’ve decided that when I receive a performer’s promotional flyer in the mail that looks intriguing, the best course of action is to look through my MASSYAC files for comments on the performer, and to look through my notes from roundtable discussions, and to look at the performer’s directory to see what libraries are listed as places of recent appearances, and then to go to the performer’s website and hope that there is a sample performance video.  If I have any questions after doing all that, it’s worth publishing an open question on MASSYAC and see what responses people have.

Obviously, depending on the size of your budget, you can only hire so many performers a year, and thus much of a children’s room’s programming needs to be library-run.  Some great low-cost, rewarding options include book groups with snacks, movie nights, craft programs, and game hours.

And thus ends this series on what makes a good children’s librarian.  There are many other aspects of being a successful children’s librarian that I could include, but it seems wise to stop here, having covered the major essentials of the job. 

I really wanted to put programming next on my list of what makes a good children’s librarian, but I’ve decided to give precedence to budget and organization.  A hard choice, and perhaps programming should really be number four on the list, but let’s see if I can justify this decision.

Budgets are hard.  Very hard.  Librarians love books, obviously, and when reading book reviews in the assorted review journals at our disposal we see many, many books that look fabulous and exciting and just perfect for our library.  But the selection process must be driven first by how much money we have available for materials, and then we need to make sure that we’re fairly dividing our money spent amongst the areas we need to address.  And this is where that amazing thing called Microsoft Excel comes into play.  Kathy, the treasurer of the Friends of the library, taught me how to use Excel, and in that lesson she said to me, “Excel is the best program ever written – it’s awesome.”  She’s right, of course.  With Excel, it’s so easy to create a spreadsheet divided by month and category (the categories being dependent on how your library sorts the collection – at our library, the divisions are JJ, JE, J, AR, YA, CD’s, DVD’s, Replacement copies, and books on CD), and to use that spreadsheet to make sure no one category is too heavy, or another one shortchanged.

And then, of course, Excel works beautifully for an ongoing record of monies spent on program supplies and performers.  Once set up, it’s so easy to add the $7.47 spent for refreshments for a book group, or the $22.01 spent for workshop supplies, or to lay out the performers coming in the year ahead and predict how much money will be left for other programming expenses. 

Which leads nicely into organization.  I’ve been accused of being, well, wicked organized, and I agree that I’m guilty.  My personal philosophy on organization is this:  it’s only responsible to leave a clear paper trail in any job as complex as that of children’s librarian.  As an example, one week I wasn’t in on Friday, and on Thursday I had forgotten to do the prep work for the teen volunteer-run Saturday Storytime.  Ooops, my bad.  Luckily, though, Lisa was able to go into my computer files and find the “Storytime Today” door sign in those files.  But even more than a simple example like that, it’s also important for our own sanity of mind to have everything clearly in writing.  At the end of a summer reading program, I may think to myself, “Of course I’ll remember which prizes were most popular, and how many I ordered of each kind!”, but the reality is that no one’s memory is that good, and I’d be kicking myself come December if I didn’t keep clear records of all those statistics to aid in my ordering for the coming summer program.  So, organize, organize, organize, and keep a shelf full of notebooks with all that organized information in paper form, just in case the computer crashes. 

And next we have:  Programming…

Reference services.  Vital to the job, yet I do put reference services third on the list when talking about a children’s librarian.  As discussed in previous posts, if you’re not approachable, and if you haven’t established with your patrons that you have an excellent knowledge of children’s literature, you won’t have earned the trust of your patrons, and they won’t come to ask you those reference questions.

In a perfect world, the schools and the public library would communicate freely and regularly about school assignments, but the truth is that teachers have many balls in the air and work many hours a week (the best teachers I’ve known have worked 60+ hours a week), and it well may slip their minds to inform the public library about upcoming assignments.  A good children’s librarian will make sure the lines of communication to the school are open and available, yet won’t make a pest of him or herself in an attempt to learn of assignments.  So, once again, it’s important to keep ears and eyes open, watching for assignments that have just been issued, and to also keep a log each year of assignments and the dates of their occurrence, and the volume of materials required to fulfill the needs for that assignment.  And when requesting books from other libraries to flesh out the collection for a given assignment, watch for books of value that you don’t have in your own collection.  If the assignment will reoccur in future years, purchase those additional books for your collection.

An interesting part of reference services in a children’s room is holding back and observing.  Many parents want to teach their children the necessary skills to locate materials in the library catalog, and many of those parents do an excellent job teaching their children.  It can be tempting to jump in and help a parent/child team with their searching skills, but it’s so important to value the bonding aspect of this family interaction.  Though I have no scientific proof of this, I suspect that a child who learns to navigate the library from a parent will become a life-long library user, much like the child who has been read to on a daily basis by a parent and who observes a parent reading for pleasure is more likely to be a life-long reader than a child who doesn’t have those parental role models.  When I witness a parent and child searching the catalog together, I pay close attention, but only jump in to help if I see the pair going far astray or becoming frustrated. 

In contrast, there are times when a child comes in to the children’s room by him or herself and desperately needs assistance finding materials for a school assignment.  In those cases, time permitting, I love to take the time to go beyond just locating materials, and teach the child a few tricks for searching on their own.  This is obvious to the job description of a reference librarian, but to teach children well you must first have that affinity for and relationship with the kids that I discussed in the first post of the series.  It all ties together, see? 

Coming up:  Budget and organization.

What else makes a good children’s librarian?  Knowledge of the literature.  When a patron walks into a children’s room and asks for help selecting a book for pleasure reading, it is essential that the children’s librarian have a broad understanding of children’s literature.  This is necessarily more complex than understanding adult literature, because it’s not just about authors and series, it’s also about finding books that are appropriate for the decoding and comprehension level of the child.  A good children’s librarian will have an understanding of reading levels, and of which books may suit a child’s current level, but can also be flexible and take each child as an individual.  Meaning that if Johnny loves sports books, his high interest level may mean that the librarian could successfully recommend a sports book to him that would otherwise be above his evaluated reading level were the subject matter different. 

Obviously, it’s almost impossible for one human being to have read every book in a given children’s room.  We can try, but there are only so many hours in the week, and a lot of those hours are given over to the other tasks required of a librarian.  Which is why a solid base knowledge of children’s and young adult literature is so important going into this field.  While in graduate school, we have more focused time to read large quantities of literature, and we are also able to hone our skills for recognizing what makes great children’s literature, and for understanding the trends and developments that drive the literature forward.  Daily, I am grateful for the broad and deep knowledge of children’s and young adult literature that I gained through my education at the Center for the Study of Children’s Literature at Simmons College.  (Not so subtle plug here!) 

And remember to always, always, always, pay close attention to the tastes of your young patrons.  I’ve discovered many books through the kids who come into the library, books that went under the radar when I was reading book reviews because they weren’t starred or highly rated, but just in that middle range.  But there are so many books in that large middle range that appeal to kids because they are timely and unique and because word of an engaging book will spread from friend to friend, and it’s often the middle range books, not the starred books, that “pop” (Lisa’s favorite term) and become wildly popular. 

Tomorrow and the next day and the next:  Other things that make for a great children’s librarian, including reference services, programming, knowing pop culture, and the nitty gritty administrative details.

In some ways, I’m a bit of a maverick.  I’m a children’s librarian, and very good at my job, thank you very much, but I don’t have the traditional background coming into this field.  My undergraduate degree is in English, and my graduate degree in children’s literature.  My two previous careers were as a retail manager in a specialty toy store and as a special education tutor in an elementary school.  So I don’t have the traditional master’s degree in library science, yet I’m great at what I do.  How can this be explained?

In my view, there are several components that make an excellent children’s librarian.  First and most importantly, a children’s librarian needs to be friendly and approachable.  Nothing else matters if the public, be they adults or children, are afraid to come to the desk and ask questions.  For me, this is where my background in retail comes into play.  When you work retail, you literally live and die by how the customers view you.  If the customers dislike you, they won’t come into your store, and they won’t spend their money in your store, and you won’t be able to pay for rent or salaries or new merchandise, and your business will die.  As a retail manager, you simply MUST put the customers first, and a pleasant public facade quickly becomes second nature to you.  And for me, those “difficult” customers became personal challenges for me: I liked to take on the project of turning a habitually difficult customer into a loyal and happy customer (and it worked, too, in many different cases – maybe some day I’ll share my secrets on how to do this, but not today).  I view my role as children’s librarian in much the same way as I did my role as retailer.  I work for the people of the town in which I am employed, and my first duty is to provide them with excellent service.  This means eye contact, greeting people with a friendly smile when they walk into my room, and never being too busy to help.  I’d rather take work home with me than have a library patron feel as if I ignored them.

For a children’s librarian, the corollary to being friendly and approachable is relating well to kids.  In my opinion, this can’t be forced – either you’ve got it, or you don’t.  Kids know when you’re faking it, and kids don’t respond to adults who don’t respect them and enjoy their company.  But beyond one’s natural affinity for children is actual experience working with children.  If I hadn’t been raised by my mother, who was an excellent teacher, and if I hadn’t worked in an elementary school for three and a half years, I wouldn’t have the skills to handle the numbers of kids who cycle through the library in the course of a day.  A well-placed raised eyebrow is worth far more than a screaming fit when controlling the behavior of the after school crowd.  Gentle humor while issuing a request for quiet gets better results than being a dictator.  Letting the kids know that you like them, but you really don’t like their behavior – priceless. 

Tomorrow: more qualities that make a great children’s librarian.