Monthly Archives: April 2009

Children, Librarianship

Ewwwwwwwww…

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The most bizarre thing happened at work today:

A fifth grader was chatting with me at my desk when another fifth grader came up to borrow a pencil.  As the second student was digging through the pencil bin, she laid down the small fish squirt toy that she had been carrying.  The first student, still chatting with me, absent-mindedly picked up the squirt toy and squeezed.  Pfffffitttt – a squirt of liquid hit me full in the face, right next to my mouth. 

“Ewwwwwwwww!”  I cried, wiping the liquid off my face.

“What was in that?” the first student asked.

“Oh, I dunno, just some old bathwater I guess,” said the owner of the squirt toy (who has younger siblings, it should be noted).

Needless to say, as soon as I could extract myself I ran down to the staff room and washed my face.  Hopefully I won’t have broken out in a weird rash tomorrow morning or contracted some dread disease.  Blech blech blech.  The things they DON’T tell you about what it means to be a children’s librarian.

And, for the record, I also got sneezed on today by a sixth grader.  Twice.  Good thing I take vitamins.

Book groups, Children's book reviews

Tunnels

On Tuesday, the sixth grade book group will be discussing Tunnels by Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams.  I’ve been reading this book over the last week and half, and I’m surprised by how impressed I am by it.  It’s not the greatest piece of literature I’ve ever read, but its unexpected plot turns and grim, dark atmosphere make it compelling and involving in a totally unique way.

Two thumbs up from this reader for Tunnels – go find yourself a copy and let me know what you think of it.  And I’ll post the sixth graders’ reactions to the book here later in the week…

Librarianship

Vacation week

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While I’m not on vacation this week, the children in town are, and it gives a whole different rhythm to life at the library, a rhythm that is fun and refreshing.  With that in mind, here’s vacation week in review:

Patriot’s Day!  After writing such a long post on Patriot’s Day last year, I’ll keep this year’s comments brief.  Jim and I went to the dawn salute on Buttrick’s Hill on Sunday morning; it was a perfect morning, with mist rising from the field by the Old North Bridge as the sun rose in a clear sky.  The ceremony progressed as usual, except as we heard Dr. Prescott thundering across the Old North Bridge on his horse:  Clop, clop, clop – “The Regulars are on the March!” – clop, clop, clop – “The Regulars are on the March!” – clop, clop, thunk…  >silence<  Shuffle, skitter, shuffle, shuffle, hesitant clop…clop….clop….clop…

Turns out the horse slipped on the downhill side of the damp bridge, and sat down on his rear end.  We heard “Dr. Prescott” talking to someone about it afterwards, and he said the horse was just fine.  But at the moment it happened, we all held our breath.

That was Sunday – on Monday Dad and I attended the parade in Concord together, and had a lovely time, capped off by lunch at the Colonial Inn. 

Fancy Nancy  On Tuesday, the town’s Senior Girl Scout Troop hosted two consecutive Fancy Nancy storytimes and parties.  They had an enthusiastic crowd, and I was sad to have to leave just as the first one was starting (though I’d already worked a 9 hour day at that point, and really needed to go home and eat some dinner).

T. A. Barron  And the highlight of this vacation week was a visit from author T. A. Barron.  Maureen from the region organized this program, which was aimed at library professionals, and she and T. A. agreed that the library in which I work was an ideal spot for the program, since T. A. lived in the town in which I work through his fifth grade year.  (Apologies for the awkward language, but I do try to keep the town and library anonymous here.)  

T. A. is the nicest, most generous author I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting, and his devotion to children and encouragement of the hero in each child is inspiring.  He gave each librarian in attendance a packet with a DVD about the children who have won the Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes, along with a copy of his book The Hero’s Trail.  His only request of us was that we share these with as many children as possible.  With that in mind, I’ll be putting the DVD into the circulating collection, and I’ll be using the book with one of my book groups (either the fifth or the sixth grade group, with the intention that it becomes an annual book choice for that age).

Beyond the Barron Prize, here is an example of T. A.’s generosity:  while in conversation with another librarian, he realized she hadn’t read one of his books, so he bought her a copy from the stack for sale from Barnes and Noble.  And then, when I came up with my two books to be signed, he saw that I had the first and third books in the Great Tree of Avalon series, but not the second (a product of my having bought them used at the Barrow Book Store, of course).  “You don’t have the second book,” he said to me, with some concern.  Looking over at the stack for sale, he saw that there weren’t any hardcover editions of the book there, so I wouldn’t be able to have a matching set.  “Tell you what,” he said, “Write down your mailing address, and when I get back to Colorado I’ll send you a signed copy of the second book in hardcover.”  Wow – that’s a nice man. 

So that’s the week in review, minus all the million little things I did that don’t normally happen when storytimes and school are in session:  cleaned the office, read a lot of book reviews, thought about the summer reading program…you get the idea.  It’s been a good week, and a refreshing change of pace.

Feltboard, Storytime

The Big Red Barn

Here are photos of another of my feltboard favorites – the pieces for Margaret Wise Brown’s The Big Red Barn.  I’ve included a close-up of my favorite pieces, the roosters and hens (click on images to enlarge):

img_0248.jpg    img_0251.jpg

Library events

Lego Expo, part two

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After all those months of planning and preparation, the Expo itself went remarkably well.  The volunteers were fantastic and took over the nitty-gritty details, leaving me free to chat with kids and their parents and assist the judges.  The judges were equally fantastic, taking their job very seriously while having a great time talking with each child and viewing their models.  The kids and their parents were terrific, enjoying each other’s models while loving the moments of unadultered attention as a judge listened to the story behind their model.

The first age group, the 3 to 5 year olds, was small and manageable, allowing the judges to really give personal attention to each of these tender young Lego artists.  Lots of great models here: a tricked out Duplo mini-van, Stretchy Frogs Super Agent Spy Mobiles, a rocket, an amusement park, and others that I (unfortunately!) can’t remember.  For this age group, it’s more about the story behind the model than the model itself, and the judges (Marc and Tina) did a wonderful job listening to each child and remembering key points about each model when it came time to present the Certificates of Achievement.  Marc and Tina quite wisely decided to forgo place ribbons for this group, and instead placed the emphasis on giving each child a moment in the spotlight; everyone got a round of applause and knew that his or her model had been seen and appreciated.  There were some tears when I drew the raffle winner, though, which made me think I need to do that age group’s raffle drawing differently, either altering my announcement to warn that only one child will win, or drawing the winner after the Expo, or perhaps eliminating the raffle item entirely.  Something to chew on…

The next age group, the 5 to 9 year olds, was enormous and enthusiastic.  The judges for this group, Bess, Marc, Rob, and David, were a bit overwhelmed by the volume of entries and the verbosity of the model builders, putting my careful plans way behind schedule.  Once again, I’ll have to make changes for next year here.  I think the best route will be to divide this group into two groups, which I can do based upon the ages of the attendees on Saturday (Excel spreadsheet, here we come!).  But even though the judging was long and involved here, I think that the judges still enjoyed themselves.  This age group is the “sweet spot” for Legos, brimming over with joy and creativity and storytelling.  There were Lego museums, Lego spaceships, Lego wars, Lego recycling centers, and even a Lego rainbow (my favorite).  And, happily, a mix of boys and girls participating.  The judges did award place ribbons here, though there were multiple 1st place winners, and multiple 2nd and 3rd place winners.  This age expected competition, and no one was distressed by the awarding of ribbons.  Likewise, I prefaced my drawing of the raffle Lego set with some sort of garbled statement that only one person would win, please no one be upset, yadda yadda yadda. 

The oldest age group, ages 9 – 12+, turned out to be only 10 and 11 year old boys.  (What happens to the girls?  How sad!)  This group was more focused on mechanics and engineering, with lots of remote controlled models and cool mechanical design.  The judges for this group, Bess, Rob, and Bart, had an easier time making the rounds, but a much, much harder time picking winners.  How to compare a lobsterboat setup with a remote-controlled car?  How to measure conceptual design versus technical expertise?  Ultimately, they wisely decided to award 2 of each ribbon, negotiating amongst themselves as they narrowed the field down.   And the raffle drawing was painless and happy.

Though exhausting, it was a wonderful, wonderful day.  So many happy kids, so much community spirit and good will in the room.  And it was terrific to be part of something that emphasized childrens’ creativity with their hands and their minds – no t.v., no computers. 

I’ll be sending out personal thank-yous to each volunteer and judge, but I’d also like to print here a very heartfelt expression of gratitude to this special group of people.  Without them, there wouldn’t have been a Lego Expo.  Thank you.

Library events

The Lego Expo

Saturday was the event that’s been consuming my attention for the last four months – the Lego Expo.  In my past life as a speciality toy retail manager at the Toy Shop in Concord I got to be the store owner’s right-hand girl and helped plan and run several Lego Expos, so I’ve had a dream of running a Lego Expo at the library since I started there three and a half years ago.  This year it was finally possible: we have the space now, and we’ve been settled into the new building long enough for me to have the time to organize such a large event.  And somewhere in those crashed and lost and deleted email files, I had an email from Lego giving me their blessing, if not their direct support, to run the event.

What’s a Lego Expo, you’re asking?  Kids bring in creative Lego models that they’ve made at home for display at the library.  Judges from the community view all the models and talk with the kids who made the models.  Everyone receives a certificate of achievement, and some kids receive 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place ribbons.  The kids are divided into three age groups (3 to 5, 5 to 9, and 9 to 12+).  At the end of each age group, I draw a raffle winner (each child gets one raffle ticket), and that raffle winner gets a nice big Lego set paid for by the Friends of the Library.  It’s a bit chaotic, a lot creative, and enormously fun.

And a lot of work.  A LOT of work.  After four months of planning and stress, I’m seriously exhausted today (if it weren’t for those two huge cups of coffee, I’d be asleep right now – I’m writing this on Sunday, by the way!).  But it’s a good exhausted, and it’s tired with the knowledge that next year’s Lego Expo won’t be nearly so much work or nearly so tiring.

So for you children’s librarians who are intrigued by this idea, here’s what I did to prepare for the Expo:

  1. I publicized the event four months before its scheduled date, even before I’d done any planning, to allow kids plenty of time to create their models and spread the word amongst their friends about the event.
  2. Part of this publicity was creating a sheet of guidelines that kids and parents could pick up in the children’s room.  On the sheet was the date of the Expo, the times for the age groups, and information about creating your own unique Lego model (don’t just make the model on the front of the box).  I also explicitly stated that there would be “gentle judging,” and that some kids would receive 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place ribbons.  And I explained that there would be a raffle in each age group for a new Lego set.
  3. Then it was time to start asking around about potential judges.  My ideal was to have just three judges for the whole day like we did back in those Toy Shop expos, but it didn’t work out that way.  Ultimately, I had nine judges lined up and spread amongst the three age groups (though when the date of the Expo changed due to a sad event, three of those nine had to bow out).  For judges, I wanted a variety of expertise: artists, designers, Lego aficionados, architects, cabinet makers, and a mix of men and women.
  4. Then it was time to put out the plea for volunteers for the event.  Since I work in a small town, I wanted to keep the registration for the event completely open, which meant lining up a lot of volunteers to handle any possible attendance scenario.  (If I worked in a larger town, I’d require pre-registration and limit enrollment to keep things manageable.)  The volunteers were a variety of ages, including some fifth grade and up kids who didn’t want to show a model but who wanted to be a part of the event, many teen volunteers (most of whom volunteered for the entire day, wow), and several adult volunteers.
  5. Then it was time to create materials for the event.  These included: guidelines and timeline for the judges; judging sheets with space for the judges to make notes; directions for the volunteers so that they could operate independently and not feel they had to ask me what to do; check-in sheets for the volunteers to enter each child’s name and age and whether the child was a resident of the town; tent cards for the kids to identify their models – who made the model, their age, and the name of the model; Certificates of Achievement; raffle tickets and a sign for the raffle bucket.
  6. Then I assembled all of these materials into boxes and on clipboards where appropriate, ready to go for the day of the event.  In these boxes I also put multiple Sharpie markers for volunteers to use to write the children’s names on the Certificates of Achievement; ballpoint pens, pencils and a pencil sharpener; name badges for the volunteers and judges; and my own folder with its list of judges and volunteers and notes to myself.
  7. Last but not least, I bought snacks to feed the volunteers and judges (cheese and crackers and cookies and juice and seltzer and coffee), brought some small folding tables from home to use for the raffle bucket, tested the sound system, and carefully planned out the layout of the tables in the program room to optimize space usage and traffic flow.

Like I said, a LOT of work.  But now all of these materials are created, and with a little tweaking from lessons learned, useable again next year. 

Tune in tomorrow for a run-down of how the event went!

Blog administration, Librarianship

Where I’ve been…

So, I’ve been less than good about writing here lately, but there’s a reason: the Lego Expo.  And another reason: computer failure.  And maybe even a third reason, if you stretch things a bit: that laryngitic cold I had a couple of weeks back.

Starting with that cold, it definitely took the starch out of me for a while, and didn’t leave much energy for anything outside going to work and sleeping and eating and tutoring and (occasionally) socializing with Jim.  On the bright side, though, I wasn’t nearly as sick as my brother has been with a viral stomach bug.  Thank goodness for that.

Then that computer crash: the computer at the children’s desk at the library froze while in the midst of doing a Windows update on the 31st (we were updating all of the library’s computers in anticipation of that much-talked-about April Fool’s Day virus).  We tried everything we could think of over the next week to try to save files, with Dad providing some excellent tech support, including a Ubuntu boot disk which helped establish that the computer’s bios was fine.  But, ultimately, we had to wipe the hard drive clean and start fresh; Lisa had to spend time on the phone with Dell tech support, and then even more time reinstalling the software.  I lost all of my email files, but almost none of my Word and Excel files, thanks to diligent frequent backups of those files to my flash drive.  Let this be a lesson to all of you:  back up those files regularly, including email files.  I sigh wistfully when I think about my beautifully organized Outlook files, with all kinds of great resource information and performer confirmations and contracts.  Sigh.

While I don’t write blog entries at work (never, never, never – they’re all written at home), this computer failure did make me totally and completely SICK of computers for the week of crashedness.  The last thing I wanted to do in my free time was log on to the laptop at home and write blog entries. 

As for the Lego Expo, well, it really deserves its own dedicated entry.  Tune in tomorrow for that one.

Storytime

Valuable lesson

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This past week was a very long one, since I’ve been battling the silly cold I mentioned a couple of posts back.  It’s a head cold, and has mostly been tough on my voice (some days I was down to almost no voice at all), which may not matter in some professions, but really makes a difference if you’re a children’s librarian.

So here is the valuable lesson that I have learned:  I’ve now created a head cold-friendly Mother Goose on the Loose storytime plan.  This storytime plan uses as little singing as possible, and incorporates a lot of finger plays and action rhymes that are so familiar to me, so ingrained in my subconscious, that I don’t have to think too hard to present them to the group.  When I used this storytime on Tuesday, it worked beautifully: I was able to make the storytime fun for the participants while I was inwardly suffering.  No need for the group to know just how miserable I was.  All they needed to know was that I’d been sick for a week and a half (so probably not contagious anymore) and that they’d need to help me out with the few songs that were in the storytime.  All of those songs are used every week in MGOL (“I Went to Visit a Farm Today,” “If You’re Happy and You Know It,” “Wind oh Wind,” and “We Ring Our Bells Together”), and there were enough regular attendees on Tuesday to make the songs work.  On Wednesday, there were a lot of brand new attendees to MGOL, so I simply skipped the animal songs and reassured myself that no permanent damage would be done by eliminating a portion of the storytime for this one week.

I’ve marked this Mother Goose on the Loose storytime in my files as “Head Cold Friendly,” so that it will be easy to find next time I need it.  Next time I’ve got a persistent cold, I won’t have to scramble to create anything, I can simply use this plan that has been proven to work.  Lesson learned!  Plan created!

In addition, this week’s Toddler Storytime just happened to be song-free, which was a huge boon to my voice, and this week’s Preschool Storytime was an “art week” storytime, so I only read two stories to the kids, then we all did an art project together.  Much easier on the voice.  In all, I was able to stumble through a total of five storytimes in four days.

And two other valuable lessons I learned this week:  don’t be afraid to let the storytime participants know that your voice is a bit rough and you can’t push it too much, and keep a thermos of honey-laced tea next to you during the storytime.  No one cared that I took a moment here and there to sip the tea, and it helped enormously.

But the biggest lesson I learned was that anyone who attends a storytime with their child is there to enjoy themselves and partake in a group experience.  They didn’t really care that I wasn’t as fabulous as usual, especially since I kept smiling and used humor throughout the storytimes.  Ultimately, we all had fun, and that’s the single most important ingredient for a successful storytime.  And, ultimately, this was only one week out of fifty-two, so it’s all ok.