Today counts as the exact half-way point of my summer reading program.  It’s going well, with some great performers, a couple of good library-run programs, and lots of enthusiastic summer readers.

Today is also the day that I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about my three goals for fiscal year ’10.  Each year we’re required to come up with three specific goals, and we are then evaluated at the end of the fiscal year for our ability to fulfill those goals.

Here are the three goals that first popped into my mind:

• Keep my head above water – don’t drown in the ocean of work to be done.
• Keep smiling.  Keep smiling.  Keep smiling.  (Even if the teeth are clenched.)
• Try to maintain a broad, philosophical perspective on my job.  Don’t let myself get bogged down in the minutia.

But, obviously, those can’t be my written goals.  (Though they are pretty reasonable goals, really.)  So I’ve been thinking hard today about what I’ll put down as what I want to and need to achieve this year.  Here’s what I have at the moment:

• Finish 16 more Toddler Storytime lesson plans, which include: typed handouts with theme-based book lists for parents (each list should have at least 20 titles), fingerplays and songs, follow-up activities, and a craft idea; detailed lesson plans for me to use, with thoughts on how to introduce each theme and creative ways to present the theme throughout the storytime; and feltboard stories (made at home, of course) to enrich each storytime.  The completion of these 16 lesson plans will bring my total library of Toddler Storytime plans up to 50, enough for a full year and some change (since storytimes don’t run every single week of the year).
• Further development of the Preschool Storytime, including feltboard stories that are more sophisticated for this age.  Also investigate additional process art projects to use with this age group, since it has been proved that the “splashy” art projects are by far the most popular.  Sigh.
• Given the popularity of the first annual Lego Expo, research and brainstorm to see if I can come up with another community-based program that is similar.  In other words, the success of the Lego Expo was due entirely to its participants, not to a performer, and I’d like to see if it is possible to create another program that emphasizes childrens’ creativity and innovation.
• Read more children’s and young adult books.  This obviously has to be done in my spare time, but one major impact of the budget cuts in our town is that my schedule has become odd – very odd some weeks – and I’ve dropped off on my reading.  It is vitally essential that I read as many books as possible in order to be effective at my job.  This MUST be a priority.
• Be more regular about writing on this blog.  I love that writing entries for my blog helps me to focus my thoughts and energy.  Writing blog entries also helps me to process events at work, and evaluate what worked and what didn’t.  The blog has been yet another casualty of my odd schedule.

That’s more than three goals, isn’t it?  I like the idea of goals, but in some ways they’re a bad idea for someone like me – I’m already a workaholic overachiever, and when writing goals I end up creating way more work for myself than I would otherwise.  Hmmmm.

Though the public side of my job involves helping children find books, running storytimes and book groups, and generally being a welcoming face in the children’s room, there are hidden aspects of my job that take up a lot of time and seem worth mentioning here once in a while.

There’s the event planner part of my job description – coordinating volunteers and resources and figuring out how to run an ice cream party for over four hundred, or working with Lisa to plan a tie dye party for an as-yet-undisclosed number of drop-in attendees.  Event planning seems to be most intense when an outdoor event is involved, because that requires much studying of weather forecasts and weather radar and sweating over whether to postpone or go for it.  So far it seems as though rain has been a factor in every single outdoor event I’ve planned, and believe me, it’s a challenge to know what decision to make:  rain date or original date.  This year we went for the original date for the ice cream social, and it worked out well – cloudy but no rain, and tons of rain on the two rain dates.  The tie dye party was a tougher call (I’m writing this Wednesday night, with no knowledge of how Thursday’s weather will turn out): the tie dye event was scheduled for 3:00 PM on Wednesday, and the morning was beautiful and sunny.  “Oh no,” I stressed, “Maybe I shouldn’t have moved the program to the rain date…”  But then the heavens opened up at 2:30, complete with booming thunder, and I felt much better.  We’ll see how Thursday’s weather pans out.

Another hidden part of my job is the shopping.  Sometimes, especially in the summer, I feel like a professional shopper.  Popcorn and water for movie nights, ice cream and toppings for the ice cream social, craft supplies for storytimes, tie dying supplies for (yup) tie dying, bagels and juice and cream cheese for book groups, felt for my storytimes (always bought with my own money, that felt) – the list goes on and on.  It’s really hard to keep track of time that I spend shopping for supplies, so I usually chalk all that shopping up to being a good person and don’t bother putting those shopping hours on my time sheet.  I like to tell myself that the good karma will keep me going for a while.

Another hidden aspect of my job is the time I spend making feltboard stories for my storytimes.  As I’ve written here ad-nauseum, I spend my own money for the felt I use and use my own time to make the feltboard figures, so that those feltboard figures belong to me free and clear.  Which is all good, but we shouldn’t ignore the fact that making those figures takes a lot of time and creative energy.  And my storytimes are WAY better for those figures.

Also in my free, unpublic time: book group prep.  It’s impossible to read a book at the library when I’m on duty, so I don’t even try anymore.  All that prep is done at home on the weekends, which is why I insist on picking a lot of new books for the book groups (keeps me up to date on what’s being published, and keeps me interested).

And then there’s something hidden that goes on while I’m at working: book ordering.  I’ve come to realize that most of the library’s patrons don’t know that I order every single book that’s placed in the children’s room.  And ordering books requires careful reading of reviews and meticulous tracking of series so that we’re never missing the next great series installment.  It’s really hard to read reviews while I’m sitting at the main children’s desk, because many a raised eyebrow is aimed my way when I do.  Review journals look like cheap magazines, and it really does look as though I’m reading People or US Weekly while on the job – but I’m actually working.  Not to mention that it’s hard to read reviews in the face of constant interruptions.  So I keep my review reading for my rare office hours, or I bring those review journals home and chip away at reading reviews in my own, off the clock time.

The only reason I mention all of these hidden parts of my job is because most non-librarians really don’t have a sense of how time-consuming the job is.  We all know that teachers put in tons of hours of their own time preparing lesson plans and such, but few know that librarians work the same way, and year-round, too – no summer breaks for librarians.  I do my job because I LOVE it – passionately, happily, thoroughly LOVE IT – but I’d also love for the world to know how hard I work.  And, I never thought I’d say this, but I also miss those “teacher gifts” I used to get at the end of each school year and at Christmas.  Yes, I have way too many mugs now, but it was also kinda cool to be given tangible expressions of thanks twice a year.  (I do love dark chocolate, by the way!)