Though it seems like summer reading just began, it’s actually more than half over – the busy half, too.  After Wednesday, the special programs that I’ve scheduled will taper off, with only one major program in August, as well as two more movie nights, a craft program, and the finale picnic.

Since my last post, we’ve had a successful “Night Sky” program, with four half-hour sessions spread out over three hours.  We were close to full capacity, which made me very happy, and everyone left the Starlab a bit starry-eyed and dazzled.  For me, the whole experience was positive, from Molly, the instructor, who was competent, intelligent, and efficient; to the Starlab fitting so nicely into Volunteers Hall; to sitting in the hallway-with-a-view with each group as they awaited their turn.  This hallway is lined with windows, with one view down the old minister’s path to the church, and the other view out over the library’s parking lot (so you can “watch the pass”).  As I sat with each group, the kids and parents and I chatted about all sorts of things:  the new Harry Potter, which had not yet been released, summer vacations, and favorite summer books.  A nice bunch of people – it was enjoyable to socialize with them in a relaxed environment.

Since I was tending to attendance and such between each of the first three sessions, it wasn’t until the last session that I got to go into Starlab myself.  Molly gave careful instructions on how to enter the tunnel going to Starlab, and how to sit once inside.  A simple hunched-over walk through the tunnel, then we all sat on the wooden library floor inside the dome, and got to see several constellations, which Molly described using a red pointer beam that clarified where the head and tail and such were for these constellations.  We also learned a bit about Polaris and saw a cool Powerpoint graphic on just how the earth wobbles on its axis; Toby had asked how long it would be until we had a new North Star, and we were all surprised to see how many thousands of years it would be until the shift happened.

Throughout the presentation, the cute little boy sitting next to me had an incredibly hard time keeping still (he really was far too young to attend, one of the downsides of library programs, since it’s harder to restrict ages than in a school program) and frequently knocked the sides of the dome.  By the time we exited Starlab, I was good n’ woozy from the wobbling dome sides and the subsequently shifting stars, and felt a bit like I had all those years ago when I walked out of the movie theater after watching Star Wars for the first time.  Happy, but a little nauseous.

After all the attendees had left for home, and Molly had packed up the Starlab and headed out, I went and ate a quick dinner before setting up Volunteers Hall for that night’s movie night….(to be continued)

The Museum of Science is coming to the library today with their inflatable planetarium, Starlab.  Starlab inflates to be twenty-five feet in diameter and twelve feet high, and can accomodate twenty-five participants at a time.  Expecting a good deal of interest in this program, I scheduled four sessions spread out over the afternoon, and at this point the two later sessions are completely full.  (Do call the children’s room this morning if you’re not signed up yet and would like to attend the 2:00 or 2:45 sessions, as there is still plenty of room in each of those.)

After Starlab is packed up and on the road back to Boston, I’ll be setting up the performance room for movie night.  Tonight’s movie is Toy Story, and there is PLENTY of space available for those of you who would like to attend.  Although, I must admit that an under-registered movie night means a great deal less work for me, especially since Lisa won’t be working tonight (last week, Lisa and I worked frantically for a solid half-hour to fill enough popcorn bags to feed the entire audience). 

Neither of today’s events really fits into the Massachusetts library summer theme of “Catch the Beat at your Library,” but that doesn’t bother me too much.  While I think that having a summer theme can inspire children’s librarians to bring in some excellent events that we might not otherwise have thought of, I do also think that there is a danger of being limited by the summer’s theme.  As I study the statistics produced by our new online summer reading log, it becomes clear that summer reading participation and enthusiasm centers on three specific grade levels: those kids entering third, fourth, and fifth grade in the fall.  What happens if there are three mediocre summer reading themes in a row?  Do the kids going into these prime grade levels those years lose out?  In losing out, do they lose interest in reading, and therefore not develop excellent life-long reading habits? 

My approach, therefore, is to run some events each summer that make use of the summer theme, but also schedule other events that touch on other subjects.  For instance, with “Catch the Beat,” it could be tempting to focus mostly on musical events, but that would leave the kids who are interested in math and science out in the cold.  And I certainly wouldn’t let our book group choices to be determined by the summer theme; the books we read should be chosen by virtue of quality and interest level for the kids who are in the book group.

All this by way of explaining my choice of having Starlab come today.  It’s a totally cool program, for which we finally have the appropriate space, and which appeals to kids who are fascinated by science.  And Toy Story was chosen by way of patron request, an appropriate means of choosing programs for a public library.  It’s all good.

One last thing before I start my work day:  HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JEAN!!  With love from your little sis.  Have a terrific day!!!

Just like that, summer reading has now truly begun.

With the 4th of July occuring right in the middle of last week, I assumed that we would have a slow start to summer reading this year: lots of families out of town those first two weeks.  In fact, I didn’t schedule a single event last week, which was oddly calm.  But this week is another matter.  Monday was the meeting of the 5th grade book group, yesterday was an appearance by Professor Readalot, today Alex Andrews from Music Together will be singing with the youngest kids in the morning, this afternoon I’ll be running a puppet-making workshop, and then tomorrow evening will be a showing of the movie “Happy Feet.”  Phew.

Professor Readalot, real name Greg McAdams, was a huge hit again this year.  When he came last summer, I was really blown away by his ability to hold the attention of a large group of kids, as well as his masterful crowd control.  Lots of parents commented favorably on his performance, too, so he was an obvious choice as an “ask-back” this summer, and one of my choices for a Cultural Council grant.  So it was no surprise when he pulled off another flawless performance yesterday.

The beauty of Greg’s performance lies in the mixture of comedy, magic, and library-specific booktalking and gentle discussion of how to handle library books.  He uses humor that exactly appeals to kids, even to kids as young as three or four, and they were giggling their heads off throughout his show yesterday.  Yet he never let the crowd get out of control: he starts off his show with a quick discussion of not talking when he’s talking, and that if he needs to keep asking kids to be quiet, then there will be less time for a show  (unfortunately, though, his request for decorum was lost on a couple of parents, who chatted throughout the whole show, despite his direct appeal for parents to be quiet – he even made eye contact with the chatty pair!).  More importantly, Greg knows how to bring the group dynamic quickly back down after a raucous laugh, and possesses the ability to take the room from 60 back down to 0 in a few seconds.  Pretty cool talent.

So it was a really fun time yesterday, with a full house of attendees.  It will be interesting to see what the attendance is this morning for Alex Andrews.  Alex has a huge following, but her following was a bit discouraged last summer by the lack of air conditioning at the old library.  Put 40 moms and 40 babies in a small room in the middle of a hot summer without air conditioning – not a good thing.  Pretty rank.  We’ll see how many show up today, for the air-conditioned comfort of Volunteers Hall!

Recently there was a conversation on MASSYAC (the list serve for children’s librarians in Massachusetts) about movie nights and why it’s hard to attract patrons to movies at the library.  The whole conversation totally puzzled me, since it was the exact opposite of what I experience at the library I work for.  Other librarians complained that they would hold a movie night and no one would come, or only a few people would come, or that attendance would be spotty and irregular from one movie to another.

Perhaps it’s simply the geographic makeup of the town in which I work, but movie nights are a consistent hit for us.  This town has no movie theater, and is quite a drive from movie theaters in other towns.  So the weekly, sometimes bi-weekly, movie nights that we have planned for this summer are a terrific way for families in town to socialize with each other, and now that we have reliable air conditioning, it will also be a great way to beat the heat in the midst of summer.

And the fact that Mary, Lisa, Roy, and I are willing to work an evening shift in order to run movie nights, even Friday evenings in the school year, must count for something too.  Though I do want to instigate gentle afternoon movie showings in the children’s room for the coming school year, I also feel quite strongly that it’s necessary to hold movie nights, events that working parents can happily and easily attend with their children. 

All these reasons aside, our first movie night in the new building was an unqualified success, with an almost full house of attendees (a full house is 89, we had 74).  The movie was Flushed Away, a movie that Jim and I had rented a few months ago to watch at home.  Truthfully, I didn’t enjoy it much when Jim and I watched it, but I still put it on the summer schedule because the demand for our circulating DVD has been high at the library.  And I was pleasantly surprised by Flushed Away when I saw it on the library’s big screen, with a crowd of happy, rowdy (in a good way) children in attendance.  It was a LOT of fun, and the crowd gave a heartfelt round of applause at the conclusion.

Next week’s movie is Shrek (might as well show the first of the trilogy, the one that started it all!), and I’ll be going out today to buy some more of the incredibly popular popcorn that we served at this week’s movie.  Which might be another key to our success:  good popcorn. 

It’s definitely been an interesting week – the sad time with Rudy, and the utter highs of the start of the summer reading program.

The Ice Cream Social was on Wednesday, and that morning was absolutely insane.  It was pouring with rain at 10 and 11 AM, and many, many library patrons called the library to see if we were moving the Social to the rain date.  More times than I can remember, I had to kindly tell patrons that the weather forecast was indeed conducive to an outdoor afternoon event, that I was obsessively viewing the weather radar, and that it was going to be ok, really, it was.  I even sent out an email to all patrons who had pre-registered, and asked them to please pass the word on to their friends who might not have registered.

After a brief hiatus in the staff room to make some rain of my own after hearing about Rudy, I sat back at my desk and saw the rain move out and the clear skies move in.  By 12:30, things were obviously going to be fine, and it was time to get the ice cream and start to set up.

Jim and two of his buddies, Mark and Rich, were the band for the event, and they did a fabulous job.  Really awesome.  (I’m not just saying this because I’m married to Jim – they really were awesome.  One woman who attended with her kids came up to me to rave about the band, and her jaw nearly hit the grass when I told her it was my husband’s band.)

We had lots of volunteers helping with the event:  six teenagers and one adult, as well as the library page extraordinaire, Alyson.  This meant that I could schmooze rather than scoop ice cream, and it was so much fun.  I can’t count how many times grinning parents came up to me, shaking their heads, and saying “Wow, you’re good.  I thought you were crazy about the rain letting up, but you were SO right!  What a beautiful day!”

So it was a success, hugely fun for all, and the best summer kick-off the town has ever seen, thanks to the extensive grounds we have at the new site – plenty of room to run and play without danger of cars.  Roy took some great photos of the event, and if I get ambitious I’ll try to post one or two that don’t feature kids (for safety reasons, of course). 

Tomorrow’s post: the first movie night in the new building!