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.\u00c2\u00a0 A hard choice, and perhaps programming should really be number four on the list, but let’s see if I can justify this decision.<\/p>\n
Budgets are hard.\u00c2\u00a0 Very hard.\u00c2\u00a0 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.\u00c2\u00a0 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.\u00c2\u00a0 And this is where that amazing thing called Microsoft Excel comes into play.\u00c2\u00a0 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.”\u00c2\u00a0 She’s right, of course.\u00c2\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
And then, of course, Excel works beautifully for an ongoing record of monies spent on program supplies and performers.\u00c2\u00a0 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.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Which leads nicely into organization.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve been accused of being, well, wicked\u00c2\u00a0organized, and I agree that I’m guilty.\u00c2\u00a0 My personal philosophy on organization is this:\u00c2\u00a0 it’s only responsible to leave a clear paper trail in any job as complex as that of children’s librarian.\u00c2\u00a0 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.\u00c2\u00a0 Ooops, my bad.\u00c2\u00a0 Luckily, though, Lisa was able to\u00c2\u00a0go into\u00c2\u00a0my computer files and find the “Storytime Today” door sign in those files.\u00c2\u00a0 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.\u00c2\u00a0 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.\u00c2\u00a0 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.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
And next we have:\u00c2\u00a0 Programming…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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.\u00c2\u00a0 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.\u00c2\u00a0 Very hard.\u00c2\u00a0 … Continue reading What makes a good children’s librarian, part IV<\/span>