Next week, our regular programming starts back up. It's been a nice "break", but I'll be glad to get back into my storytime routine and see the kids again!
While patrons see the month of August as a break time, we youth librarians know that it's really a time for getting planning and projects done. Here are some of the tasks I accomplished this August:
- Okay, I did take a week of vacation in early August, my first extended time off since before my Newbery meetings in February.
- I planned the fall session of baby storytime, including selecting, pulling, and labeling books, finding new rhymes and songs, and putting together all of the handouts.
- I scheduled approximately eleven billion booktalking visits for the fall semester.
- I learned that no, we would not be getting an additional part time person to help us cover and I would have to patch the schedule together as best I could to staff two desks now and all of this additional programming that we're doing.
- I met with all my staff to touch base about their annual goals (and, in the case of my new teen people, set them).
- I weeded the first third of the 500s, which is slow going because you have to look pretty carefully at that science info to make sure you're providing kids with accurate and current information.
- I held two staff meetings - our regular department meeting, which included a debrief of the Summer Reading Club and was the first time we were all meeting together as the Youth Services Department, and our monthly Reading Wildly meeting.
- I scheduled, arranged coverage for, or attended two staff training workshops - one on teen development (since we're now the Youth Services Department, which includes teens!) and one on reference interviews/skills/resources.
- I presented a keynote speech and a breakout session at this year's CYPD Conference.
In addition to all of these work accomplishments, the Fiance and I bought a house this August! So, we have been painting, painting, painting, and starting to sort through all our stuff in preparation for a move. Exciting!!!
So, next week, it's back to routine. It's back to baby storytime, afterschool visits, and lots of booktalking (although I took pains this year to spread the booktalking load a little more evenly, so it's not going to be quite as intense this year). I'm ready!