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I’ve been reading, I’ve been working, I’ve been getting settled in… I’ve been keeping busy… But I’m still incredibly miserable without my laptop.
This year’s summer reading program feels a little lax compared to last year – it feels like the level of excitement and buzz that was here last year is not being matched this go-around… and I’m wondering why. Our promotions went VERY well, kids seemed very enthusiastic, and I feel like I’ve been really making some connections with people… and while our enrollment in the reading program is up by about 26%, the number of books being read seems as though it will be lower this year than last. However, last year we didn’t count books until the end of the reading program and this year we’re tracking it week by week – so it may be that many readers just haven’t been faithfully recording, or are away on travels… so hopefully counts will be spiking at the last minute.
The other thing I’ve noticed too, is that we were thinking with the gas prices, less people would be traveling out of town, so we were hoping to see higher attendance at special events – but not so – our numbers have been low, across the board. Where have all the people gone? Was their something in promotion that went awry or neglected, are our activities not as interesting this year, or is it an impact from two larger public libraries in neighboring areas airing actual COMMERCIALS on TV for their summer program this year? These are things I’m concerned and thinking about at work.
A few Web 2.0/Library 2.0 things…
First of all, I read a very interesting article written by James Grimmelmann on “The Google Dilemma.” You should go and read it too. I learned A LOT from this piece and I have a total new appreciation for our First Amendment rights, as well as the inner workings of the internet and search engines. Just… Wow. Definitely food for thought.
I revisited my Twitter account yesterday, and am a little on the fence about how I’ll decide to use it since I’m only a small-town librarian with no illustrious career and I’ve never been to any conferences. It’s times like these I wish I had someone to “chat” with on Twitter.
Also discovered Library Thing: very, very awesome. And addictive. I have posted up all the things I’ve read thus far for 2008 and have done my best to rate and write a review.
Very curious about giving this Flickr thing a try. When I get my laptop back, I am determined to use it regularly for at least a month. How do you use Flickr?
Anyway – back to work!
I’m so glad that I had a couple of scheduled posts… Those really come in handy when you can’t update often because…
- You’re swamped at work because of the summer reading game and you start having 9 or 10 hour days
- Your laptop harddrive is being RMA’d
- Your in the middle of moving.
I made some tweaks to the summer reading game which seem like they’ll really pay off, such as letting the kids choose whatever books they’d like to read instead of choosing the type of book from a jar. The reading logs were turned into game boards which have all the spots numbered which #1: keep the kids enthusiastic and #2: makes counting the number of books read for me a LOT easier.
It’s too early to tell how the thermometer is going to work out; as of Tues. morning, my kids were up to 1,066 books, but now we’ve had 2 programs and a rush of readers come and visit the library, so I’ll update my counts tomorrow. Our goal this year is to read 10,000 books (we read well over 9,000 last year), so I put up a thermometer to track our progress. I told the kids that if we reached our goal of 10,000 books, we’d make our end-of-summer party a pizza party.
I want to get the kids some really cool prizes though, for our top readers, but I don’t know what to get them. I’ll have to do some shopping around.
One thing that’s been kind of a ‘miss’ for me is staying on top of supplies for the craft programs – I wind up doing a lot of last minute shopping. Something I’ve really improved on is keeping our in-library event posters up to date.
On the professional development note, I have not been doing Web 2.0-ing because of the laptop situation, but I’ve still been brainstorming, thinking, and writing notes. There’s a sorta-volunteer/consultant opportunity that I’m working on right now that is library related, and there is another job opportunity I am seriously considering, but I don’t know as of this moment what my decision is going to be and what the results would be either way. It’s a little hard to think when your home’s in upheaval.
And even with all this moving, I am determined to get back to reading, so I have 5 or 6 books at home. I am proud to say I have FINALLY started Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight.
That is all.
Happy Reading, Happy Wednesday!
Since earlier this week, I have been taking time each day to learn something new with technology, the web, or within this fabulous field of librarianship. I already knew of a few professional librarian blogs, but I am looking for others who I either relate to or am personally inspired by. I’ve introduced myself to a number of web tools, too. One is the Google Reader and I am utilizing it to subscribe to said blogs. I’ve been dedicating a little time each day to read any new entries. As a result, I’ve come across a number of great suggestions, perspectives, links, and new things to try.
I have also gone out on a limb and am now using del.icio.us after hearing about and seeing it all over the place. It is a rather useful thing and quite easy to pick up. I have the browser tags installed on both my personal laptop and my desktop at work.
In a lot of blog entries, I’ve been hearing a lot about social networking on the web and utilizing those outlets to the libraries advantage both as outreach and a resource. I’m already on Facebook, but Twitter is one that seems to be the latest buzz, so I went to check it out and now have an account. It’s really simple and straightforward… So much so, that I’m not sure if that’s it or if I’m not really understanding or making full use of it’s potential. I’ll just have to keep checking back and give it some time.
Other than that, things have been really busy at work. I’ve been prepping endlessly for the upcoming Summer Reading Program, and today was our last day going to the schools and presenting our promotional puppet show. And let me tell you, 8 puppet shows in a day complete with enthusiastic and energetic promotional spiels after each one takes a LOT out of a gal! For the most part, 4th and 5th graders were our toughest crowds, but all in all the whole thing went well. But good heavens… I needed a nap as soon as I got home!
That’s about it for now… My three-day break from the library is here, and I’m off to relax!
