Even though it makes life feel hectic – it is a blessing that the library is crazy-busy during the summertime.
Because it does remind me how essential the library is.
We’re not going away any time soon.
And families love us!
I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned this one before. But I do love it when I get to host families playing games with their kids. Today I brought my cousin’s game, Sovereign Chess, and a teenage boy and his dad showed up and really enjoyed playing it. I really enjoyed watching them. (The dad started out aggressive and came very close to winning – but then in the longer game, the son controlled many more colors and won the game.)
It just makes me so happy to provide this for our community and get to watch it happen.
I’m on my way to ALA Annual conference in New Orleans tomorrow! And one of the lovely parts of being on the Newbery committee is that my library is paying for my trip! Usually, I have to apply for a scholarship, and it doesn’t always pay for all expenses. So this is lovely, to get to go without worrying about scrimping at every turn. (Not that I’m going to be extravagant. But it’s one less worry.)
Yesterday, the Mason Experimental Geometry Lab from George Mason University did a math program at the library dealing with infinity.
It was so delightful to watch and hear the kids grasping the ideas!
Today I finished booktalking and had lunch with one of my staff members. Later today I wrote up an evaluation of both my staff members.
And that reminded me what AWESOME staff I’m blessed with. Both of them are stellar, self-motivated, always learning and looking for ideas for even better programs and ways to serve kids.
And they are both really nice people to work with, too!
Booktalking has gone well this year!
It helped that we did the hardest one first – one hour per grade. (Most are 20-30 minutes per grade.) All the rest seemed like a piece of cake after that!
But it has also helped that I have read so very many good books, since I’m reading for the Newbery Award.
And maybe it helped that I have enough experience, I don’t worry as much about it.
And I really enjoy the two co-workers I do it with.
So it was an enjoyable time of booktalking this year – one day left tomorrow!
I’ve recently contacted some elementary school librarians – and I’m getting to go into the schools and talk with kids about the Newbery process and how the Medal winner is chosen and all the reading I have to do this year.
It’s so much fun!
Talking about the award in the community is part of my charge as a member of the Newbery committee – I hadn’t realized just how much fun it is to do!
Have I mentioned lately how happy I am to be on the 2019 Newbery committee?!
I was telling a new co-worker my story last week, including my difficult divorce – but I was able to lead into “And now I’m on the Newbery committee!” That would have never happened if I hadn’t gotten divorced – I was happy to work part-time without an MLS as long as I could afford to do that.
So now my story has such an exciting outcome, it’s just really hard to be angry about it.
And our Youth Services Selector says she has some 2018 Advance Reader Copies to send my way… so I can get started reading! Woo-hoo! I’m so excited about this…
We did a program with teens flying drones tonight in the library after closing – and it worked! And the teens seemed to have a good time! Yay!
Our library recently got a small puppet theater for the children’s area, which we put out with puppets.
We’ve also recently begun staffing an information desk in the children’s area, near the puppet theater.
Watching the children play with it is delightful! It’s completely a natural language and imagination station. Kids automatically pick up the puppets and put on a show. They use special voices. They make up stories. They work with other children on a story. They get their parents’ attention.
One of my favorites were two boys who astonished me when I realized they had, entirely on their own initiative, sorted all the puppets, putting animals who lived in the water in the middle, animals that fly or live in trees on top, and other animals on the bottom!
But all the ways the children interact are unique and such a delight to get to watch!