This and That

Things I've forgotten to mention in earlier posts:

• Related to my goal of learning how to plan and implement a summer reading program - I mentioned in an earlier blog what the WLPL does for their children's program but neglected to say that Linda and I talked about how that might look for a middle school library.  The main issue for me is funding - both salary and prizes.  I know I could write a grant but I don't want that to be the determining factor for the program's existence.  Students could sign up before the end of the school year but then how do you sustain their interest?  Working on the assumption of a limited budget, we decided that having the library open in the afternoon for 3 days (T, W, TH) midway through the summer to give out prizes, have discussion/activities, check out books would work.  One of my goals for the upcoming year is a revamped library website and a presence on FaceBook.  I would then need to heavily promote the site and FB page throughout the year because those would be my only ways of advertising  the mid-summer library dates once the school year had ended.  The rest of the prizes could be picked up after the school year has begun during before school or lunch.  One of my concerns with a school summer reading program is that I don't want to compete with the C'ville public library's program.  However, I think I might draw different students due to our location and familiarity.  As for as money for prizes, WLPL has several sponsors that donate annually including their Friends of the Library association.  This may be a challenge for me since we don't have a PTA and since I don't live in the community I work in, I don't have as many connections, but I'm sure I can get ideas from the staff.
• Data collection on the summer reading program -  I talked in an earlier blog about how the youth department keeps track of participants' prize levels, but the library also tracks the adult club numbers.  I've actually tallied info a couple of times.  At the adult level, only the number of participants (fill out a form: YA, adult, senior) and number of books read are tallied.  Readers at the adult level fill out a slip noting the book title and then rate it.  These are used for the prize drawings.  This just reminds me that I need to keep data on all of my programs.
• One day as I was working in the tech room on a cataloging project, the book repair volunteer came in to work and I was able to observe her.  She uses only Norbond Liquid Plastic Adhesive to do repairs, which she applies with an artist's brush; she never uses tape (which I often use).  I was amazed at how well the adhesive worked - even for single pages. Took lots of notes and plan to try out her process.
• Stayed late one Wednesday to observe/participate in the Teen Writing Club lead by Elizabeth.  The part of the program is a contest based on Chris Van Allberg's The Mysteries of Harris Burdick, which I had never heard of before.  Participants chose an illustration from the book to base their narrative of choice.  That night we also completed a writing piece based on a story prompt - slips of paper that we drew out of a container.  (Mine was "It was over as quickly as it had begun.") Even though there were only two teen participants, they were very enthusiastic.  Afterward, Elizabeth and I discussed manga, and she later emailed me a list of sites to share with my students.  Since I would like to implement a Teen Writing Club eventually, this was a valuable experience and I now have a great contact.  Finally, while I was on vacation, Elizabeth hosted a program on animated comic creation. Since she works nights and I work days, I haven't seen her to ask how it went, but she did share resources with me about it. :-)
• Since WLPL no longer has a teen librarian, I made a suggestion list of YA titles to add
• Not impressed with the Evergreen catalog system from either a patron or a library employee standpoint .  Froma a patron standpoint: Call numbers are not obvious and you can't narrow your search by collection location: YA, juvenile, adult.  You also can't search by genre.  From a employee standpoint:  When deleting titles, you can't see whether other libraries have a copy w/o scrolling to the right.  Adds time b/c you need to know this to determine whether the record also needs to be deleted.  Scott tried to print a bucket list of Feed read-alikes.  We know there is a way to do this b/c Bekka printed an earlier version, but between Scott, Nick (the director) and myself, we couldn't find a way to print the newest version.