Day Three

Today wasn't quite as eventful as I anticipated.  However, I still learned some valuable things.  When I got to the Main Branch, I met Miss Carol, one of the Children's Librarians who gave me a brief tour of the Children's Library and showed me which books were located where.  Then we had to get ready for pre-school storytime.  At first, only one little girl, named Lillian, and her mother were there for storytime, but Miss Carol said that that was alright, and that she'd do storytime just for Lillian if she had to.

Slowly a few more children and their parents trickled in, as well as the volunteer who plays guitar and sings songs during storytime, Mr. Ming.  The theme of the storytime was "cats" and so Mr. Ming and Miss Carol sang some songs about cats with the children before Miss Carol read a couple of books with cats in them.  After storytime, we all did the Hokey Pokey, and then it was time for crafts.  The children, with the help of their parents, made cats out of construction paper.  They all seem to really enjoy this, and this reminded me that in order to be a good youth services librarian, not only do I have to have a lot of energy, but I have to be creative, as well, in order for the children to get the most out of the programs I put on.  Creative doesn't necessarily mean that I have to make the world's best crafts with my children, but if I'm singing a song with my children and forget the words (which Miss Carol did) I have to be ready to think on the spot and wing it.  In fact, as Miss Carol put it, a lot of what goes into being a children's librarian is just winging it.

After pre-school storytime, a lot of the same children stayed for toddler time.  During toddler time they learned how to take turns by sitting in a circle with the other children and parents and rolling a ball to a person of their choice who was in the circle.  The next person rolled the ball to someone else, and so forth.  After this, some of the children stayed around and played on the computers or with the toys that the library had, and Miss Carol and I went to sit at the reference desk.  This is where it got a bit less exciting, and it was pretty quiet for the rest of the time I was there.  Still, Miss Carol, and the other librarian, Janet, were able to show me some of the forms they have to fill out when they're putting on programs, and some of the procedures they have to go through.  They also showed me how to search through the catalog, and some reference resources I may wish to consult in the future.  I was also able to observe while they took reference calls on the phone, and was actually able to answer a question for a patron.

Unfortunately, for today, I was not able to visit and observe in the HYPE Teen center, as it was not open while I was there (it opens after school gets out).  I hope that I get to observe there soon, however, because I would like to get some experience working with teens, as well.