WANTED - A Few Good Ideas

Well, once again I got little to no sleep last night. The only difference this time is that it wasn't my fault. I tried to sleep, dropped off real fast in fact, but about 30 min. later I was wide awake. I tossed and turned for about an hour before giving up and deciding to do some work instead. Around 5:00 am I tried sleeping again and tossed around some more before finally dozing off around 6:15, only to be awakened by the alarm at 7:00. Anyway, I wasn't really feeling it the way I had before, so it wasn't too difficult to get started. It was a mad house at the library today, with back-to-back classes from 8:00 to 11:00. All of the kids are in a Dr. Seuss frenzy right now because of his b-day and National Book Week. It's interesting how all it takes is a little extra hype to get kids interested in particular books.

(Using this knowledge, I think it would be great for public libraries to work with schools and institute a book talk program. You could have several different themes throughout the year or do award books like Lone Stars for Junior High and Tayshas for High School. Elementaries could do Bluebonnets or maybe 10 of the more recent Newbery Books. Another great way to get kids talking about books might be to put together a juvenile book club of some sort, one which could only be attended by kids of certain ages, plus one or two faculty for monitoring purposes.)

So, after the morning rush, the rest of the day was spent typing up survey questions which I plan to hand out first things after Spring Break. It will focus on school library usage and what the kids are using their library for, as well as what kinds of things would get them interested in using the library more than they already do.

Well, that's it for this time. Next week my mom's on Spring Break, so I won't really be journaling anything, but look for a new posting some time late on Mon, March 14th.

Another Day Off

Okay, well, I've pretty much decided that for me to survive this project I'm going to have to not go in on the days that I have to work. I work late in the day and therefore keep a rather strange schedule. This project is affecting that schedule negatively and my body is rebelling with massive migraine headaches. So, from now on Tuesdays and Thursdays will most likely be "Off" days, unless I fell like I'm not gathering enough data, then I'll attempt to go every day.

Anyway, today wasn't totaly wasted. I thought a lot about the questions I want to put on my survey and also about what kinds of information I wanted to present in my final project, as well as how I want to present it. I think it would be really fun to something totally off-the-wall, like an interactive website for teens, or a magazine with things that are important to kids today. What might also be cool would be to generate a list of program ideas based off of what youth today are interested in. Or maybe a brochure that would be put out by the library with info specifically geared towards youth as opposed to just their parents.

Oh wait! I've got it! With my information I could put together a whole YA program. In other words, if I were a YA librarian coming into a library with little to no prior YA services, this project would be the full program I would implement upon starting my job. So the completed project for this class would contain specific YA program ideas, book collection recommendations, services that would be offered specifically for YAs, etc. (i.e. more as I gather more data.)

Although, as I think more about it, this may be above and beyond what I need to do to make this a successful project. Hmmm. . . it's so hard to gather data when I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to do with it. Also, I'd be limited to studying 5th and 6th grade only, both of which don't have specific library times. *sigh* And YA extends up into 12th grade (i.e. Middle School and High School) which I don't have any access to for study. GRRR! I wonder if I could get away with it despite that? Well, I guess I really need to do some more thinking. Not to mention getting started on writing that survey. Hopefully, I'll have time to do that while I'm at West Hurst tomorrow.

A Series of Uneventful Events

Well, I tried writing in present tense for my first entry and only wound up confusing myself, so from now on I think I'll be doing it all in past tense. Today I actually managed to get up when the alarm went off at 7:00, so there was time to check my email and grab a bite to eat, which was a nice change from the day before. I was informed minutes before leaving that it was hat day, so I pulled my brother's plush Viking hat out of the closet, even though it clashed terribly with my T-shirt. LOL! As if it really mattered. :-)

Anyway, as you can tell from the title, not much stood out at me today. We stayed busy, but there wasn't anything that jumped out and made me think, "Oh, I need to remember to write that in my journal!" Though I wish I'd remembered to bring my digital camera, so I could take pictures of the kids in their hats. Oh well, maybe next time.

I also decided today that I'd like to create a survey for the kids to fill out with a bunch of random questions on it. Some would be focused on library-type things, but others would be totally off the wall and some would be fun 'thinking' questions like, "What 3 things would you most want with you if you were stranded on a deserted island?" Surveying the kids seems like a great way to get a general feel for the overall culture and should also be a good starting point for deciding what direction I want the actual project to take. Plus, I can try to pick up trends in the answers based on what I already know about the kids. Well, it's a start, anyway. :-)

A Break so Soon?

Well, today, my mom had testing in the library all morning, so I took a small break and didn't do any oberserving today. And since I had to go to work this afternoon there didn't seem to be much point in only going in for an hour or two. However, tomorrow I'll be up bright and early and every day after that (except for Spring Break) so expect nice long posts from here on out. :-)

Anime, Dragons, & Mystery Fiction

And so it begins - Day 1 of my project and me with really no clue where I want to take things. Deciding to wake up at 7:00 after only 2 hours of sleep was a mistake - deciding to sleep in when I had to leave by 7:30 was just plain stupid. Nevertheless, I finally arrive at West Hurst Elementary and quickly sign in as a volunteer, not quite ready and raring to go. After stopping in the cafeteria to buy a chocolate milk, I make myself at home in the library and begin munching away on a donut leftover from yesterday.

Within mere moments I find myself being bombarded. A young girl in probably the 5th or 6th grade comes racing in babbling something about a sugar rush. She starts to prepare for the morning video announcements, but doesn't get very far on her own. Instead she begins to talk, quickly, loudly and directly at me. My first thought is, "It's got to be illegal for someone to be this hyper this early in the morning." Did I mention I'm NOT a morning person?

Finally, I catch a question in the babble? "Do you like anime?" Instantly, my eyes move down to my shirt, assuming that in the darkness that morning I had managed to pull on one of my few anime shirts. Instead, I see the logo for my old college. Immediately, I wonder how she knew I was an anime fan, but just as quickly assume that I've talked to her before on one of my previous (purely volunteer) visits. I answer her question with a "yup" and a smile to be polite. She immediately comes closer and begins talking about her favorite characters from her most favorite show, which actually turns out to be one of the few animes on Cartoon Network that I haven't seen.

Soon, other students begin to arrive and prepare for the announcements, but the girl continues to talk, ignoring most of their efforts. More than once she has to be told to calm down and I find myself wondering if she possibly skipped her medication this morning. Several times my mom has to ask her to calm down. Once the announcements are over several of the students remain to checkout books. A few others wander in and I'm informed that these are mostly 5th and 6th graders who don't have normal library times and can come whenever their teacher says it's okay. I help several of them with finding books in their lexile range only to learn shortly after than lexile isn't important if they're over a certain level. Ah well, it actually made things easier.

I spend a lot of the day, while my mom is doing Dr. Seuss story times, checking books in and out. I also get to help recommend some books, which is always fun. I did a small book talk on the Bunnicula series with one girl. Another specifically wants The Westing Game because her teacher has a copy. I always find it really interesting when kids insist on checking out the exact same items they already have available to them in the classroom. More time is spent chatting with one 4th grader about different kinds of spiders in Texas, and he seems to enjoy hearing about the ones I had caught and kept as semi-pets as a child. Another girl is particularly interested in books about dragons for an informative project. I know of some, but we don't carry any of them in the library, so I pull up some public library sites were she can go to check them out. I also promise to bring one of my favorite dragon books from home, Dragonology, which I think might help. Of course, the one condition being that it would be staying in my sights at all times. Hopefully she'll be able to find something useful in it.

My last "job" of the day is helping two 3rd graders find books about the layers of the Earth. My first immediate thought is Magic School Bus because even if it's too young, I know it will still have the information they need. Boy, am I surprised when they don't even want to look and see if it has anything. In fact, they seem very against the idea. I've never seen a younger child turn up their nose at Magic School Bus books. So, I simply take them over to the same area and we look at what else is available. They begin erratically pulling other books off the shelves, so to save the already jumbled titles, I quickly get down on my knees and do my best to walk them through the process of how to see if a book has the information wanted. Eventually, they each find two books and happily go up to check them out with my mom. By then, it's 4:30 and we need to head out for some grocery shopping. So, I lock the door, she gets the lights, and my first day of observation has officially come to an end.