All Good Things. . .

Well, even though this project didn't completely fall into place until that last few days before it was due, I'd have to say that it was something I thoroughly enjoyed. I've always believed that to truly connect to youth today you have to be fully aware of what's going on around them. You have to know what their interests are, what kinds of music they like, what they watch on TV , etc. Basically, you have to gather any and all tidbits of information that you can. You have to become a packrat! Which, I'm not ashamed to admit, I always have been. :-)

However, unlike a packrat, you have to keep your bits of knowledge current and you have to know what to keep and what to discard as the years pass. Some things learned will remain the same for youth no matter how much time goes by and others will come and go in trends. For example, right now I'm seen as "cool" because I know a lot about Japanese animation. When I was in school, that same knowledge categorized me with the freaks and the geeks (not that I minded.) Personally, it's my hope that I will be able to always be seen as a "cool, sometimes absent-minded" librarian to the younger generation. Someone who can talk to young people without seeming like I just stepped out of the dark ages. I want them to be able to come to me with questions and trust the answers that I give.

This project was a great way for me to realize that while there will always be a gap due to my physical age, if I work hard and listen to what the youth have to say then I'll never have too much trouble connecting with them and helping to make their experiences with the library as fun and as interesting as possible.

Latest and Last

Well, this will be my last official entry. I've received most of the surveys back, though some of them printed out funny. *mutters* Stupid two-way copy machine! Anyway, I have a paper due in my other class next week, so I'll need to devote the rest of my time to doing that. I really just want to talk a bit about how much fun I've had, despite having to get up so early. Not enough fun to make me switch from public libraries, but still fun.

What's also cool is that I seem to have unintentionally started a new "craze", so-to-speak. My mom was running out of bookmarks to give the kids after checking out and she didn't have any money in the budget to buy more. So, I made the suggestion that we should buy some $1 Store stickers and stick a couple each on thin pieces of colored paper. WOW! The kids went crazy over them! Even I was surprised by their popularity. :-) Plus, they're fun to make! I find making them to be very stress-relieving. LOL! The hardest part was trying to find a fairly even amount of "boy" and "girl" stickers. I really hate to stereotype, but it was the boys themselves who told me I needed more. *chuckles*

Overall, this has been a really good experience for me, even if I don't wind up using a lot of this information in my actual project. Interacting with the kids and getting to know them was a lot of fun and makes me yearn even more for a position in youth services as opposed to circulation. But I suppose beggars can't be choosers and besides, I'm just happy to be working in a library at all right now.

Confusion Deja Vu

Well, the more readings I'm given about what I'm supposed to be doing for this project the more confused I seem to get. I thought I knew exactly how I was going to go about presenting my data, but now I feel like I'm back at square one. In the project description we were given all these wonderfully creative ideas for presenting our research but the more I read and view the examples given, the less any of those options seem possible w/o a whole lot of extra work which isn't something I'm sure I have time for right now. Anyway, at the moment I'm not sure my observations at West Hurst are doing me any good what-so-ever, but I'm going to keep at it on the slight chance that I'll actually be able to use this information somehow. So, on with my day - Why is it I never seem to sleep well on nights when I need to be up early the next day? I went to bed intent on getting a good 5 1/2 hours of sleep and then tossed and turned ALL night. I think I may be stressing over this project WAY too much! My alarm went off at 6:50. . . I slept until 7:05. Fortunately, there was still time for breakfast. At school the kids were remarkably subdued considering they'd just come back from Spring Break. Mother's Monday schedule is heavy in the morning and light in the afternoon and she was teaching them how to access the (rather boring) HEB website. Then, from there, showing them how to find various information relating to the school such as lunch menus, etc. They also learned how to access the websites of individual teachers. It really is amazing considering that when I was in 4th grade we owned a Tandy 1000 and all I knew how to do was some VERY basic word processing and play games.

I think the highlight of my day was when one of the 6th graders found out I read Harry Potter. Her response was, "But, you're, like, an adult!" LOL! I told her my dad was in his 60's and read them, too, but I'm not sure she believed me. :-)

I also got my survey finished today. YAY! There was a slight moment of panic when I thought one of them wouldn't open to print , but I'm just not used to the crawling pace of a networked computer. So, I got the original printed only to discover the school's copier was busted. How ill-timed is that? My mom said she'd try it again tomorrow, but I feel like I'm running out of time.

I've been thinking I might give the survey online as well so that I can reach a different age group. I've asked permission, but haven't gone to check to see if there's a response yet. I may also need to compose a message about all the confusion I'm feeling, but I should probably wait until after I've read through the sample projects. In fact, I think I'll go do that right now. Until Wednesday!

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. :-)