I'm trying not to brag

Today marks the beginning of my 3rd week back in Library Land. I started at an odd time of year, as things are coming to an end for before the holiday season, but my duties are becoming more clear and things are rolling like a snowball  down a hill.

First let me say that I am really impressed with OHCity Library. I am not just saying this because I work there and I want it to sound glamorous. No, what we do is pretty amazing.On top of the Children's Department norm which consists of staffing the Children's Dept. Reference/Info desk and doing library storytimes and programs on a variety of themes, we:
  • Do tons of school visits to all of the elementary schools in the area, and also visit some of the bigger apartment complexes in OHCity.
  • Our webpage (which is open to anyone, not just OHCity resident), not only has a page of links to homework help sites, but also has a monthly themed information page on varying subjects. We've gotten up to 2,000 hits on that page in a month. Apparently there is a teacher in MD who is using it in one of her classrooms.
  • Have material pre-selected kits based on different themes (i.e. telling time, counting, sports, etc.) that are put together and available at all times for anyone to check out.
  • Have a huge selection of toys and games that aid in the teaching of a variety of concepts/skills; teachers or parents may select from this vast collection and pick up their load of goodies later that week.
  • Aside from having internet computers, we also have a room with homework friendly computer, which also offer games for the pre-school crowd. 
  • We have allotted space where anyone 5 or younger can go with their parent/guardian and work on concepts that will help them excel in Kindergarten. 
  • Our collection is HUGE and IMMACULATE...We have TONS of books, DVDs, CDs, books on CD, Playaways, and in January we are introducing the Playaway View.
  • Our storytime room is so gorgeous. When our building was revamped some time back, our on-staff graphic artist meticulously painted this gorgeous mural in the room. Also, our storytime room has a closet stocked with ANYTHING you could ever want to do a storytime: a monkey mitt with finger puppets in everything; board books, picture books and oversized books not listed in our collection which are simply there for the Librarians to use; ditto with the slew of CDs; laminated posters with the words to songs we sing/rhymes we say; puppets, puppets, and more puppets; dozens and dozens of character dolls (i.e. Madeline, the Very Hungry Caterpillar) which we use for displays. And all of this has been meticulously type-A-person categorized and labeled and organized and alphabetized. And guess who has inherited that job?! MEEEEEE! I am really looking forward to getting to know that room better.
Anyway, my hand is tired. I am glad that now you know my library about as well as I do...hey, it's only my 3rd week. 

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