Misadventures of the Monster Librarian

I love Halloween. It is absolutely my favorite holiday; no pressure to bring a date to the family meal, no feeling alone and unkissable at midnight. Just dressing up and being whatever you want to be, showing off your costume cleverness, or inner slutty nurse, or your mad zombie make-up skills! Since it's Halloween and I haven't already posted something, thought I'd share a few fun Halloween-worthy books...you still have time for these! For the young crowd: Frankensquare , Kelly Asbury Super cute board book!   And Happy Halloween, Curious George For the Pre-school/Kindergareten crowd: Go Away, Big Green Monster! Ed Emberly A fun story about not being afraid. The kids love that the monster grows and disappears before their eyes--we had a really great flannel board for this at my old library, need to get one for Sticks! For the Younger Elementary crowd:   Berenstain Bears Trick or Treat , Stan & Jan Berenstain This came out ...

So, what are you reading this summer that you can't put down?

It's the end of our 1st week of Summer Reading!! WOO HOO! 1 down, 5 to go! We've had a great turnout for this week's programs and have gotten great responses from people so far; lots of excited patrons, and fierce competitors!...maybe I should mention what we do for our Summer Reading: Our Summer Readers have 6 weeks to: Birth-5 yrs. (non-kindergarten bound): This group has to do 25 activities which encourage literacy and stimulate learning Prizes: 12 activities complete = beach bucket and 2 bottles of bubbles 25 activities complete/SR finished = Sticks Library tote bag with book inside Kindergarten-6th Graders: These kiddos have to read 10 hours Prizes: At 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 hours completed they get to pick something from the treasure chest and also receive a ticket to put into a prize box; at the end of Summer Reading we draw a winner(s) for each prize, however, only those who've completed SR qualify! The K-6th grade prizes are: NERF Big Bad Bow  Cake P...

As of last night, our Summer Reading counts: 44     Babies 113   K-6 43     Teen 116   Adult This is Prairie Dawn's 1st Summer Reading Program ever, so I wondered how things would work, but I never should have given it a thought--she brings great energy, a willingness to be silly, and an infectious warmth and happiness to the programs. The kids love her. The parents love her. And even the teens love her--this is a rare gift indeed! I always tell people that our library is, "small but MIGHTY!" and I really believe that. I am a HUGE proponent of FREE programs, because getting people in can result in 1. new library cards/patrons 2. increased circulation and 3. most importantly, I think, is showing people that this is not their parents/grandparents library. Often when you get someone who hasn't been in a library in years you'll here, "I didn't know you had ______." "I didn't know I could ________!" And that is when you giv...

I am so tired, and yet, here I sit watching the storm that has finally swept into Sticks, instantly cooling the air and stirring up that smell --not the wormy, post-rain stink--the sigh smell . The sigh smell is what peppers the air all at once during a good downpour; everything suddenly letting out a sigh of relief: the grass, the shrubs, the trees, the dirt muddying in puddles too, even the people sleeping do it without knowing it. Here in Sticks it smells muddy and green and cool (yes, cool has a smell too!) and clean. Summer Reading is in its' first week and we're already beat. But I am loving it and finding myself constantly thinking, "I get paid to do this!" I am beat and it's late, so more details and pics soon, but I did want to share our stats for our Summer Reading 2013 program so far! At the end of Saturday's Kick-Off (only 4 hours long!) we'd already signed up: 32     Babies-Age 5 (non-kindgarten) 75     K-6th Grade 20   ...

Today was great! Our Kick-Off went really well! In just 4 hours we had over 250 people stop by our event and nearly 200 people (birth-adults) signed up for Summer Reading! We didn't know what to expect since this was our first time doing this, and also the first year we've included EVERYONE in Summer Reading, not just school-agers, so lots of excited grownups and an overwhelming response from adults signing up...we thought we'd get 50 adults TOPS signed up for Summer Reading, but in just those 4 hours: 68 adults!! Who knew!?! Got great feedback about the day; lots of great photo opps of smiling faces; someone from the local paper stopped by; many LIKES on our Facebook page. We really couldn't have done it without our FRIENDS group who manned the Used Book Sale and donated bottles of water for the event; the local police, ambulance, fire dept. and one of our own staff families for bringing their respective car/trucks/tractor; the volunteer kids provided through a loc...

Our Summer Kick-Off is TOMORROW! Here at the library we're having: 4-H Animals Face Painting Touch a truck (local police, fire truck, ambulance, and tractor for kids to touch/climb in) and a 1,000+ book Used Book Sale Everyone went home at 5, except Prairie Dawn and I, we're laying things out so everything's ready tomorrow and stress-free for the part-timers. We're so fortunate for all the extra help: the FRIENDS of the Library, the local student volunteers, people who will no doubt pop-in the day of and pitch in a hand...living in a small town does have its perks. Though our Kick-Off's tomorrow, Summer Reading doesn't technically begin until Monday, so, we're crossing our fingers and hoping we made enough sign-up bonuses, hoping we've planned out enough supplies for programs, hoping and fearing that tons of people will show up and get into Summer Reading '13. Wish us luck...more soon! Now back to setting up...