Summer Wrap-Up & Reflection

 

I began working at this library last year after summer reading had started and most of my first two months was spent doing a plethora of trainings required by the city and the library, so this was my first full experience with summer reading here (though the 13th summer reading of my library career!). 

I am now working in a larger library system where the summer reading program is designed centrally and branch librarians don't really have any significant influence. It is a typical incentivized reading program, with logging books read to earn a small prize and an entry into drawings for grand prizes. While I'm not a fan of this style of incentivized reading program, I've already written extensively about that in previous articles, so I am just going to focus on my programs and general observations specific to my experience at my branch. 

This system does not follow either CSLP or iREAD themes, and instead chose a "Wild About Reading" theme, with each location selecting a different habitat/biome and mascot. My location chose the "Deep, Dark Sea" for our theme and the Giant Squid as our mascot. We did not have a lot of time or money to spend on decor, but I hung some jellyfish from the ceiling, put some fish cutouts on endcaps, and created a mural in the children's area and put out a bunch of cutout fish for kids to write their names on and add to the mural. I also set up a deep sea diorama in a small aquarium with sand, plastic sea creatures, and a few others molded out of modeling clay. In addition, there was a deep-sea creature scavenger hunt that ran all summer that included a couple of facts about each creature and links to our catalog and an aquarium website for more information about deep sea life.

To give some context, the library where I currently work is a small neighborhood branch with lower circulation, program attendance, and foot-traffic in comparison to most of the other locations. We are in a lower-income area that has an aging population and a large immigrant/refugee population. There are not as many families with young children, and most people that come to the library are looking for internet access, printing, copying, faxing, and other technology assistance rather than books or programs. We are not well-funded and the programs at our branch do not get much support from the PR department. As a result, summer reading here is very different from any place else I've worked; rather than being super hectic and busy it is generally somewhat slow and quiet.

I am happy to say that this summer showed a significant increase in circulation, foot-traffic, and especially in program attendance and outreach over last summer! Partly because there are more of us available to do more programming and outreach now, but I also think that having more consistency in scheduling and targeted age ranges and offering programs with a broader appeal and more appropriate for each age range made a difference. We also received a large grant the previous fall which allowed the purchase of many desperately needed materials and supplies for programming, including both reusable and consumable materials, manipulatives, and furnishings. While I don't like to focus too much on stats, it is gratifying to see such a big increase in the year I've been there and to know I played a part in that. 

I am responsible for programming and outreach for ages birth through twelve; each week I had family storytime and a program for elementary ages, alternating outside performers with programs I presented. In addition to the weekly programs I continued the monthly "Imagination Station" and "Little Explorers" programs for preschoolers, monthly Pokémon Club for elementary/middle school ages, and offered bi-weekly "family fun" programs on Saturdays. I also had regular outreach storytimes each week, and several one-off outreach visits to kindergarten and literacy camps at nearby elementary schools. In total I designed and presented 26 in-house programs, hosted 4 programs presented by others, conducted 26 outreach programs at 8 different schools/daycares, plus dropped off reading logs and delivered prizes over the course of 9 weeks.

Here's a quick run-down of the various programs and how they went:

• Family Storytime - Not well-attended. Themes included giant squid, wild about reading, red panda, ocean/fish, sharks, ice cream, butterflies, and space. Though I did at least have 1-2 families each week, it was a different 1-2 families each time, and generally not people from our neighborhood, so no continuity or ability to build relationships. It seems people would drop in only if they weren't going to be able to make their usual storytime at another location that week or were visiting grandparents and looking for something to do. No matter what I try, I cannot build a successful storytime program here.🙁 I would drop it altogether since I have other early childhood programs that are well-attended and so much outreach is needed if the powers-that-be would let me.
  
  
• Preschool Programs - very well-attended, particularly the Imagination Station programs
• Imagination Station-Under the Sea
• Little Explorers-Music
• Imagination Station-Science Lab
• Early Explorers-Art - Talked about kinds of art, expression, etc., read Arlo Draws an Octopus by Lori Mortensen & Rob Sayegh, Jr., and Anywhere Artist by Nikki Slade-Robinson, then provided a wide selection of art supplies for open-ended creation (heavy art paper, colored paper, craft glue, glue sticks, scissors, decorative-edge scissors, dyed macaroni, pipe cleaners, modeling clay, crayons, markers, dot painters, brush markers). Kids really had fun with it and I saw lots of variety and creativity!
  
  
• Elementary Programs - overall well-attended (though targeted for ages 6-12, older and younger kids were accomodated when possible, or offered alternative activity for safety).
• Deep Sea Creature Crafts - very well-attended, choice of creating a giant squid from painted bottles and bubble-wrap strips (must use acrylic paint) or a pop-up anglerfish paper craft (or both if they had time).
  
  
  
  
  
• Fuse-Bead Art - well-attended, provided a variety of patterns and assorted colors of fuse beads with pegboards and forceps, I did all the ironing.
• Fingerprint Art - well-attended, showed a few examples, provided a copy of one of Ed Emberley's books on each table, along with a washable-ink pad palette, paper, colored pencils and skinny markers for adding details, and a pack of wet-wipes for cleaning hands. I also asked all participants to wash hands at the beginning so stamp pads would last longer (i.e. not get nasty with mold, bacteria, and yeast).
  
  
  
  
  
• Ocean & Beach Slime - very well attended! Went over chemistry of slime and recipes for both versions with slide presentation, then passed out pre-measured glue, borax solution, and additives (sand and tiny shells for beach slime; blue food coloring, assorted blue, green, & iridescent glitters, and fish beads for ocean slime).
  
  
  
  
  
• Shark Week - Shark trivia, jokes, and pony-bead shark keychain craft. The keychain proved to be a little more difficult that anticipated, requiring me to create my own pattern and very detailed step-by-step instructions, as well as offer a fuse-bead shark craft as an alternative. Several kids did opt for the more simple fuse-bead version, but a few kids and a couple of adults did do the pony-bead version, one kid did both, and a couple of others made more than one fuse-bead shark.
  
  
  
  
  
• Pokémon Club - had much higher attendance in May, June, and July than during the previous school year.
• Bike-Safety Rodeo - this was a free program provided by a community partner. Attendance was ok, but not as high as for in-house programming, and I have to admit I was rather underwhelmed by it.
• EMS Explore-an-Ambulance - another free program provided by a community partner. Though it was offered in the usual elementary program time slot, it had more appeal for younger kids, and also was a little underwhelming. In hindsight, I should have paired it with a related storytime for younger kids instead and tried to get fire and police as well.
• Dance Your Favorite Stories - This was a paid program from local dance theatre that turned out to be a bit more of a movement storytime better for younger kids, and just in general probably not the best fit for our community. It was not well-attended, and though a handful of kids from a community group that just happened to be at the library tried it, they got bored and left halfway through.
• Magic/Comedy Show - Another paid program from a local performer, this was really more of a comedy show with a few slight-of-hand tricks than a serious magic show, but the audience of mostly 4-8 year-olds loved it. The attendance was pretty good, though still ended up being a bit pricey per-person. But I would consider booking again.
  
  
• Family Fun Programs - lower attendance than weekday programs, but enough to be worth doing to have something for families who could not attend weekday programs.
• Shrink Art - provided assorted pictures tied to our summer reading themes for tracing, colored pencils, and colored sharpies; also reminded they could draw whatever they wanted. 
  
  
  
  
  
• DIY Puzzles - offered blank puzzles in 9-pc or 24-pc sizes to draw and color their own. Also had a large 36-piece blank community puzzle for each person to do one piece, but not high enough attendance to get very many pieces done. I put it out on the floor for others to do, but people just didn't have interest or just didn't get the concept. I ended up having to get staff to do a lot of them, two pieces went missing, and one mom let her kids scribble on all of the remaining pieces instead of just doing one. I love the idea of collaborative art, and was really disappointed that this activity didn't really work out like I'd envisioned.
• Construction Zone - put out Legos, Duplos, Mega Bloks, foam blocks, star builders, and stretch-and-connect builders.
• Summer Finale - very low attendance, won't bother next year. Had ice cream cones, popsicles, chips, water, and lemonade for refreshments; sidewalk chalk, bubbles, ice-painting, and scratch-art for activities, plus books to give away. Had so much left over. I think people were already in back-to-school mode or attended much larger, flashier, more exciting finales at the larger locations with more staff and more money.

All in all, though there were a few disappointments and lessons learned, I was very happy with how my summer programming went and felt it was pretty successful despite having such a low budget ($500) and getting almost no publicity. I tried to design my programs using materials we already had as much as possible, and took advantage of a couple of free programs from community partners. The community here really prefers craft programs, and luckily we are able to do a lot with fairly inexpensive materials. I do miss doing more science programs, but I am trying to work it in as much as I can with the limited supplies we have (baking soda and vinegar are my friends!). It has been a huge adjustment going from having a very healthy programming budget to having almost nothing, and really limits what I'm able to offer, but I'm doing the best I can with what I have.

If I am still here next summer I am going to mostly forego outside performers/programs in favor of better-attended in-house programs, and just book one or two performers that have proven to be able to draw a decent crowd, call the last regular program our finale and give out popsicles afterward and call it a day. I have also learned that even though summer reading at this location is not the typical super-busy-all-the-time summer I am used to, I am still worn out by the end of it because of all the additional outreach that we do here, and I am definitely going to build in a slight break next August to allow time to catch my breath, clean, organize, and prep for fall programs; I'm really regretting I didn't do that this time.

So how did your summer go? What were your biggest successes? Biggest disappointments? Lessons learned? Any first-timers out there want to share?

Imagination Station - Under the Sea

 

The library system I currently work for doesn't use either CSLP or iREAD and instead comes up with their own theme for summer reading. This summer it is "Wild About Reading", and each branch chose a different biome/habitat and branch mascot. My branch chose the "Deep, Dark Sea" with the Giant Squid as our mascot, so of course we had an "Under the Sea" theme for this month's Imagination Station.

Program: Imagination Station - Under the Sea

Ages: 2-6 (I have narrowed the target age range in order to fit better with the way programs are tagged in our calendar and the way stats are reported)

Number: Could accommodate up to 15 children, actual attendance was at least that many

Budget: Around $50, but items purchased can be reused, and some also served as decoration

Skills & Concepts: Imagination, creativity, expressive language, socio-emotional, early literacy, motor 

Activities:

1. Read-Aloud
   
   
   
   I've started gathering everyone outside the program room to read a book first and explain the program and activities. [Since anything called "storytime" does not seem to appeal to people here, I've created alternative early childhood programs such as this one and "sneak" the early literacy and books into them.]
   
   I first talked about summer reading, our branch theme and mascot, then read I'm the Biggest Thing in the Ocean by Kevin Sherry, featuring a giant squid (and other ocean creatures). Then I told them about the activities set up in the room, and led them in.
   
   
2. Dramatic Play
   
   
   
   
   I put blue bulletin board paper on the wall, then printed, cut out, and attached a snorkeler, scuba diver, and various deep sea creatures; including giant squid, anglerfish, lantern fish, coelacanth, glass squid, isopods, tube worms, clams, crabs, shrimp, starfish, and jellyfish to provide an ocean background.[I also hid a few familiar ocean characters they might know to see if anyone noticed, including Nemo, Dory, SpongeBob, Patrick, the Little Mermaid & Flounder, Sebastian, and Oona the mermaid.]
   
   I set up my trusty market stand as a swim & dive shop with snorkel and dive gear for rent, which included scuba tanks made from 2-liter bottles, cheap snorkel & masks (from DollarTree), fins cut from craft foam, a toy camera, and waterproof phone pouches (zip-lock bags with pictures of phones printed on cardstock, and yarn lanyards). I also put out an assortment of plush toys & puppets: giant squid, octopus, sharks, Pout-Pout fish, crab, seahorse, anglerfish, clown fish, and starfish.
   
   [Imagination, creativity, expressive language, socio-emotional skills, functional print, vocabulary, background knowledge]
   
   
3. Fishing
   
   
   
   
   I put just a little bit of water, an inch or two deep, in our large sensory bin and added the fish and poles from the Lakeshore magnetic fishing set. They can identify the different kinds of fish and their colors. [I was very disappointed to discover the magnets in this new set are noticeable weaker than the sets I purchased 4 years age at my last library and some of the fish are simply impossible to catch :(]
   
   I spotted a couple of cute shark/lobster "grabbers" at DollarTree that came with several plastic fish to grab, and put them inside an inflatable ring taped to the floor to serve as a tidepool [didn't work, the kids would not leave the ring alone and pulled it right up immediately].
   
   [motor skills, eye-hand coordination, color identification]
   
   
4. Sensory Exploration
   
   
   
   
   I put kinetic sand in an "under the bed" storage bin and added some real seashells and a few plastic ocean/beach creatures, including turtles, crabs, and lobsters. 
   
   In another bin I put cut-up pieces of blue pool noodles to serve as water, and added plastic sharks, whales, dolphins, and octopus.
   
   [sensory exploration, fine motor skills, vocabulary]
   
   
5. Building 
   
   Interlocking fish-shaped building blocks from Lakeshore Learning
   
   [spatial awareness, problem-solving, motor skills, colors]
   
   
6. Magnetic Board & Letters
   
   I spelled out "Under the Sea" on the magnetic white board, and set the bin of magnetic letters beside it. [I wish I had thought to print out a list of ocean-related words for them to spell out on the board.]
   
   [letter recognition, phonological awareness, colors]
   
   
   
   
   

How It Went:

I don't think this went quite as well as I'd hoped, definitely not as I had imagined, but everyone seemed to still have fun. The magnetic fishing and the kinetic sand were definitely the big hits of the day, and children stayed engaged with them significantly longer than with other activities. Though they really got into all the sensory exploration, I didn't see as much dramatic play going on, nor did dramatic play get as complex or last as long as with previous set-ups. Perhaps they didn't have as much knowledge or experience of ocean activities to draw on, and maybe not enough props. I would see them put on the scuba tanks, masks, and fins, but then take them back off almost immediately; it just didn't seem to hold their interest or capture their imaginations like I'd hoped. 

The other thing I noticed is that although I had set things up as distinct, separate activity stations, by halfway through the program everything was all mixed together in one big, homogenous mess, which really hasn't happened before, at least not to that degree. People didn't linger as long as with previous set-ups, either. Usually I have to tell people when time is up and I have to start cleaning up; this time only one child was left when I started cleaning up.

What I Would Do Differently:

I think what this set up needed was more props for the dramatic play, and to cut out one or two of the other stations. I really would have liked to have had some kind of boat and/or submarine that they could actually get into, but unfortunately I did not have the time to construct something myself, nor the budget to purchase something already made. I saw cardboard pirate ships made from cardboard and designed for children to play in and color on that would've been perfect if I'd had the $40 or so to spend on it. A few more puppets would have been nice, too.

Annual Reflection & Goal-Setting - 2026

 

I've had this blog for ten years now, and every new year I've written a post reflecting on the past year and setting goals for the year ahead. I was hesitant to do that this year as it's been a very tumultuous, difficult year for me (worse than 2020) that began with an ending and I really wasn't sure I wanted to reflect on it. But, I decided maybe that would be the best way to close that chapter once and for all and move on to better things! Fair warning, this is probably going to be a lot to read, but this past year was definitely A LOT!

Around the middle of 2024 I had begun to realize that no matter what or how much I did my work was never going to be valued or appreciated by management, and nothing I did was ever going to be good enough. I struggled with deciding whether to go or stay, because I was proud of all I had accomplished and had grown attached to all my regular patrons, but what started as a generally dysfunctional environment then became overtly hostile, abusive, and deeply toxic. Over the years many of you have thanked me for my honesty in addressing the many challenges and issues we face on this blog, but unfortunately that honesty came with a price and I became the target of retaliation. At the end of January 2025, after weeks of workplace bullying and harassment, things came to a head and I finally left what had begun as my dream job but had become a nightmare. It was truly a bizarre, horrible, and demoralizing experience.

I was so burned out and traumatized I didn't even consider looking for another job for a couple of months. I am very fortunate to have a spouse with a significantly higher income so that I could afford to take some badly needed time off to rest, travel, focus on physical and mental health, and figure out what I was going to do next. One great outcome of this was that after three years of always feeling like I couldn't take time off, I finally got to take several trips I'd been dreaming of and visit my kids. During this time I also got back to a healthy lifestyle, got my blood sugar under control (I'm a type 2 diabetic), lost weight, and I'm in better shape now than I've been in years. It's amazing the damage a toxic environment does, and how much your health improves once you get out of it and away from the constant stress, belittling, and gas-lighting.

Now that I've been away from it and regained perspective, I can see just how toxic my previous workplace really was from the beginning, and I now know I should have left long before I did. I had a hard time letting go of what I thought was going to be my dream job; I kept convincing myself I could make it work, that I just had to work a little harder, do a little more. But now I know there is no way to succeed in a toxic environment, no way to make it work, and nothing you do will ever be good enough. There is no pleasing a toxic, insecure manager; in fact, the better you are at your job the more they will resent you. As much as I hated leaving all the kids and families I had built relationships with, I should have done it much earlier. I now recognize the red flags I should have seen early on and regret passing up other opportunities. As another librarian friend tried to tell me, that library had likely been toxic for so long that they didn't know any other way to be. I didn't want to believe it at the time, but they were so right. 

During my time off I re-evaluated my career and even considered leaving librarianship. I was burned-out, disillusioned, and very disheartened by the continually growing anti-library and anti-librarian movement and the realization that the great managers I'd had earlier in my career were probably the exception rather than the rule. But after I had time to rest and recover, I realized I wasn't ready to give it up just yet. I still loved being a children's librarian; I just needed to find a workplace where I would be valued and treated with respect, and a position where I had a more manageable workload and could maintain healthier boundaries and work/life balance. 

After three months I began job-hunting, focusing on children's librarian positions in branches of larger library systems that would have centralized collection development and centralized summer reading planning and support. While I believe these are both very important and am proud of all the work I did developing a vibrant and diverse collection and a robust, evidence-based summer reading program, I realized that one person can't do it all, and I am content to have others perform those functions. I would prefer to focus on branch programming, day-to-day customer service, outreach, and building relationships with patrons. Also, being in a branch of a system puts some distance between you and upper admin, which I've learned is generally a good thing, making it much easier to keep your head down, focus on your job, maintain a more positive attitude, and ignore the BS.

Luckily, I found a position relatively quickly, and started my new job in early June. I am now the children's librarian at a smaller neighborhood branch in a larger system. I primarily assistant patrons, plan and conduct children's programs, and do outreach. I do some weeding, but I am not responsible for collection development; I do branch programming during the summer, but am not responsible for planning and designing the whole summer reading program. I also do not have any supervisory duties, which is something else I was happy to give up. I did take a small pay cut, but also a significant cut in responsibility and workload. The best part of my new position is that I am part of a great youth services team. My supervisor is a former youth librarian and really understands my job and all that it entails, and is very supportive. The teen librarian started at the same time I did and we have a great working relationship, providing support, advice, assistance, or just a sounding board for each other; there is none of the territorial behavior, competition, undermining, bulldozing, gas-lighting, or duplicity that I experienced at my last job. My stress and anxiety levels are so much less now!

The position is not without its challenges; no situation is perfect. I had to learn a whole new organizational structure and culture. We are understaffed and have a much smaller programming budget than I'm used to. There is not enough work or storage space, and our program/meeting room is way too small. It is challenging to get families to attend storytime, though I do get decent attendance at family and elementary programs most. While our library is used by the community fairly heavily for internet and other technology access and assistance, our circulation is very low (though it has gone up in the last few months!). The library is in a lower income community that is very diverse, with many that do not speak English fluently, so we frequently have to find ways around language barriers to help people, which can be very challenging, but also rewarding. But overall, the lower stress level far outweighs any of the challenges. Plus I got to meet Mychal Threets!

I have found that while I still want to be a children's librarian, I do not quite have the same level of passion for it as I used to, which honestly is probably more healthy. I give it my best for 40 hours a week, but no longer do I give it my all. I have accepted that sometimes "good enough" is good enough. A wise librarian once told me "don't let perfect be the enemy of good", and I now really understand what that means, and how important it is to be able to let go of frustrations and perfectionist ideals. I am going to focus on doing my job, but now I see it more as just that, a job. I have finally shrugged off the sense of vocational awe many of us have, and after five years as a professional librarian I no longer have the naïve idealism of someone new to the profession. I now have a more balanced approach; I am committed to doing a good job without making it my whole identity, re-defining success, and trying to resist the desire for external validation (though that's a tough one for me).

My goals for the upcoming year are pretty basic:

• continue prioritizing my health above everything else
• continue to maintain healthy boundaries and work/life balance
• continue getting to know the community and try to better understand their needs
• develop relationships within the community and the library system
• work on organization and time management
• increase storytime attendance
• increase outreach
• develop two new programs for 5&U
• Imagination Station - themed activities and dramatic play to encourage imagination, exploration, expressive language, and socio-emotional skills
• STEM Storytime- storytime that focuses on developing problem-solving and critical-thinking skills, inspiring wonder and curiosity, and modeling a growth-mindset with pre-math and science activities.
• maintain and possibly expand family & elementary programming
• take vacation time!
• go hiking at least once a month (this is my therapy!)
• read at least 1 book a month
• walk at least 3 days a week
• go to the gym at least once a week

Unfortunately, maintaining healthy boundaries and a healthy work/life balance means I probably won't be blogging that much, but I also don't want to give it up entirely, either. 

Wishing us all good health and peace in the coming year!

Happy New Year! 🎊🎆

Spy School 2025 - Elementary Program

 

This is the fourth time I've done a version of this program, and I’ve done it a little differently each time. The first time was an in-person program in 2019 that focused on learning different codes and different methods of hidden messages, plus a “laser” maze for fun. The second time was during the pandemic as a take-home cryptography kit along with a virtual program. The third time was during summer reading of 2024 and had a "treasure hunt adventure" theme with basic instruction of codes and hidden messages and a final treasure hunt complete with riddles, codes, invisible messages, and a treasure map that would lead them to a cache of gold coins they could trade for a prize. 

For this iteration I returned to the original "Spy School" theme, focusing on secret codes and hidden messages, but also including a few other activities. 

Ages: Advertised as for elementary ages (6-11), but actual participants ranged from 4 to 14.

Number: Planned for 10 participants, and had 9 (plus 4 caregivers; adult assistance was needed)

Time: Scheduled for an hour, but ran over at by 20 minutes.

Budget: Roughly $20, as most supplies were already on hand

Skills/Concepts: critical thinking, logic, decoding, observation, chemistry, socio-emotional

Materials:

• paper
• cardstock
• brad fasteners
• yarn
• tape
• scissors
• baking soda
• grape juice
• white crayons (regular, not washable)
• watercolor paint
• milk
• clothes iron
• ironing board, pad, or towel
• paintbrush, small and large
• small cups
• pencils
• stamp pad with washable ink
• invisible ink pens with UV light

In previous versions I led the program in a classroom style, but since people are frequently late to programs at this library I decided to set it up with stations in a more self-directed format. I created cute little instruction manuals along with signage at each station. They created code names and agent number numbers for themselves, practiced a simple substitution code using an encryption wheel and the Pigpen Cipher, experimented with three methods of invisible messages*, did a fingerprint study, matched footprints to a suspect's shoe, built a spy gadget out of Lego bricks, and practiced agility through a simulated laser maze. 

Once they completed all the training activities, they reported back to me and received a mission folder for their first secret mission along with a secret agent pen with UV reactive invisible ink and a UV light in the cap. The mission file included the code name for the mission, a mission objective, a scenario explaining the mission, and ended with a coded message using a numerical substitution code with the key for the code written in UV reactive invisible ink. This message led them to a general location in the library where they had to use their observation skills to locate a message hidden in a book. They were reminded to look for something that seemed out of place  (books shelved in the DVDs, an English book in the Spanish language section, and books shelved backwards).

These messages were coded with the Pigpen Cipher and led them to another location and the final clue. The final clue was written in the UV-reactive invisible ink and instructed them to go to the branch manager’s office and give the password provided to the "undercover agents" at the front desk to gain entry and find the assets they were seeking. In the office they would find our treasure chest which had small prizes like stickers, bracelets, stampers, etc., as well as a selection of prize books; they could pick one book and one toy. I prepared four different missions, dividing them into four teams so they were spread out and not getting in each other's way.

*The three methods of hidden messages we experimented with were:

• Wax Resist - write a message with a white crayon, then paint over with watercolor paint to reveal. The wax in the crayon is hydrophobic, and thus repels the water-based paint.
• Milk - a message written with milk can be revealed using a hot iron. The heat produces the Maillard reaction, which caramelizes and darkens the sugars and proteins in the milk.
• Baking Soda & Grape Juice - a message written with a concentrated baking soda (sodium bicarbonate, NAHCO3) slurry can be revealed with grape juice due to the acid-base reaction and change in pH causing a color change.

How It Went
I may have gone *slightly* overboard planning and preparing for this program, spending a fair amount of time on the instruction manuals, folders, and signs; and planning the missions and the clues (but I had so much fun doing it!), and I was really worried no one would show up after all that work. However, I was very relieved to have four families show up for a total of nine kids and four adults, which is a really good turnout for this location! I think overall it went well; there were some hiccups and things that didn’t quite work as I had planned, but everyone completed most of the training activities and they all stuck around to complete their final missions and get their prizes. Though there were some moments of frustration, overall everyone seem to have a good time and weren't daunted by the challenge.

My attempt at making it a self-directed activity did not work very well, however. Participants, adults included, just did not want to take the time and effort to read the instructions included in their manuals or on the signage and still needed me to walk them through and explain everything, so I was run ragged, running from station to station to help people and give verbal instructions and explanations. I think I will go back to my preferred classroom-style instruction for similar programs in the future.  

Some struggled with the coding and decoding, especially with the Pigpen Cipher, and needed a lot of help with that. I also found that the Legos were too distracting and kids tended to just play and build whatever with them rather than making a gadget and then moving onto other activities, so I would probably recommend skipping that or having them make gadgets out of random craft supplies instead of Legos. Some really loved the "laser maze", doing it over and over, and one little boy asked me to time him. I would probably recommend this program for an older age range, say 8-12. For younger kids, I would place less emphasis on the secret codes, and stick to one simple numerical substitution code as those under 8 really struggled with the codes.

Paper Sculpture STEAM Program

 

On a shoestring budget? No time to plan and prep? Need a super simple, low-cost, low-effort-yet-high-quality program in a pinch? Looking for open-ended, process art that's easy and not messy? Then this one's for you!

I first saw this project about a year ago (sorry, I don't remember where or by whom), and thought it would be a great fit for the summer reading 2025 theme of "Color Our World". I loved how colorful and creative it was, and since it was abstract art there would be no "wrong" way of doing it and each person's piece would be unique. But I ended up leaving that library before summer reading, and the library I went to was doing a different theme and already had programs planned through August. This library unfortunately does not have a healthy programming budget, and I still really wanted to do this program, so it was a natural choice for my first school-age program this fall.

Time: 1 hour

Ages: 5-12 (actual ages of my participants were 4-10)

Budget: Nominal, basic stock supplies already on hand

Description: "Get creative and explore shapes, movement, and spatial relationships by twisting, folding, curling, and gluing strips of colored paper to create a one-of-a-kind sculpture."

Concepts & Skills:

• Colors
• Spatial relationships
• Fine-motor
• Socio-emotional
• Creativity

Materials & Supplies:

• assorted colors of paper, cut into strips of varying widths (I only had 9x12 construction and 8.5x11 printer papers, I wish I'd had the bigger construction paper to cut longer strips from)
• glue sticks (liquid glue will not work as it doesn't dry fast enough)
• cardboard bases (I used thin cardboard from cereal boxes)
• scissors, in case they want to cut strips shorter or thinner
• pencils, markers, and/or crayons, to use to wind strips around for curls & spirals, writing names, or embellishing paper strips

How To:

1. I cut all the strips ahead of time, and made an example, both to use for promotion and to give them an idea of what we were doing.
   
   
2. I emphasized that there was no wrong way to do it, and that each person's piece would be unique and different, just like we were each unique and different. I demonstrated how to do some of the basic shapes (bridge, circle, accordian-fold, spiral, freeform twist), but encouraged them to experiment.
   
   
   
   
   
3. Shape a strip, anchor one end with glue stick and hold 3-5 seconds, then anchor the other end.
   
   
4. Keep adding paper strips until you feel your sculpture is done!
   
   
5. Each participant created their own sculpture which they took home with them, and each participant also added strips to the collaborative piece below that was put on display at the library.
   
   

   

   Collaborative Sculpture

   
   

How It Went:

I am at a small neighborhood library that usually does not get very large attendance at programs, so I was thrilled to end up with 3 participants, along with their caregivers. They all seemed to really enjoy the project, and were proud and excited with their finished sculptures. It was interesting to see that each child tended to gravitate towards a particular shape, though they all used multiple shapes, and even came up with shapes that I had not thought of. One partipant had the idea to embellish the strip, writing his inital on each section of an accordion-folded strip.

I really like collaborative art, and was glad I thought of having everyone contribute to a collaborative piece to put on display in the library. The kids really seemed to like being able to both take their sculpture home, and have one on display at the library. I of course loved the low-prep aspect, which really was fortuitous as we were extremely short-staffed this week, which meant I was on the service desk pretty much all day, every day, with no built-in set-up time. 

This was a fun, easy, and successful program that I will definitely do again in the future. I highly recommend it, even if you have a very healthy program budget, adequate staffing, and tons of prep time 😉.

Time Audit Continued - Another Month in the Work Life of a Children's Librarian

 

In a previous post I described conducting a time audit and the results of the first month (November). I found the time audit helpful and decided to continue tracking my time. I made a few changes to make it easier and less time consuming, and combined some categories. Before I was logging everything on paper and doing calculations by hand, which took a lot more time that I had expected. I liked being able to have a paper log on a clipboard that I could keep handy, so I came up with a hybrid method using a simplified paper log to quickly jot down what I was doing and for how long, and then would enter it into a spreadsheet later, and set up a pivot table to figure out all the totals, and a pie chart that I could update as I went along.

Once again, the categories and sub-categories I used are below:

• Programming
• Researching - Looking for ideas, checking out performers, testing activities, etc.
• Planning - When, what, and how activities will be done, making written plan, ordering/buying supplies
• Prep/Set Up - Prepping materials, setting up room, putting things out, making signs, writing & printing directions, making slides, etc.
• Execution - The actual program
• Clean Up/Take Down - Putting things away, cleaning, putting furniture back
• Administrative - Putting events in calendar, recording attendance, compiling stats, marketing 
• Outreach
• Researching - Looking for potential clients/partners and making initial contacts
• Planning - Planning specific activities and making written plan
• Preparation - Getting everything ready to go, pulling books to take
• Execution - The actual outreach visit or event
• Administrative - Scheduling, recording attendance, compiling stats
• Collection Management
• Maintenance - Weeding, ordering replacements, un-"NEW" ing
• Development - Selection, patron requests, ordering
• Marketing - Displays, bibliographies, reviews, social media spotlights, etc.
• Customer Service
• Children's Desk - assigned to children's service desk
• Main Circ Desk - assigned to main circ desk
• Spontaneous - When stopped by patrons needing help while on the floor or walking through, stepping in at desk during busy times to help.
• Professional Development - conferences, webinars, courses, workshops, reading professional journals, trade magazines, blogs
• Training & Supervising of Staff - Providing training for, giving instructions to, answering questions from, or evaluating direct report and other staff
• Administrative - Time spent on time audit and any other paperwork, reporting, or managerial duties not specifically related to programming, outreach, collection work, or supervising direct report; general meetings, email, and phone calls.
• Breaks - brief paid breaks taken on the clock, not counting quick trips to the restroom less than 5 minutes
• Other - All the unexpected miscellaneous stuff that comes up, all the conversations with coworkers not directly or exclusively related to any of the other categories, decorating the department, cleaning, organizing, etc. Anything that doesn't fit the above categories but is still work-related. Conversations that were exclusively social in nature are recorded as breaks.

And here are the results for January, which ended up being closer to 3 weeks than 4 due to holidays and snow days:

This month was more balanced that the previous one, with a little less time spent on programming and more spent on collection work and outreach. This is pretty close to what I think it should be, though ideally, I would like to spend more time on customer service and less time in meetings. Logging time spent at the service desk was also a bit of a conundrum, since I often work on other projects when it's slow. I ended up logging time spent on projects while at the desk under the relevant categories, so the actual time spent at the service desk isn't accurately represented here. 

Taking a closer look at programming shows once again that time spent in the execution of the program is only the tip of the iceberg:

Compared to November, I spent even less time on the execution of programs and more on researching and planning. This is due to one of the weekly storytimes being taken over by another staff member and my spending a lot of time on booking performers for summer and researching ideas for in-house programs for summer, in addition to planning programs for March and April. During this time period I did the weekly toddler storytime, monthly Pokemon and Lego programs, a family craft program, and 2 Kidbrarians for a total of 8 programs.

I really found continuing the time audit to be very helpful. Updating the pie chart each day was very helpful in setting priorities and deciding what to focus on when I found I had a nice chunk of un-scheduled time with no urgent deadlines, This kept collection work and professional development from being inadvertently pushed to the back burner, and forced me to be more decisive in programming and collection development, rather than over-researching and going down rabbit holes.

Now that I have a system set up that works for me, I am going to continue until I have a year's worth of data. I think it will be interesting to see how much the distribution changes from month to month, and the yearly averages over all. 

Time Audit - A Month In the Life of a Children's Librarian

 

As I mentioned previously, we were recently required to do a time audit where I work. If you aren't familiar with time audits, it involves tracking how much time is spent on different activities, tasks, and/or projects and analyzing to spot trends and improve efficiency. Time audits are a bit tedious, take time in and of themselves, and can make staff feel distrusted and micro-managed when assigned by management, but I do think they can be valuable. In fact, I'd coincidentally started doing one on my own shortly before all full-time staff were asked to do them by the director. I'll give a breakdown of how I did my time audit, how my time was spent over a four-week period, and how I hope to use this information.

We were asked to record everything we did all day long by task, duration, and category, and total each category by day and by week. I took it a step further and did totals and percentages over a month, as I felt that would be a more accurate representation since there is so much variation day to day, and even week to week. We were allowed to decide if we wanted to record on paper or set up a spreadsheet, and to set whatever categories made the most sense for our department and jobs. I found it easier and more accurate to set up a chart on paper on a clipboard I could keep handy, but then I had to do all the calculations myself, which was time-consuming.

The categories (and sub-categories for some) I used are below:

• Programming
• Researching - Looking for ideas, checking out performers, testing activities, etc.
• Planning - When, what, and how activities will be done, making written plan, ordering/buying supplies
• Prep/Set Up - Prepping materials, setting up room, putting things out, making signs, writing & printing directions, making slides, etc.
• Execution - The actual program
• Clean Up/Take Down - Putting things away, cleaning, putting furniture back
• Administrative - Putting events in calendar, recording attendance, compiling stats, marketing 
• Outreach
• Researching - Looking for potential clients/partners and making initial contacts
• Planning - Planning specific activities and making written plan
• Preparation - Getting everything ready to go, pulling books to take
• Execution - The actual outreach visit or event
• Administrative - Scheduling, recording attendance, compiling stats
• Collection Management
• Maintenance - Weeding, ordering replacements, displays, un-"NEW" ing
• Development - Selection, patron requests, ordering
• Customer Service
• Children's Desk - assigned to children's service desk
• Main Circ Desk - assigned to main circ desk
• Spontaneous - When stopped by patrons needing help while on the floor or walking through, stepping in at desk during busy times to help.
• Professional Development - conferences, webinars, courses, workshops, reading professional journals, trade magazines, blogs
• Training & Supervising of Staff - Providing training for, giving instructions to, answering questions from, or evaluating direct report and other staff
• Meetings - General meetings; any meetings specifically about programming or outreach are recorded under those categories
• Email/Phone Calls - general; emails/phone calls specifically about programming or outreach are recorded as administrative duties under the respective category
• Administrative - Time spent on time audit and any other paperwork, reporting, or managerial duties not specifically related to programming, outreach, collection work, or supervising direct report.
• Breaks - brief paid breaks taken on the clock, not counting quick trips to the restroom less than 5 minutes
• Other - All the unexpected miscellaneous stuff that comes up, all the conversations with coworkers not directly or exclusively related to any of the other categories, decorating the department, cleaning, organizing, etc. Anything that doesn't fit the above categories

I was told I should be spending 40% of my time on programming, 25% on outreach, 20% on collection management, 10% on professional development, and 5% on administrative tasks. However, this doesn't account for meetings, training & supervising direct reports, customer service, communication, all the "other" things I do as part of my job like decorating, cleaning and organizing, talking to coworkers, and yes, breaks. The math simply doesn't math, and I don't know how I'm supposed to reconcile that, but hopefully the time audit will help.

After tracking my time for 4 weeks, I totaled everything and calculated percentages, which I've shown below for all the main categories. As you can see, the reality was very different from the expectations we were given:

Since over half of my time was spent on programming, let's take a closer look at programming specifically, and all that it entails. During this 4-week period I was responsible for 15 programs: 6 regular storytimes, 2 special expanded storytimes, Pokémon Club, Lego Club, homeschool hangout (in collaboration with YA librarian), a special STEM program, a Halloween party, and two Kidbrarians. In addition, I had the ongoing passive Dinovember program, which required staging our toy dinosaurs and posting photos twice a week, and had to plan upcoming programs. 

We all know that there is more that goes into programming than just the time spent in the actual programs, so I used multiple sub-categories in my time audit to reflect that and really get a clearer picture of where my time was going. Below is the breakdown of how much time I spent on each aspect of programming:

As you can see, the time spent in the actual program is only the tip of the iceberg, and more than two hours of additional time go into making every hour of program happen. And that's not including the labor from other staff assisting. If I didn't have any help, it would be at least a 3:1 ratio, if not more. This was no surprise to me, and I'm sure it is not a surprise to anyone else who regularly does programming. 

I'm not at all surprised by most of these results, in fact. I already knew I spent a significant amount of time on programming, at the expense of collection management, outreach, and customer service, and I also knew there were many "other" aspects to my job that the expectations above didn't account for. But now I have some data to back that up. 

I do feel the time audit has been useful, and being forced to write things down has helped me stay more focused and on task. I know I still need to work on better organization, time management, and advance planning, and as I improve in those areas I will be able to shift some more time back to collection development, which had been pushed to the back burner over the last year due to staffing issues. I am also turning the weekly preschool storytime over to the part-time children's assistant, as well as some of the summer programs, which will free up time for me to add 1-2 more outreach visits per month. I am expected to add more programs for 4th-6th graders in the fall, and I hope by that time I will be able to delegate at least one monthly program in order to free up time for that.

I'm told that I need to delegate more of the "other" tasks and more of the programming prep, and I'm trying, but it's hard to delegate when you don't have enough reliable staff with the right skills available when you need them. I really think we need additional qualified youth services staff besides myself and one part-time assistant to pick up some of the programming and "other" duties, as well as cover the children's service desk consistently to provide better customer service by having the desk staffed when people are in the department. Currently, the children's service desk is rarely staffed, and I think that besides not being very welcoming, it hurts our circulation by not having a qualified person readily available in the children's department to provide reader's advisory and other assistance, and doesn't allow us to build relationships with, and get valuable feedback from, patrons that use the children's department. In addition, I have observed that having a consistent staff presence also encourages more appropriate behavior and results in much less mess and destruction.

I plan to continue tracking my time to get a more accurate picture of how I spend my time by tracking over a longer time period, since every month is a bit different. One month might be heavier in professional development if I attend a conference, summer is heavier in programming, and some months just seem to have a whole lot of "other". This particular month was heavier in programming because of Dinovember, and heavier in "other" because of changing seasonal décor and unpacking and setting up the furniture and accessories for our new dramatic play area. My hope is that once I have improved my organization and time-management and I have more data I can demonstrate everything I am doing, how much time programming really takes, and that we really do need more staff in order to do more programming and outreach (which I agree the community needs). 

Has anyone else done a time audit? How did it go, and were you surprised by the results? What do you find taking up the bulk of your time? How were the results used? Any great time-management tips? Anyone know a great, flexible time-audit form/template that is easy to adapt to the categories you need and does all the calculations for you? I am finding doing it by hand takes far more time than I'd imagined, so I'm planning on switching to a digital format.

Annual Reflection & Goal Setting - 2025

 

I've now been working in public libraries for 12 years (in March), writing this blog for nearly 10 years, and have been a degreed, professional librarian for four years. Every year before I write my annual reflection and goal setting post I review the previous few years. Every year since 2020 I have hoped the new year would bring some peace, but it never seems to quite work out that way, and this year was no exception. 

2024 was another difficult year, with many changes and challenges, including an unexpected restructuring and changing of job descriptions so that I am no longer a youth services manager over birth through teen (that position was eliminated), and am now the children's librarian, for birth through 6th grade. A new YA librarian position was created for teens and new adults (now as a separate department), and the vacant adult services manager position was also re-classified as just a librarian position rather than a manager. I no longer have the same level of autonomy I had before and now have to work under a very autocratic management style, which is not a management style I personally thrive under. All the changes were very unexpected and have been difficult to get used to, but it is what it is and I'm adjusting my expectations accordingly.

However, it wasn't all bad; some good things did happen and I was able to accomplish some of my goals, as well as others:

• I was finally able to fill the children's assistant position that had been vacant for a year.
• My programming budget, which had been slashed by the previous director, was returned to the previous level.
• Asked for and received additional storage cabinets in the program room, more than doubling our storage space, and finally have everything pretty well-organized.
• Also received an additional storage cabinet and shelving for my office. Still working on getting that all organized, but made significant progress.
• I was finally able to attend the ALSC conference. It was really great to spend a couple of days among my fellow children's librarians from all over the country and share ideas and experiences! (I was also very flattered when one person recognized me from my published research article and another recognized me from this little blog.)
• Finished the deep-dive into incentivized reading research I'd been wanting to do for a few years and wrote an article about the problems with traditional, heavily incentivized reading programs, as well as one on what we should do instead, complete with annotated bibliography.
• Had a very successful summer program, which though very busy, was also more enjoyable than stressful.
• Increased programming, developing a very well-received "Kidbrarian" program, adding a monthly Bricks, Blocks, Build! program for all ages (Legos, Duplos, Mega Bloks, and various other building sets/toys) and adding a monthly homeschool hangout-type program in collaboration with the new YA librarian.
• Was asked to give two presentations at our state youth services conference, one on STEM programming for younger children, and the other on my Kidbrarian program.
• Collection management was pushed to the back-burner a bit this year due to all the changes and staffing issues, but after having gone through several rounds of weeding the entire youth collection based on circulation the previous two years, I was able to review the board books, picture books, and early readers based on condition, and after weeding and shifting aggressively so that shelving followed best practices I freed up a significant amount of space to start expanding the picture book collection.
• Conducted a survey on youth services burnout, the possible factors contributing to it, and how youth services staff could be better supported. This is a major issue across the field, needs to be addressed, and we should be able to discuss it without fear of retaliation, though sadly that's not always the case.
• Developed collaborative relationships with the new YA and adult services librarians.
• Was finally able to clear out enough space and purchase furniture and accessories for the dramatic play area I've wanted to add since I arrived three years ago (pictured below)!!
  
  

Now, looking forward to 2025, some of the things I want to accomplish are:

• Work on organization, time-management, and planning further ahead. I've realized that to do this, I have to carve out dedicated time on my schedule for organizing and planning. Once I'm on top of that, I believe the time-management will take care of itself.
• Work on delegating more tasks, though this is very challenging because most of the time there isn't enough staff with the skills required who have the time and are available at the time I need them. 
• Keep my office reasonably neat and organized.
• Now that the new children's assistant is fully trained and ready, I am turning the weekly preschool storytime over to her in order to do more outreach, as well as having her take the lead on one program during spring and fall breaks, and a few programs during the summer, again helping me gain a more appropriate balance on where my time is going.
• Get back to spending an appropriate amount of time on collection management.
• Have summer reading all planned even earlier this year, by April 1st.
• Add regular programming specifically for 4th-6th graders in September.
• Attend the state public library and youth services conference, but probably not present. Though I like making a professional contribution to the field, it isn't supported in my position and presentation prep is done mostly on my own time.
• Continue tracking time and compiling data to document everything I'm doing and attempt to demonstrate the need for more staff in order to increase programming and outreach and offer better customer service (more on this in an upcoming post).
• As always, working towards a better work/life balance, trying to figure out how to leave work at work and not let work stress cause so much anxiety that it robs me of sleep, negatively affects my physical and mental health, and interferes with my life outside of work as it does now.

And once again, I hope for peace. I crave stability, calm, and a healthy work environment. But I don't know if that exists anywhere anymore. So I guess I need to instead hope for acceptance, being able to let go, not care as much, being able to compartmentalize more? The other thing I noticed in reviewing all my previous new year's posts is how the tone has changed and one can clearly see the trauma and burnout developing over the last few years. I'm not sure what the answer is, but in the meantime I'll keep trying to focus on the joy I find in working with the kids and families and building healthier boundaries. I still love being a children's librarian, just wish it wasn't as stressful and exhausting as it's been. 

Anyone else want to share 2024 accomplishments they're particular proud of? Let's normalize taking pride and voicing our accomplishments and celebrating each other!! Any exciting goals for 2025?

Happy New Year!!