Final Week

I worked my final week at Mooresville last Tuesday and Friday. I have mixed feelings. I can't believe it's already over. I can't believe how much I accomplished. I will really miss all the great people I worked with. I'm so glad I got such wonderful opportunities there. Tuesday we had a staff meeting first thing. I got a bit of acknowledgment, so that was nice. Then I mostly worked on the shelf label project all day. I answered a few reference questions and did a little bit of shelving, but I really focused on finishing up the shelf labels. I got them all done, so that was great. Just another project I managed to complete in my time there.

Friday was my last day. I spent the morning updating the Town Criers with all the fall program information. I must say - I am excellent at PowerPoint nowadays. I think they came out looking really nice. One thing I will take away for the future - download free fun fonts for use on flyers and brochures and such. They have so many cool ones!

My afternoon was spent on collection development. Mooresville keeps reference stats (at least, the children's department does, not sure about adult reference) and whenever a patron appears unsatisfied with the answer to their question, Suzanne goes over these things and takes them as suggestions for purchase. She provided me with a list of the subjects patrons had asked for that the department didn't have and asked me to find a few titles for each. A lot of these were media tie-in sorts of books (Spongebob, Veggie Tales, Hello Kitty, etc.). It was an interesting new challenge for my last day. I also did a bit of shelving (their page was on vacation this week). And that finished up my time there.

I'm sad that it's over. I really enjoyed my time with everyone at Mooresville. However, I feel like I've learned a lot and there are a lot of practices and advice that I can take with me to my future workplace. Suzanne read over my blog and said she hoped I still wanted to be a public librarian after seeing how crazy some days are and how boring others are. If anything, it makes me positive that this is the right choice for me. I'm looking forward to the point in my career when I won't have boring days because I'll be using slow patron days to plan programs, develop the collection, and make outreach contacts. I can't wait to be doing this full-time! I still feel nervous about interviewing but, at this point, I'm also pretty sure that I'll be a valuable addition to a children's department. Overall, I'm happy with what I accomplished!

End of Summer

Friday marked the end of summer reading for me. The last day was officially on Saturday. During the afternoon, we mostly had kids coming to collect prizes and I worked on the shelf labels during the down time. Suzanne managed to locate some more magnets for me so I should be able to finish up before my time here is done. The day was pretty uneventful. Suzanne took me to dinner and did sort of an exit interview about my time here this summer. I didn't have too much to complain about. Then we headed over to the pool for the Teen Summer Reading Pool Party. I was surprised at how low attendance was for this. It wasn't as hot as it had been so I thought people might actually come out and swim. Plus, a free night at the pool - I would have loved that when I was younger. But there were only a few people there. We had door prizes and snacks, so people just swam and ate. I was on door duty, so I checked people in and drew the door prizes. Pretty boring night! I can't believe next week is my last week - I can't believe summer's over!

Bittersweet

Tuesday...Tuesday was my last day at Little Tykes. I was a bit nervous going in because of the chaos of the Tuesday before, but I had hopes that everything would be okay. We talked about farm animals today, which I was pretty sure would be a hit. We read some stories and I was surprised because the kids pretty much only wanted to read books today. Usually, they sort of zone out and don't pay all too much attention when I'm reading, but today they were better. So we read three books, with a short break for some Old MacDonald singing. They were not as excited about the singing as anticipated - I thought they'd love the chance to name some animals and make some animal noises. And they did enjoy making the animal sounds, but only when we were reading the books. It was just a bit odd. After the books, we did some coloring. They all had cow pictures to color and they seemed rather content with that. I was happy that a lot of them kept calling me over to look at their pictures and show off for me. I think it was the first time that I felt like they cared about my being there. There were some very creative cows - lots of rainbow colored ones. Then I gave them each a sticker (and mine them line up in hopes that it would lessen griping about which sticker they got) and said goodbye. It's really weird to think that I won't be doing this every week anymore. But, at the same time, I'm glad it's over. It was pretty trying at times and it gives me a lot to think about in terms of off-site programming for the future.

Back at the library, I had a pretty slow afternoon. I sat at the desk and helped with a few reference questions but mostly worked on the shelf label project. I did have quite a good time watching the teen scavenger hunt that went on. I think scavenger hunts are something that you never grow out of. In fact, I was a bit jealous that I wasn't playing along! It seemed to go pretty well, although I did notice a little bit of intra-team drama. I was impressed by the fact that the whole thing was organized mainly by one of the teens. He seemed really pleased with the way it came together and I didn't notice any glitches really. Aside from watching the teens traipse around for clues, I really just worked on shelf labels all afternoon. I'm almost done J non-fiction and then I need to try to find some more magnets so I can do the fiction section. I'm really hoping to get it done before I leave and with no more Little Tykes, I think I can.

I can't believe I only have one week left!

Wow..

If I thought Fridays were slow, boy was I wrong! I worked Saturday this week and it was absolutely dead in the children's department. Because it's so slow on Saturdays, the children's department only has one person working. They all take turns working Saturdays throughout the month. However, with Suzanne out for her tonsils, there were too many Saturdays and not enough people! So I covered the last Saturday for them.

It was so slow. I think I had maybe five questions/patron interactions all day. I mostly worked on the shelf label project and some other tasks that Jaymi had set out for me (labeling some books, making calls, etc.). Really really slow. I don't even have anything to say because it was so slow. Tuesday is my last day at Little Tykes. Here's hoping all goes well!

Article: "Encouraging Voluntary Reading"

This article discussed a study conducted within a school on encouraging voluntary reading by including more literature activities during the day and providing a library center in the classroom, as well as providing parents with information on encouraging voluntary reading at home. This was very in-depth but for the most part interesting, though not necessarily relevant to libraries. One thing I liked about this study is that success was measured by the level of reading activity not an increase in reading scores. I know scores are important, but there is such a focus on them that it sort of makes it seem like nothing else even matters when it comes to reading success. I don't believe that. I pretty much think that as long as a kid is reading, it's a success. I also liked that this study trained parents in encouraging reading at home, though, as discussed, there's no way to really know if they are following through with that information. One always hopes that parents will do things especially when given evidence of the benefits to their children but you just never know. I found it interesting that this study chose to place four separate activity centers in each classroom. I like that they gave the library center competition. Another thing I really liked about this study is that teachers were not only encouraged to include literature activities throughout the day but they were also encouraged to model voluntary reading by reading silently during free choice time. This is really important. I think people forget that children love to copy what adults they admire do. Of course we remember when they ape our bad behavior but they do it with the good stuff too. So I think it's essential to remind parents that children will learn that reading is a valid free time activity if they see their parents doing it themselves. One final thing to mention about the article was in the results. The study found that after the intervention was over, voluntary reading at school had increased while voluntary reading at home had not changed. It's important to note that this shouldn't come as much of a surprise. It's wonderful that reading at school increased but there are a much smaller number of choices during school hours. At home, there are seemingly infinite possibilities and many of them are very appealing (such as television and video games). I like that the authors pointed out the difference in interest versus behavior. Interest in reading may have increased, even at home, but behavior not necessarily. A well-done study, I think.

Morrow, L. and Carol Weinstein. (1986). Encouraging Voluntary Reading: The Impact of a Literature Program on Children's Use of Library Centers. Reading Research Quarterly, 21(3), p. 330-346. Retrieved from JSTOR database.

Article: "Using Children's Literature to Clarify Science Concepts in Early Childhood Programs"

For me, this is an especially interesting article. I've been told that one should always include one non-fiction title per storytime with children. However, sometimes it's hard for me to believe that children are ready to learn about non-fiction conceps. This article sort of bridges the gap for me by discussing how fiction stories can be used to identify and explain science concepts. Of course, I already knew one could do this (as I've been doing it in my own storytimes) but it's good to see how others have done it. It's important to see articles like this because most children love learning and especially love learning information regarding science and nature. I know when I was young, I loved to learn about nature and why things were the way they were. I also loved conducting experiments and this article advocates exploration and experimentation with regards to the concepts covered in the books. This article is helpful because it contains an annotated list of titles all grouped by science concept categories. However, it would be better if this were a more recent list. The titles listed are mostly from the 1960s and 1970s. I'm sure if one wanted to initiate these programs other lists could be located. It is always nice to find an annotated booklist, however.

Smardo, F. (1982). Using Children's Literature to Clarify Science Concepts in Early Childhood Programs. The Reading Teacher, 36(3), p. 267-273. Retrieved from JSTOR database.

Article: "Training Parents to Teach Their Preschoolers Through Literature"

Since I started my Early Literacy class, I've been thinking a lot about readiness and helping parents to help their children. This article sort of seems like a precursor to Every Child Ready to Read. It describes a home-based preschool program that helps parents teach readiness skills to their children through literature and literature-based activities. It is not as in-depth (at least the article doesn't go as in-depth) as ECRR as the skills being covered are not defined really. They are briefly mentioned in regards to one specific storytime but overall guidelines are not covered in this article. I liked this. It was interesting to read about what was happening with early literacy before ECRR. This is slightly different since this approach came through the school and not the library, but many of the techniques are similar. However, it's a bit unrealistic to expect a librarian to make home visits to individual families to help them with early literacy skills (and I'm quite surprised that the district in question was actually able to do this with a teacher!). I liked some of the ideas here, though. Having the teacher (or as it would be in my case, the librarian) dress as a storybook character is a great way to promote enjoyment of books, especially if a well-known character is employed. This could really work with themed storytimes, as the article mentioned having Little Bo Peep reading sheep books and doing sheep activities. Another idea that I really love (and which I also noticed at a library visit recently) is having preselected bags of picture books to leave with parents or for parents to take home. Some families don't have books at home. It's hard for me to fathom but it's true. Providing a bag of books selected by a librarian is a great way to assure kids are getting exposure to good books, especially if the parents feel too busy to select their own books. If possible, including a sheet of information about the books and how they help with different literacy/readiness skills could add to the effectiveness of such a bag but may not always be possible. Still, I think this is a great idea.



Spewock, T. (1988). Training Parents to Teach Their Preschoolers Through Literature. The Reading Teacher, 41(7), p. 648-652. Retrieved from JSTOR database.