Preparation is Key

Let's see...Friday was another full day at Mooresville, and another day without Suzanne. Much like the previous days where Suzanne was not working, it was a more free-form sort of day with Jaymi and I each doing our own things.



First in the morning, I went through most of the opening procedures on my own since Jaymi had a program at 10am that she had forgotten to get entirely ready for (see: entry title). It took me a little while to get everything done to a point where I felt comfortable. While Jaymi had her program, I sat on the desk on my own, a little bit without direction and trying to get in library mode for the day. But, I finally realized that I needed to get working on Little Tykes, so that was my plan for the day: get all my programs figured out.

Plan not entirely successful. It is a lot of work to get programs planned! For each program, I need to find 3 or 4 books and 3 or 4 songs plus some sort of activity that fits the weekly theme. Easier said than done. So, despite working on this planning all day (literally, ALL DAY), I still don't have any of the programs completely planned out. Granted, it wasn't a steady day where I locked myself away to work on planning - I was on the reference desk all day, registering people for summer reading and programs, answering reference questions, and giving reminder calls to all the kids signed up for Saturday's programs (4 different programs!). There was even a period when I was on the desk by myself and, while I was nervous at first (as I usually am about new things), everything went fine. I feel like every person I interacted with went away from the desk mostly satisfied. The only thing that really bothers me about being alone at the reference desk is when I encounter questions that I just don't know the answer to because I am new to the library. I hate having to rely on someone else for answers - I feel like I should be able to figure it out - but it's just a fact of life here. I'm not from the area and I only work at this library two days a week for three weeks now - I just don't have all the answers!

Anyway, the day was mostly just a day of regular library business. I worked on Little Tykes all day. My process was such: look at theme. Search catalog for children's picture books that fit theme. Write down locations. Search document on sharedrive for songs and music that fit theme. Write down titles/CD information. Gather more than I need of both. Read said picture books and decide which might work. And that's about as far as I got. I have some books picked out for each week but not enough for all of them and some of the ones I chose, I'm not really completely satisfied with. I didn't do any of the music stuff yet and I still have to work on figuring out activities that preschoolers will do where I don't have to lug huge quantities of supplies back and forth (did I mention this Little Tykes is taking place off-site?).

Jaymi and I went through closing procedures and we all headed home. I am going to try to look at some of the resources I have here at home for more picture book options before I go back on Tuesday. It is much more difficult than one would aassume to select picture books for preschoolers. A lot of the titles that I was most excited about ended up being way too long or complicated for a preschool audience. I am hoping this is something that will get easier to do the longer I work in the field.

I think that's all for me today! First actual Little Tykes program is Tuesday morning so I will get to see what it will actually look like!