6.5 hours
Total hours to date: 102
The day began with a breakfast celebration/going away party for Alicia, the Young Adult Program Coordinator who is leaving to take a librarian position at a nearby state facility. Since the library is not open until lunchtime on Friday, staff from the other branch libraries also came to join in the celebration. It was a wonderful opportunity for the staff to connect, to share great food with one another, and to honor Alicia's contributions to the library. Her shoes will definitely be difficult to fill.
During breakfast, Alicia asked if I would be able to help her today, so I planned to help her after breakfast. I went upstairs to meet, briefly, with the Needlework in the Morning group, with whom I have developed a great fondness. I stayed for a few minutes to catch up on everyone's new projects and asked for advice on a scarf I am making. Then, I hea
ded back downstairs to help Alicia with some projects for the Summer Reading Program. She wanted me to cut out nametags for the different Hunger Games teams (Team Katniss, Team Peeta, Team Gale, and Team Rue). These nametags would be given out when young adults come to sign up for the SRP and these teams will help determine whose names get to go in a pot for the big prizes--2 ipads! I cut out nametags, then laminated them and started cutting them out, again, and while I worked on these things, I had the opportunity to discuss YA collection development with Alicia. We discussed how she goes about choosing materials for the YA sections in each library. She tries to keep up with the up and coming new books as they are released so that they will be available to patrons on their release date. She also keeps up with series books, considers patron and staff requests, and uses published reviews to help her make decisions. She also keeps in contact with local schools, making sure to stock books on their separate reading lists, as well as award-winners and Battle of the Books titles. She is given a specific amount of money for each library branch each month which can be spent on titles for that library. She keeps up with all orders as well as items received, backordered, etc. using a spreadsheet. I was also able to give her some contact names and phone numbers for local volunteer fire department chiefs through my father, who has served as the President of the governing board of one of the local fire departments during his retirement. Alicia has had difficulty making arrangements for filling a 30 x 30 foot pool for the SRP kickoff activity, and she wanted to seek help from local fire departments. If she is not able to find a suitable way to get the pool filled, she will have to scrap the activity.
She also showed me her new logo for the BCPL Summer Reading Program. Since she opts not to use the SRP materials put out by the state library, she hires a graphic artist to create a logo for the program. This theme was determined using input from her YA student committee. We discussed possible ideas for library displays based on this theme and logo.At about 1:15, I met with Dr. Moeller, my ASU professor who is supervising my internship. We discussed how my internship experience is going. As a whole, I have tried to get a really good overall picture of the inner workings of the library, and I have had the opportunity to see a variety of programs, meetings, and library procedures in action. The staff at BCPL have been welcoming and accommodating to my many questions. During my time here, I have tried to gather information all along the way and I have tried to be of service while I was learning. I shared with Dr. Moeller that although I have not had much experience with producing tangible products during the internship, I have learned a great deal about a wide variety of library roles, functions, tasks, and responsibilities. I feel comfortable working with the public and I feel comfortable with patrons of all ages--from the babies and toddlers, to the young adults, to the adults and older adults who frequent the library. I am also fond of working in the NC room, where I've been able to help people with genealogical and other local research as well as work on a project where I've been privileged to document archival items for the library collection. One of the things we talked about was a certain tedious task I have had the opportunity to do, on occasion. It involves cutting out a very detailed bird head that some of us have come to call the "angry bird" because it takes so long to cut out. Here are some photos:
After my meeting with Dr. Moe, I went downstairs to join in on a Taste of Culture meeting with Mr. Wilson, Alicia, and Cassie. Since Alicia is leaving, Cassie is taking on some of her responsibilities related to the Taste of Culture event to be held on Saturday, May 12. They discussed what needs to be done at this point to prepare for the event: verify all performers; check for special requests such as sound, water, space, or electricity needs; prep for Friends book sale in the meeting room of the library; finalize and document marketing strategies. The event is being advertised through the usual channels in the library--posters, fliers, etc.--but is also being advertised in the local newspaper, radio station, and WHKY tv station. They also discussed possible prizes for those participants who get their passports stamped at each station. Final prizes need to be confirmed by the 27th and discussed at the next meeting at 5:30 on that day. They are meeting later than normal to accommodate Alicia, who will be working on a contract basis, to help finish out some of the programs and activities that she had been planning as part of her YA duties. They also discussed requirements for a grant that they had received both for the Taste of Culture event and for the ASU Steel Drum Band which will be performing on Saturday, April 21. Any marketing, such as news articles, even if they are printed after the event, should be turned in for the grant documentation.
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