Been A While

I realised I hadn't posted anything new in a while. This is mostly because not much has been happening/I have been ill most of March.

Aside from midterms there hasn't been much going on in the Education of Librarian Elise. One would think that midterms would be educational but sadly they are not. However one of my midterms was a presentation/paper on a library visit. This was helpful both as a future librarian and as a current nanny.

I decided not to go to one of the city branches because frankly they all disappoint me by doing the bare minimum of programming and outreach and sometimes they even fall short of that. Last autumn I tried to find a storytime/lap-sit to take the wee redhead too in the winter months but there was nothing in our area. I called about four different branches and they didn't offer anything.

Anyway I decided to got to the nearest north suburb to see what they were offering children and young adults. I got to talk to the director of the library (which was the main point of this assignment since it was for my management class) and I talked to a young adult librarian. Both of these individuals were highly interesting and reminded me that library school is not indicative of actually working in a library. They were able to answer my questions and were very happy to talk to me. I imagine it would be nice to see a future member of your profession, a sort of confirmation of the work you are doing.

The library itself was amazing. This is one of the more wealthy suburbs and they recently renovated their children's and young adult sections. I will need to take the wee redhead to the children's department, it is like an indoor version of The Secret Garden, I was truly in awe of what I saw. The young adult section was similarly awesome, it is full of bright colors and comfortable seating along with a wall of television/computer monitors for video game nights.

The programming is really phenomenal too, there were lap-sits for the 0-12 month crowd, storytimes for the toddlers and preschoolers, and after-school activities for the elementary students and young adults as well as adult programming. It was really fantastic to see a library really trying to reach their community, especially in the young adult age group, those are the kids that are difficult to get into the library but the most important since they will become library supporting adults.

It is really sad that I live in a city with one of the largest public library systems in the country but the suburban library just outside the city is outdoing and outshining that system. This is one of the reasons people move out of the city when they have children and it is truly a waste of librarians and resources.