Thursday, May 4 8:00am – 3:00pm

Today's Hours: 7    Total Hours: 67    Hours remaining: 33

By now, I am set in my routine of turning on the computers, opening browsers (set to different bookmarks), turning on the circ computer, and opening SirsiDynix. Heather showed me the MobileCirc app on an iPad and there was an error message on self-checkout so we put up the sign to go to the desk. A high school senior who is shadowing came and Heather began showing her the early childhood program books and songs for today, talking about how much experience she has reading to young children. I checked in and out books to the students who came in.
 
After this, I performed the Little Readers story time on trees. We only had three kids and their parent but it was an energetic group and I am grateful for the experience. We sang the “little readers” song, gave them their name tags, and then I sang a song, read a book, sang another song, and read 3 more books. The parents took the worksheet home and got board books, and I gave the kids a leaf stamp on their way out of the library.
 
Back in the office, Heather chose the next three Little Reader themes and updated her 2017 list, and I added my worksheet to the Little Readers binder. We talked about Grandparents Day, which went well. She showed me a letter from a local rebinding company, HF Group (www.hfgroup.com, 8844 Mayfield Road, Chesterland, OH 44026), that can provide DigiCover for paperbacks and repair textbooks. We also discussed Junior Library Guild (JLG)’s library sale in fall and spring in Columbus (nice hardbacks for $5). It is similar to a “book of the month” club - subscribing to different levels. She went from 6 to 4 levels this year. Since they are tied in with Horn Book, she trusts their collection development review for the levels. She receives upper elementary, graphic novel, humor, multicultural, nonfiction, series nonfiction (how-to); humor is cheaper ($177.60 for the year), multicultural was $204.60 (average cost), and nonfiction is most expensive ($243). She chooses shelf ready processing ($2 for 72 books, so $144). She tried audiobooks from them but did not like the brand, Go, versus Playaways. Another company was Mackin, which did not customize as much as Old Trail’s cataloging policies request, but which has a good reputation.
 
We looked at the plans for 2nd and 3rd graders. She talked about matching to curriculum as it changes to stay current (Searchasaurus changed to Explora at INFOhio for endangered sea animals). She was going to do TRAILS assessments but since they are doing standardized testing in class, she decided to change it to activities that let them get up and find books in the library as they learn the Dewey system.
 
OTS’ school counselor sent an email out about the show 13 reasons why. Heather was kind enough to forward me the email. We also discussed that Kent and Cleveland have microfiche for many magazines and periodicals, but once, recently, she requested something and they offered to scan and email it to her.
 
A Librarian of the Day wanted Warrior Cats, which we catalogued and covered with Mylar. She ordered that from Amazon since it was cheaper; she also orders Discovery Girls and Make magazines from Amazon since it is not available from EBSCO. She lets students check out the most recent copy of a magazine, which not all libraries do, and she gets Velcro sleeves to put them in (rather than zippered) from DEMCO.
 
She got a new scanner and we talked about how to program them. She chooses carriage return, presentation mode, and reread delay (USB terminal interface).
 
We reviewed previous summer reading lists. The independent school librarian group works on creating and submitting a summer reading list jointly. This is organized using Google Groups. On the library website, she embeds this list as well as the school’s required summer reading.
 
She asks volunteers and teachers to share their recommendations as they read new books, and she also checks the ALA awards lists if there is an area that is weaker than others. When they share the lists, they knock off one year so it is the previous four, and do allow anniversary editions to be part of yearly lists. There are two versions, one with color-coded sections and color book covers, and a printer-friendly version of the lists with authors and titles only.
 
Vicky came in after lunch to let me know she appreciated seeing how I handled a parent the week prior, since I helped her with a technology question (checking a zipped file; changing icon view to see which photos she downloaded and wanted to select). She was impressed I asked, “what do you need?” and how polite I was. The parent paid for Vicky's lunch buffet at her favorite Indian restaurant in North Royalton after they talked for an hour about early childhood education (if her 5 year old is ready for K or not), which she said she probably would not have done if she hadn’t been inspired by me. I appreciated her feedback and it was a lovely boost to my dedication to positive customer service.
 
After discussing books such as Turtle of Oman and Extra Credit, I catalogued the Warrior Cat books and new easy picture books for the gift book program; we printed bar code labels for the former after running reports in SirsiDynix. 
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It was another productive and positive day and I enjoy how much experience I gained.

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