I can't believe our summer reading program is already half-way through (weeks 1 and 2)! We only do a short 6-week program and honestly that works wonderfully for us. We do usually get a few requests to lengthen it but we explain that our system is a massive undertaking and people have been very understanding.
It has been an interesting summer with the flooding last week. I am hoping it will not have too much of a effect on our signups and circulation, but so far they are a little behind what my goals were for this year. I am trying to remember that sometimes you're up and sometimes you're down, but as a competitive person, I always like to "beat" the year before.
We seemed to have turned a corner and are now having nice enough weather that our outside storytimes can actually be outdoors! We had a wonderful turnout for yesterday and a smaller one today, but both were well-recieved. Wednesday we had a minor incident where we had to remove a poor deceased bird minutes before starting storytime in the park and Thursday we accidentally set storytime up on top of an ant hill.
We had a very well attended performance by a local theater group yesterday. That was really fun and they put on a great interactive show. A few hours earlier, we had installed more shelving in the YA section so we weren't sure exactly where the furniture was going to go and then we had to move it anyway to accomodate the crowd (we do not have a seperate program room in our building). We have added about 30% more shelving now, and it is really giving the teen area more of a defined space. My boss also suggested we look for an area rug that would appeal to the older kids, so if anyone has any suggestions, please pass them on. We have plans to repaint the youth floor later this summer and hopefully that will help as well.
It has been an interesting summer with the flooding last week. I am hoping it will not have too much of a effect on our signups and circulation, but so far they are a little behind what my goals were for this year. I am trying to remember that sometimes you're up and sometimes you're down, but as a competitive person, I always like to "beat" the year before.
We seemed to have turned a corner and are now having nice enough weather that our outside storytimes can actually be outdoors! We had a wonderful turnout for yesterday and a smaller one today, but both were well-recieved. Wednesday we had a minor incident where we had to remove a poor deceased bird minutes before starting storytime in the park and Thursday we accidentally set storytime up on top of an ant hill.
We had a very well attended performance by a local theater group yesterday. That was really fun and they put on a great interactive show. A few hours earlier, we had installed more shelving in the YA section so we weren't sure exactly where the furniture was going to go and then we had to move it anyway to accomodate the crowd (we do not have a seperate program room in our building). We have added about 30% more shelving now, and it is really giving the teen area more of a defined space. My boss also suggested we look for an area rug that would appeal to the older kids, so if anyone has any suggestions, please pass them on. We have plans to repaint the youth floor later this summer and hopefully that will help as well.
Glad you are able to do the storytime outside. What was the theater group like?
ReplyDeleteIt's hard for me to not obsess about beating last year's numbers, too! But I am also trying to remind myself that it's okay if we're not quite the same as last year!
ReplyDelete