Brentwood Library Internship Week Three

There are two story times every Monday morning at 9:00 and 10:00, so I observed story times this week as well. This Monday, was a much more normal story time session than last week, as we had power the whole time. I got to see a different version of the baby story time because someone else was performing it. After the story times were over, I returned to the back office and continued working on my story time plan. The theme I chose was ‘imagination’ and I chose to read books such as Where the Wild Things Are and Harold and the Purple Crayon. I found a few songs that would be suitable for the theme. My next job was to pick out one of the Toddler Tubs and figure out a craft and/or snack along with a few songs to sing in between the stories. The tub I picked was called Farm Animals #1 and inside were several stories involving farm animals, mostly about chickens and cows. Before leaving for the day, Charity sat me down and we discussed my July schedule, which we decided would be Monday and Tuesday from 8:30 - 1:30 and Wednesday from 10:00-3:00. 

The next day I worked was Thursday, which tends to be a very quiet day. My supervisor did not have much for me to do, so I went back into the office once again and continued working on my story time and Toddler Tubs plans. My story time is nearly completed. I have a large list of books, so I just need to narrow it down to a few to read and about ten more to put up on display in the story time area. Also, I need to decide on a craft that would be age appropriate for the children to do. Later in the day, there was only one person working at the desk, so I was able to get some desk time. Since it was such a quiet day, not many people needed help. However, I was able to assist a few people in finding the books they needed. 

 On Friday, I went for a little field trip. The Brentwood Library and the Nature Center teamed up in this event. The theme at the library is Dream Big for the children's section, so the Nature Center developed this event in which the children could learn about night time animals. There were five different sections: story time, learning about echolocation, arts and crafts, dissecting owl pellets and learning about how fireflies communicate with each other. I was a helper in the arts and crafts section of the event and I helped the children make origami coyotes. 

Brentwood Library Internship Week Two

This was the day where I first observed the Monday story times. In these events, the librarians start off with an opening song, and then they progress to reading a picture book. Then there will usually be two or three more books and songs until the librarian moves onto a craft or snack.  The story times generally have a theme and they must have one of the Racing to Read qualities. The Racing to Read program is a program to get children more excited about read and has qualities like loving books, telling stories and learning letters.  This was a rather unique day because there was a terrible storm that caused the lights to go out in the library.   

             

   On Wednesday, I was able to attend a staff meeting. In this staff meeting, they discussed what they called reconsideration. This is when someone sends in a complaint about one of the items in the library, and then someone has to review it again. The woman in charge of this brought in some complaint sheets and passed them around, so I was able to see some of the complaints that people had about certain items. Most of the complaints were overruled. Next, the staff discussed building onto the library. The plan is to gather people’s stories to get possible donators emotionally attached to the library, so they will donate money. Lastly, the main maintenance man for the library system came in to talk about the air conditioning and heating problems in the Brentwood Library. For the rest of the time that day, I worked on story time plan. I set up in the back office and began researching themes, songs, books and crafts.

             

   Thursday was a very quiet day, so I dedicated all of my time to my story time plan. My supervisor, Charity, introduced me to something called Toddler Tubs. These are large, plastic tubs that have books and games inside to a certain theme.  These are pre-made story times that are kept in case someone who had been scheduled to perform a story time cannot do it. In this situation, one of the other librarians would get one of the Toddler Tubs out and use that for a story time. 

Brentwood Library Internship Week One

This week, I worked from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

Tuesday was a fairly basic day. My supervisor, Kelley Johnson, started off with inviting me into her office and setting up a schedule for the month of June. Going into this, I thought I might be working five days a week for five hours a day. I was pleasantly surprised when Kelley said that she wanted me to work three days out of the week for five hours a day. By the end of the summer, I will have the 135 hours that I need.

Next, Kelley took me around the library and introduced me to everyone that I would be working with and showed me around the library. Hopefully, later in the summer, I will be able to get some experience in some of the other sections, like reference, teen, or circulation.

Kelley re-introduced me to the Dewey Decimal System. I had been aware of it before, but I never knew exactly how it was organized. I have a vague understanding of it now and I have a goal to memorize the different categories.

On Wednesday, I spent a lot of time behind the desk in the children’s section. Towards the beginning, I was really nervous because I was scared I would have to deal with an impatient person.  However, it went well and I helped several people find the books they were looking for.

Thursday was a particularly eventful day. When I first got there, Kelley wasn’t there, so I was assigned a job by the assistant children’s librarian, Charity. She assigned me to a weeding project. Weeding is the process the library goes through to sort out books that are either in very bad condition or that aren’t checked out very often.

There was a list that Charity gave me that listed all of the books in the children’s section. So, the first thing I had to do was go search for all of the books. I found the majority of the books, but some of them were checked out. 

For the next step, I had to enter the data into the computer. I had to find each of the books in the system and classify them as “unavailable.” Then, I had to stamp the physical books with a stamp that said,”No longer property of the Brentwood Library.” For the books that I did not find on the shelves, I had to go into the computer and put them on hold.

After I was done with that task, Kelley arrived and we went to the Daybreak Adult Day Care Center for an outreach program. I observed while Kelley read them three stories.