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HomeMy WebLinkAboutOperational Report from Marsha To: M. Rebecca Loader, Library Director From: Marsha Tubbs, Children's Librarian Subject: April 2003 Operational Report Date: 4.28.2003 I. Programs A. Preparations are underway for summer storytime. Since the Melsa theme for 2003 is "Explore Bright Ideas at the Library", I thought it would be a nice twist to have our PreK patrons explore their imaginative careers at the library. We will be featuring magicians, fire fighters, entomologists, gardeners, space explorers, and several more "wanna bes". Each participant will take home a hand crafted item as a remembrance of their exploration time. B. Statistics April Program Title Date Children Adults Kindergarten 7 -Apr 19 2 1 st grade 4/7/2003 13 1 1 st grade 4/7/2003 15 1 6th grade 4/7/2003 27 1 4th grade 4/9/2003 24 1 5th grade 4/10/2003 16 1 8th grade 4/10/2003 14 1 2nd grade 4/11/2003 24 1 5th grade 4/11/2003 16 1 Preschool Fieldtrip 30-Apr 19 4 Preschool Fieldtrip 4/30/2003 17 4 II. Collection A. Inventory of the Y A collection is complete. I was surprised to discover that the charge assumed lost status within the collection was considerably higher than either the J non-fiction or the J Fiction sections. Perhaps we need to market the phone renewal number a bit more aggressively to this group of readers. B. I will be working on collection development in the Y A Fiction section during the month of May. Each spring since 2001 we have evaluated the circulation within the Y A collection in an attempt to get a handle on what Columbia Heights Teens are reading. As a result of the evaluations I have been purchasing more mysteries, romance and fantasy titles and less of the "troubled teen" materials. I have also added more browsing materials in the non-fiction areas and graphic novels. As a result the circulation within this section is increasing. C. I placed another large order to Baker and Taylor this month. Books were received and added by 4/28. D. F or the last two years we have purchased tapes and CD's through B&T. The last CD order I placed through B&T resulted in a shipment of books not CD's. B&T could not locate the ISBN's we placed with the order and choose to substitute with books. The Director and I have discussed a potential E. standing order option available through Listening Library; however, I am reluctant to commit to a standing order at this time. I am investigating other options. III. Projects A. National Library Week programming in the children's department involved two prize drawings and the distribution of book lists and activity sheets. The Department gave away a Blues Clues board game and a Trivia game to two lucky winners. The library distributed nearly 300 pencil toppers announcing the Library's 75th anniversary along with National Library Week 2003. Bulletins boards throughout the building featured famous readers from within the community and balloons proclaimed "@ the Library" the slogan adopted by the American Library Association. B. Due to scheduling conflicts, I was unable to attend the MELSA workshop on April 3. But staff member Kelly Olson stepped up in my place. The workshop dealt with school readiness and the ways that schools, libraries and parents can work together to ensure that all preschoolers are ready for Kindergarten. Kelly's report follows: I attended the Libraries, Parents and Schools: a Partnership to Achieve School Readiness on April 3, 2003 at the Ridgedale Library. Elaine Czarnecki and Gilda Martinez, Reading Specialists presented the workshop. The goals of the workshop were to familiarize participants with the most current research on how to help young children start school ready to learn to read; give participants an overview on how kindergarten teachers assess their readiness; and to demonstrate how libraries can use the information in their storytimes. It was interesting to hear feedback from the participants, hearing their ideas and suggestions on how they are incorporating some of these things. Some suggestions included: using name tags to get kids familiar with letter recognition, when reading stories, ask questions about the story you are reading getting the kids more involved, point out words that might not make sense to the kids, use stories that rhyme so they become aware of the sounds in words, and use non-fiction in storytimes. Basically, I think we all have the same goal when we are dealing with kids who are getting ready to go off to kindergarten. We all want them to be ready to learn, and by using some of the ideas suggested, we can all work together to make it possible. IV. Staff A. Cristy Tombarge, Library Aide established a photography display in our display case this month. The display featured children's books on photography, baby pictures of children's department staff and photographic equipment. She is working on May's display now, which will feature the crafts being offered at our summer storytime programs. As a part of revamping our Summer programs, Cristy has also developed a series of treasure boxes (gadgets, thing-a-ma-jigs,gizmos and whirligigs). The boxes will be used to house incentives for the MELSA reading program this summer. She also aided in bulk loan preparations, bulletin board prep for the coming summer, photocopying Summer Reading Fun flyers and newsletters. B. Kelly Olson, Children's Department Clerk Typist, attended the MELSA workshop (see above), participated in the City's Bring Your Child to Work Day program by providing a book discussion time on site for eight visiting children. Kelly placed and received three book orders during April. She has spent a considerable amount of time dealing with our magazine supply difficulties. Back issues are now pouring in and keeping track of missing titles vs received titles is time consuming. C. Pages have been preparing the paperwork generated as a part of upcoming summer programs: 1500 flyers have been produced in house and counted into packets of 20 for distribution through District 13 schools, booklists have been compiled and produced, cut and stapled; reading records are being numbered and registration forms produced. They also aided in the completion of the Y A inventory and shifted the EJfiction and JNon-fiction collections.