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HomeMy WebLinkAboutOperational Report from Marsha To: From: Subject: Date: M. Rebecca Loader, Library Director Marsha Tubbs Children's Librarian August 2003 Operational Report August 27, 2003 I. PROGRAMS A. Summer Reading Fun We had 559 elementary school students register to participate in the Explore Bright Ideas @ Your Library program in 2003. The incentive boxes created by Library Aide, Cristy Tombarge, were a big hit. Children received a small gift at four different times in their quest to read 30 books. At summer's end, 75 children had completed their reading records and read a total of30 books or more over the summer. B. LIBRA We had 171 teens registered for this program in 2003, not a significant increase over last year, though it is hard to determine the potential growth of the program when the age levels change from year to year. A more accurate measure might be the change in the summer circulation figures for JFIC and Y A FIC since this program began. Columbia Heights has nearly doubled the circulation in all areas related to juvenile and young adult literature since this program began in 1999. The intent of the LIBRA program from its inception was to draw teens into the library and to promote the reading for the FUN of it over the summer months. Judging by the circulation increases, I would say the LIBRA program has been successful. For additional information on the LIBRA program, please see the attached report. C. Volunteers There were 18 people that volunteered in the children's department over the last 12 months, 17 teens and one adult. The volunteers contributed 639 hours to the library. They spent time preparing crafts for programs, registering children in reading clubs, aiding in bulletin board preparations, folding of brochures, cutting and preparing forms, aiding in receiving books, and prepared articles to be used in the Library Sampler (first article to appear in September). D. American Girl There were 48 girls invited to attend Kit's Garden Party on August 13 at 2:30 pm. Each girl attending had the opportunity to create craft items reminiscent of the Depression Era: a scrapbook, a clutch purse, marble game, and a friendship bracelet. The girls also shared tea with Lucille Hawkins (Kay Stickler), who chatted with them about her life during the 1930's. Lucille was the Columbia Heights Children's Librarian in 1935. For more on this program see the attached report. E. Magazines Children's Department Clerk, Kelly Olson submitted the following report regarding the status of magazmes: We have started receiving the Polish American Monthly with the July 2003 issue; this was a donation from the Sister Cities organization. It is a two-year subscription and will be kept the same duration as the other newspapers. We also will be receiving Twin Cities Consumer's Checkbook with the first issue starting in October. Travel Holiday has ceased publication with an offer to substitute the remaining issues with Golf Magazine. Since we already are getting Golf Magazine, they will extend our current subscription of that title. II. COLLECTION A. J Fiction Inventory: The children's department has begun an inventory of the juvenile fiction collection. As a part of the inventory, I will be withdrawing single copies of unique titles from the collection and evaluating each title based on the last time the item circulated and the number of circs. This project should be complete by the end of September. B. I placed two large orders for materials through B&T this month. I am checking incoming catalogs for titles to be published by the end of the year. Hopefully I can get orders placed for the titles we will need by the end of October. This is taking a considerable amount of time, but will payoff in January. C. I have begun an evaluation of our existing magazine collection. My goal is to cancel the magazine subscriptions with low circulation and replace them with new titles. This project should also be complete by the end of September. III. PROJECTS A. Fall Storytime preparation is underway. Sessions will begin the second week in October. Preschool Storytime will be offered on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings at 10:00 am. Columbia Heights will also be offering an after-school storytime on Tuesday afternoons at 3:45. This will be a drop-in storytime for school age children. B. We have begun planning for "It's Our Birthday", the library's 75th birthday celebration. Plans at this time include a birthday party sometime during the first week in December. This will be fun and the staff is gearing up. C. Preparations are underway for Teen Read Week in October. At this time we are planning on Poetry Jams to coincide with the ALA theme "Slammin' at the Library". We will be working closely with the school district on this one. IV. STAFF A. Library Aide, Cristy Tombarge spent a large portion of her time this month in preparation for the American Girl program. Cristy also changed the book displays twice, contacted summer reading club winners, compiled statistics on the summer reading clubs, and aided in preparations for the Volunteer Recognition. B. Children's Department Clerk, Kelly Olson placed and received book orders, prepared copy for the Library Sampler, updated the Columbia Heights magazine holdings list, prepared materials for the American Girl program, produced new WEB Library brochures, teacher services brochure, and certificates for the volunteers. C. Library Pages have been hard at work taking inventory of the juvenile fiction and transactions on children's magazines. Pages also aided in the preparations for American Girl and the volunteer recognition.