Friday's Topic: Summer Reading is Almost Coming to a Close: Part I

 As I had mentioned the other day, I am basically finished with the formal programming of Summer Reading. All that I have left is two programs by outside presenters and the parties. I will get to those later. What I want to discuss today is how I felt Summer Reading went this Summer and how I improved from when I first started 6 years ago.

 My first year as a children's librarian, I was working part time as a trainee out in Long Island with several other children's librarians. That was a great way to introduce me to the field and teach me a lot because I learned from the other librarians there. That is not to say that the first Summer Reading I ever did was not without challenges, but it was a lot easier because I had a lot of support from the other staff members.

 Then, the following year I got a job as a children's librarian in Queens. Don't get me wrong, I love my job but it was very challenging at first going from a library with several children's librarians to a library where I was the sole children's librarian. The first summer reading program at this library, I don't know how I got through it. I asked a million questions of my mentor, a talented and terrific children's librarian named Jillian. I was worried how it would turn out but I did not have specific concerns because I did not do it before, I did not know what to expect. I learned some important things that summer:

1. Make sure I plan out how I want to work the waiting list. This took me a few years to figure out because attendance in the summer is unpredictable but even with that, a pattern emerged the last few years. The pattern was that program attendance was strong in the beginning of the summer, but became more quiet later on. My latest idea was to call people and if they didn't come after 2 or 3 times, basically just write them off and let other people come. Also we told the families when we called them that we had a waiting list and if they were not interested to let me know so we could let someone else off the waiting list come. A number of parents were very receptive to this and let me know if they changed their mind about attending for the summer.

2. Make sure everything is planned out ahead and the crafts can be realistically completed. Initially when I first started Summer Reading at this library, I thought I had to have all these elaborate crafts with materials. It turned out those materials were very costly and the crafts were difficult for the children to do. I knew we had a manual but I did not play much attention to it. I learned after the summer, the Summer Reading Manual is my bible and my best friend for Summer Reading. There are so many great ideas in there that are easy and with readily available craft supplies.

3. I do not need to do separate groups for the K-3 and the 4-6 grades crowds. It turned out for my 4-6 grade craft only a handful of kids came. So I turned it into a Summer Reading Craft for school aged kids. I also discovered some collage type crafts which allow the kids to be very creative and are good for K-6 grades kids.

4. Make sure I have everything I need for the party and it is organized well before the party begins. I found it is always difficult to do the party no matter how much experience you have because of space, preparation and time constraints. I learned that though having a lot of volunteers makes it smoother and better organization helped make the party flow better.  One of the most obvious things..have two parties if you have too many kids.

I see this is a long post, so I will continue it on Monday. Enjoy your weekends all!