( Afternoon )

Phew!!!

For those dying to know what I do here is a sample day at work.

( The Morning )

This is my second bike to work and Havenwood day. Today at Havenwood I plan to do "Here we go round the Mulberry bush" with actions.

I am going to read Ms. R's favorite "WHAT!" cried Grandma along with some colourful pop-up and panel books which I have discovered the kids love. Notably a sliding panel book called What's in Old Mother Hubbards Cupboard.

I have a song for us to sing at the end from Raffi's singable songs album.

I'm looking forward to the bike ride there and back but not the rain that may be on it's way. If it starts before my program I will get a warm ride to Havenwood if not it's me versus nature on two wheels of glory!

Today is also the day to prepare for my temp level 4 interview tomorrow. What a Full day, horray!

[cross posted to libspryte]
The first two classes this morning went great! Mrs. R and me have been doing shows in Kindergarten classes to promote the local library, the programs and storytimes we offer. It's for general community outreach and to work with schools more closely in our area. Many have ESL kids and kids with additional challenges.

We started each class with "If your happy and you know it". This was followed by a story Mrs. R did called WHAT! cried Grandma then I did Knuffle Bunny.

The theme was easter and we had puppets too! I brought Chocolate Bunny to help tell my stories and Mrs. R brought a spider to do the "Eensy Weensy Spider" song.

We did another song H.A.P.P.Y and more stories including the book I made for the branch with illustrations of the building and the staff. The kids were thrilled and kept crying "I've been there!" and "I know that library!" it was super fantastic!

We ended with the Minerva Louise story called Minerva Louise and the Colorful Eggs. Kids got a coupon for a free copy of The Subway Mouse which is a children's book based in the Toronto subway and a bookmark.

We had a good turn out at 11 people at it's peak and 14 overall between 6 and 8:30. I am very, very pleased. We had people who ranged from 6 to 60ish. People played Scrabble, Apples to Apples, the Harry Potter Trivia game, Zombies!, Checkers and Chess.

3 came from online the rest word of mouth and just drop in.

If it gets much larger we will need to move beyond the programming room however.

Yey!!! I have just been asked to do a Draw-a-story about the BURN library for a few Kindergarden outreaches to promote and synch up the branch to local schools.

This is great!

[cross-posted to mississauga and toronto_gamers]
We had a really slow night and small turn-out for our first games night at the library. Hopefully the next will be bigger and far better! I went on vacation and work-of mouth and advertising didn't happen. :(

I am hoping more peps and game fans can make it out to the next one.

The next Games night will be March 29th.
We hold it between 6 and 8 ish (8:30 is a firm stop time).
We are at:
Burnhamthorpe Public Library
1350 Burnhamthorpe Rd E (corner of Dixie and Burnhamthorpe Roads)
Mississauga ON L4Y 3V9
905-615-4635

We had tons of games available and will have roughly the same selection next month. It's a far way for people in T.O. but those in the West end can take the Route 26 from Islington.

An alphebetical listing of games follows:
Apples to Apples
Candyland
Chess and Checkers
CSI: The Boardgame
Decks of Cards
Guess Who?
FlipQuest
Lord of the Rings-The Confrontation
Monopoly-Star Wars
Munchkin 1,2 and 3
Risk
Scrabble
Trivial pursuit
Zombies (1,2 and 3 expansions)

mlik brought a game called Fluxx and Settlers of Catan (the full-size/non-travel version!)

If you have a request for a game I may own it. Post it here and I will bring it along. I have Talisman and a few other "cherry" games but I am afraid to lose the pieces especually if it doesn't get played.

A co-worker mentioned she would bring a copy of Trouble for next Games night as well.

Fun times!

So the first three and a half weeks at the new job has been fun and at times challenging. 

The challenges are all mine I realize as I could be your do as minimal as possible employee..but I am not!. The people are excellent and neat and the atmosphere is different I realize that I am unconventional and that stand out but here is what I do and have been up too while I'v been there.

-Checked out a ton of customers, interacted and got to know a ton of them while being helpful and having a pleasant manner.

-Processed a ton of holds and took note of the important patrons and regulars.

-Checked in a ton of stuff.

-Helped a whack of kids with reference and reader's advisory. I read a lot of kids stuff so it natural for me. I had fun with them pretending to be a kid as well, interested in what they were (Yu-Gi-Oh, Pokemon, Justice league whatever) and having loads of fun. I have fun with kids no matter what, they are the future of libraries, they are important to inspire.

-I also helped adults with their referenceneeds..."do you need Jane Eyre!...fine! here's the original, a junior adaptation, the film and the Coles notes". Go Rachie! Love the reference. Live the reference! Connecting people with books is awesome!

-Reader's advisory I am doing as well. Love that almost as much as reference. More connecting people and books, changing lives. If it's something I like a lot like Fantasy, Science fiction, Historical romance, Historical Mystery. Than it's even better.

-Did multiple holds lists as per the job, as well as all the other duties.

-Hung up all the signage and flyers that need to be posted an ongoing almost daily job.

-Completed trace list #1 and printed a new one to be checked when time is available.

-Added a couple new responsibilities including working with the volunteers (duties and roles still to be discussed and handed to me) and Havenwood outreach and storytime (which I will do for the first time in a couple weeks).

-Presented a powerpoint pres. (done in a few hours beforehand) on del.icio.us for the first staff meeting complete with handouts.

-Set up a del.icio.us account for BUR and populated it with over 130 links about local community interests and resources, government, library industry, reader's advisory, reference, science, storytelling and info technology links. The time saving "post to del.icio.us" button is not available so many of these were done rapidly through cut and paste. It took about a week.

-Spoke about the Peel Community Information database at the second staff meeting and how everyone should use it. (www.pinet.on.ca)

-Took the minutes at the last staff meeting and transcribed them into word.

-Arranged for OLA and chose my workshops in a day to get it all in under the deadline.

-Wrote a short review/write-up of a print resource (so as to dispell the silly idea that I am a mostly electronic library supporter) The World Today series (an excellent geographic and present day historic resource for detailed and ready data) and will present it at the next staff meeting.

-Provided Wicca/Pagan paraphenalia with a write up of the relevant meaning and symbolism for Mr. Rob at Sciences for a Multi-faith Winter holidays display.

Squee!!! Splendid.....That is all.

Yesterday and today at work I have accomplished a cr*p load! [sorry]

1) I posted all the flyers for yesterday and the new ones again today on the city and community bulletin boards, refilled all the flyers cleaned the advertising area up (twice).

2) Watched a cool co-worker "Ms. A" do a children's programme for a bunch of really young rugrats.

3) Got this month's trace list printed and double-checked last months.

4) Shelf reading 629's (car repair...ick!)

5) Did a ton of holds.

6) Helped a bunch of customers on Ref and Circ.

7) Worked on the other half of my "A is for Salad" drawings.

8) Employee Engagement survey...done!

9) Double checked and re-booked Holidays.

10) Sent a buncha work e-mails.

11) Sung a bunch a songs and made my new friend Val at circ happy.

Both Lakeview and Port Credit Libraries had a Internet sites workshop. We get together have lunch and talk about 3-5 sites that we looked into that we feel have useful content, are helpful web tools or are just fun. Some far better than others. Here are th highlights out of the dozens presented. Note: I have excluded any site of which I m already aware. :( sorry folks I can't list them all!:
( Read more... )

I presented the tools/sites www.flickr.com, del.icio.us, and www.pageflakes.com. I felt kinda exhausted and blah so I hope people enjoyed it. I found myself far less enthusiastic than before in my previous presentation.
My Powerpoint presentation was not viewable because the room was too big. I did it live on the web instead. I was the only person to prepare one however so I don't think anyone cared.

It was the best Internet workshop we have done to date IMHO.

Top Ten Issues Facing Public Libraries
When: Wednesday May 31st, 2006
Where: Noel Ryan Auditorium, Central Library Mississauga Library System, Mississauga, ON

( Read more... )

We had a review of the Employee Satisfaction survey that everyone took in the City. It was a great meeting I was brutally honest and it payed off big time!

Usually these meeting end up beng about talking how great our jobs are and no one ever challenges or criticizes anone or anything. Everyone is vividly aware that subtle tensions and issues with the system lie under the surface but no one brings them up and everyone keeps smiling. Yesterday everyone was talking. It was great! We have to see room for improvement in order to improve. I want to see the branch be truly awesome. I get the sense that people understand that now.

It was fantastic!

I had a short pow-wow with my manager afterward to make sure I wasn't seeming to challenging or negative and she said she really respected and appreciated what I had done and my honesty.

Now we shall see what eventually becomes of it all over the next while. Path of least resistance and all...

So the week after this one is the OLA Superconference. It starts officially on Wednesday but nothing good happens until Thursday.

A bunch of my crew will be there but I think I will sneak away or avoid as often as possible to network. Part of why I m going this year is to learn, meet people and remember the experience of libraries on a whole. Out from under the rock so to speak.

( Read more... )

I doubt anyone else is going who reads my journal but if you are and want to tag along add a comment. The MLS crew has lunch in the CBC building...I have heard. My manager will be there.

Ah! expensive, aggressive self-directed learning.