Was I the last collection development librarian stuck to my desk in our collection development office? In case I’m not, I’m here to give the call to action: get out from behind your desk! I made this a priority this year and it’s completely changed how I was managing our collection.
Category: Slice of Life
posts about daily life experiences and reflections by ALSC members
Libraries During COVID: Scenes from the Empty Library
Who would have thought this is where we’d be right now? Libraries all over the US are in varying stages of opening or closed depending on their communities. It’s a weird reality of libraries during COVID. And it feels so, so strange to be working in the mostly-empty library day after day, week after week. I’m having some major feelings about it all right now. Are you, too?
An Abundance of Questions and Uncertainty
If you are like me, you are in the midst of Summer Reading planning and execution. You may also be working on plans for curbside service or well into the process of performing curbside for your patrons. Maybe your library is open to the public or will be in the near future. Or, maybe you are still working from home. No matter where you are in this stage of COVID-19, we all have a little something in common: we all have questions and feel some sense of uncertainty. What’s the next step? How do I serve my community in the midst of all these changes? What happens when virtual programming just isn’t working or kids and tweens just aren’t able to access your programs? How in the world do I put together a Summer Reading Program when I can’t have programs in the building or do outreach? What do I…
My First Love: Reading, Distraction and Enchantment
We entered quarantine here in Santa Clarita, CA on March 15. I expected to be able to get a lot of reading done. I had all this time, right? Pre-quarantine, I complained that I didn’t have enough time to read. Between my full-time work, my spouse and two kids, my church band and small group commitments, and caring for aging parents, I was busy. There was barely space in my day for me to read. But suddenly, our library closed its doors to the public. We were told to work one hundred percent remotely for six weeks. “Couch, here I come,” I thought. “My TBR awaits!”
Is it Enough?
As I write this, it has been almost two and a half months since my library closed its doors due to the pandemic. My job now, like so many of you reading this, is nothing like it once was. I had been a children’s librarian in a public library, assisting parents and children alike in the library on a daily basis; now I am a virtual services children’s librarian, and all my interactions with patrons are virtual, filtered through social media and camera lenses. I used to thrive on making personal connections with each patron who visited the library, and now I subsist on Facebook comments and video views.
Silver Lining
I know I had planned on providing an update on our Book Mobile (which is going great!) and our upcoming plans for the Summer, but I think given all that is going on in the world, I wanted to share a moment that made me smile.
Sheltering in Place : Day 5,382 – One Librarian’s Perspective
Has anyone else lost track of what day of the week it is at least once since this all began? Please, assure me I’m not the only one! I’ve lost count of Zoom meetings, Google Hangouts, and webinars. And, since I live alone, it seems like forever since I’ve seen another, actual living, breathing human being.
Greetings from My Library Cave
I’ve started referring to my home office as the Library Cave. I don’t have a She Shed, and with a house full of people (1 husband, 1 mom, three kids, a cat, a dog, and a gecko), there’s no real “home office” space. Since I have piles of books all over my home, I’ve decided to refer to my home as The Library Cave: it’s comfy, it’s cozy, more than a little chaotic, and it’s mine. So, greetings.