Cathy the Librarian

Yesterday I told my boss about how the lady had given me trouble after story time, and I realized now that my boss is very cool! She suggested that I just stop having story time for 6 and 7 year olds. What a novel idea! She said kids that age don’t really want to sit still anymore, and if they aren’t going to appreciate what I’m doing then I shouldn’t have to stress myself out doing it anymore. I couldn’t agree more. I’m only 24! There’s no point in burning out before I turn 25.

That’s why, even though I’m slightly afraid, I’m going to try just reading one or two longer books and then doing a craft. Children and scissors frighten me. One of the pages was helping with a craft with the kids and even though we were using child safe scissors, the kids cut the page and she bled all over her white shirt. (why she was wearing a really nice white shirt when she knew that she was going to have to work with the kids I’ll never understand).

I was talking with a co-worker about this whole thing and I mentioned that things might have been different if I had taken education classes or worked in day care for a while before becoming a librarian. I got my bachelors in English and went right away to get my masters in Library Science. So there was no time to learn how to beat young children into submission. Even in my masters level courses, we really didn’t learn too much that can actually be used everyday in the library (except maybe the reference course… But since I work in a small library we don’t make much use of Bartlett’s Quotations or Who’s Who in America. Usually people just want to know what the most recent Danielle Steele book is called and if they can find it on the shelf [that’s when I titter under my breath]).

Needless to say, I really have no experience with kids, and my predecessor wasn’t much help. She basically left me a lot of junk to clean up, 30 years of books to weed and no story time rhymes or notes what so ever.

I told my boss today about how the lady had given me trouble after story time, and I realized now that I love my boss (not in that way… She’s just cool)! She suggested that I just stop having story time for 6 and 7 year olds. What a novel idea! She said kids that age don’t really want to sit still anymore, and if they aren’t going to appreciate what I’m doing then I shouldn’t have to stress myself out doing it anymore. I couldn’t agree more. I’m only 24! There’s no point in burning out before I turn 25.
That’s why, even though I’m slightly afraid, I’m going to try just reading one or two longer books and then doing a craft. Children and scissors frighten me. One of the pages was helping with a craft with the kids and even though we were using child safe scissors, the kids cut the page and she bled all over her white shirt. (why she was wearing a really nice white shirt when she knew that she was going to have to work with the kids I’ll never understand).

I was talking with a co-worker about this whole thing and I mentioned that things might have been different if I had taken education classes or worked in day care for a while before becoming a librarian. I got my bachelors in English and went right away to get my masters in Library Science. So there was no time to learn how to beat young children into submission. Even in my masters level courses, we really didn’t learn too much that can actually be used everyday in the library (except maybe the reference course… But since I work in a small library we don’t make much use of Bartlett’s Quotations or Who’s Who in America. Usually people just want to know what the most recent Danielle Steele book is called and if they can find it on the shelf [that’s when I titter under my breath]).

Needless to say, I really have no experience with kids, and my predecessor wasn’t much help. She basically left me a lot of junk to clean up, 30 years of books to weed and no story time rhymes or notes what so ever.

Maybe I should mention weeding before I head off to slumber tonight. My old boss had a thing about keeping everything, no matter the condition. So after she retired, I had quite a little job ahead of me. In about 2 months I deleted almost 1750 books. This includes easy reading, juvenile fiction, and a very small section of the juvenile non-fiction. I found one book that had a copyright of around 1920. I almost died. I found non-fiction that used the term “negro” in the index. It was almost a game to see how awful some of these books were. Needless to say, I am dreading to weed the picture books. Maybe they will all disappear before I get there tomorrow.

No such luck I’d say.

Phew! I didn’t realize that this could be so addicting! Now I have lots of web links, but almost no actual blog. Well maybe I should talk about ME some more… Considering that it supposed to be my personal journal. So anyway. I’m a children’s and young adult librarian in a small town in western New York. I like it, but sometimes it gets really crazy. It can become really overwhelming.

I’m also a modified librarian! I have a tattoo on the back of my shoulder, a nose stud (which my boss let me keep in and none of the patrons seem to freak out about) and tons of earrings. My husband hates them, but I love them. They make me feel young and carefree, although the high school students still seem so much younger than me. I’m already old, and I’m not even 25 (at least not until April).

I cut my story time from one hour to half an hour, yet they still exhaust me. I’m trying to be more organized by giving my story times themes, but then it means more work putting it together. Ergh! It amazes me all the work that public librarians have to get do, as compared to the amount they get paid. If my husband wasn’t a computer guy that I wouldn’t be where I am (a yuppie… shocking isn’t it). I actually love my life right now!

Work is really stressful to me. I don’t know why, I really like where I work. It just feels like there is just too much to do. I’m a children’s/young adult librarian (otherwise known as “youth services”) in a public library. I try to serve both groups, but one or the other can consume so much time. I especially want to make sure that the teens feel welcome at the library, because right now I don’t think that they do. It just seems hard because I don’t know what to do or how I should do the things that I want to do. I also think that it could lead to an ulcer (I have had quite a bit of stomach pain recently), but it really isn’t my boss’ fault or anyone else’s… just my own.

Errgh. Its so frustrating. I’ve got so much in my head that I can’t sit still, but I’m always so tired that I can’t get motivated.