Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays?

We all close in observance of Christmas Day, but don’t you want to wish your patrons a merry Christmas? I do, but then you don’t want to offend any patrons of you’re so how do you wish them a merry Christmas or a happy holidays? Do you even wish them anything, or do you just tell them to enjoy their weekend?

I personally wish everyone that I know a merry Christmas, but for those I don’t I’ll wish them happy holidays, but during these holiday season I very rarely forget to wish them something. Come next week, I’ll be wishing everyone a happy new year! So I hope whatever you believe that you wish happy holidays or a merry Christmas to your patrons!

Merry Christmas and happy holidays!!

Small Town Librarian

No More Library Mascot

Giles, our library mascot, died on Sunday. Now Giles has been with the library for about three years. Now without Giles, we have no library mascot, but we can’t replace Giles. So we came up with another wonderful idea! My boss is out on the hunt for a new betta fish, one that catches her eye, and then we’re going to have our patrons name him! We’ll probably have a container that the patron can stick their name suggestion in, and then my boss will probably choose the name out from the container. Although naming a fish seems like a very small thing, it will help improve your relationship with patrons, plus you’ll have that one lucky patron who can say “I named the fish!”

Small Town Librarian

Decorating for Winter

Decorating for winter is one of the most fun things to do when you’re working at the library. Having your library decorated for well known holidays also brings joy into at least one persons life, and sometimes it’ll make your librarians happy. Here are some great ideas to decorate your library for winter and holidays.

• Paper snowflakes – These are easy, and are just beautiful. If you have a teen volunteer this would be a great job for them to do! Also print off the templates, that way your volunteers know what to cut.
• Little stuffed snowman add a cute touch to your library, or you could go to Hallmark and find one that sings, which brings joy to just about everyone.
• A small artificial Christmas tree
• Artificial pine garland that you could put on a shelf behind the desk.

I hope these ideas will help you decorate for winter, tell me and share what you did to your library to decorate it for winter!

Small Town Librarian

 

We’re Almost There

I’ve blogged about how to upkeep your libraries collection, what books you should add to your library, what are some great fundraisers to keep your library open, how to fight at a town meeting, and many many more. Well 2010 is quickly coming to an end, and soon it will be April 2011, and budget cuts will be back in everybody’s minds, so I think you all deserve an update on everything.

Since starting this blog, my library has started Book Drop Books and Better World Books to get rid of our discards and to make some extra money, we’ve been weeding all the time to make room for new books, we are constantly getting new additions to our collection, our letterbox is still there and has been visited several times, Susan bought magazines from a local Girl Scout, the library board continues to think of new fundraising and event ideas to help the library, our Facebook page is now at 71 fans!!! I ask my patrons for any books or items that they would like to see in the library and I pass it along to Susan, we aredoing very well with our budget and have gotten word out in the newspapers! All in all, we’ve done very well and as tomorrow starts December, we’ve accomplished a lot, but now I want to know what did your library accomplish over this year? Has it been an easy year, a hard year, or about the same as last year?

Small Town Librarian

Outgrowing Update

I posted a could weeks back about outgrowing a library, let me just tell you since I told my boss my revelation, we have weeded out VHS, JFIC, and EJFIC. We have moved our BOCD, on the shelves that once held VHS, we’ve moved our music CDs to shelves that once held VHS, we also moved some of the NF DVDs and T – Z DVDs to where the CDs & BOCDs used to be. The JFIC section has been weeded and have moved into the children’s section. The YA section now has three and a half more shelves of room!! All of our collection is still growing, and sadly come two months from now I’ll be back in the same position wondering, how we can fit this one book that I’m trying to shelve.

Small Town Librarian

Teddy Bear Sleepover

Who owns a teddy bear? These fluffy, cute, and cuddly animals are owned by just about every child.  A great free event to hold at your library is a Teddy Bear Sleepover!

Teddy Bear Sleepover Plan

Books:

• Corduroy
• Winnie the Pooh

Songs:
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear

Teddy bear, teddy bear, touch the ground
Teddy bear, teddy bear, turn around
Teddy bear, teddy bear, show your shoes
Teddy bear, teddy bear, that will do
Teddy bear, teddy bear, go up stairs
Teddy bear, teddy bear, say your prayers
Teddy bear, teddy bear, turn out the lights
Teddy bear, teddy bear, say goodnight

Great Big Bear

The other day
I met a bear
a great big bear
oh way up there.
The other day I met a bear, a great big bear, oh way up there.

He looked at me
I looked at him
He sized up me
I sized up him
He looked at me, I looked at him. He sized up me I sized up him

He said to me
“Why don’t you run”
“I see you aint,
got any gun”
He said to me, “Why don’t you run? I see you aint got any gun”

And so I ran
Away from there
But right behind
Me was that bear!
And so I ran away from there, but right behind me was that bear!

Ahead of me
There was a tree
A great big tree
Oh Glory Be!
Ahead of me there was a tree, a great big tree, oh glory be!

The nearest branch
Was ten feet up
So I had to jump
And trust my luck
The nearest branch was ten feet up, so I had to jump and trust my luck.

And so I jumped
Into the air
But I missed that branch
Oh way up there
And so I jumped into the air, but I missed that branch oh way up there

Now don’t you fret
And don’t you frown
‘Cuse I caught that branch
On the way back down
Now don’t you fret and don’t you frown, ‘Cuse I caught that branch on the way back down.

The moral of
This story is
Don’t talk to bears
In tennis shoes
The moral of this story is: Don’t talk to bears in tennis shoes

This is the end
There is no more
Unless I meet
That bear once more!
This is the end, there is no more. Unless I meet that bear once more!

The end, the end
The end, the end
The end, the end
The end, the end
The end, the end, the end, the end, the end, the end, the end, the end

Crafts:

A couple coloring pages with bears doing stuff, like painting, eating honey, sleeping, and of course when all else fails Winnie the Pooh is always there for you!

Spray paint some wooden bears, brown, and hide them around your library. Keep them out of the room where you’ll be for most of the night, but keep them close bye so that the kids aren’t running around!

Snack:
Teddy grahms are great! Especially if you can find the honey ones, because they’re bears and the like honey!!

Milk and juice

Home made chocolate chip cookies (the kids love these)

Extras:
When the kids pick their teddy bears back up, make sure you have some notes from their teddy to them. If you can remember who’s bear is who’s personalize it!!

Good luck!

Small Town Librarian

Library Mascot Update

A while back, I posted about Library Mascots. Now, seven months later, it is still one of the most searched blog posts here, so I decided to give a little update on Giles, my library mascot.

Giles, the beta fish, is doing wonderful! We’re having kids come in all the time asking to look at Giles and see how he’s doing. Giles is great, and he’s the beginning of our library mascot, when Giles leaves us there will be a Spike or a Xander.

How is your library mascot? Does your library even have a library mascot?

Small Town Librarian

Author John Green

Author of Will Grayson, Will Grayson, An Abundance of Katherines, Paper Towns, and Let It Snow: Three Holiday Romances,  is known among teens as John Green, half of the VlogBrothers. John and his brother Hank talk to each other for 4 minute videos every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. They talk just about everything. In July, John went to ALA’s Annual Conference, he even did a 4 minute video about it. Check it out here

Small Town Librarian

Outgrowing Your Library

It’s every librarians worst nightmare, shelving a book and realizing that there is no more space! The first thing you think of doing is weeding, but then you realize that you just weeded last week! You try to move stuff over just to make enough room for that one book, but you realize that the second another patron comes in with a book that belongs in that section, there is no way that you’ll be able to fit it! What to do!! Now, I don’t have an answer for this, but I just realized this problem this afternoon when I went to shelve not only a YA, and all of the JFIC section, book, but also a BOCD!! There is no more room for either of these items, and the DVDs are getting there, same with the CDs! We just weeded, but it’s getting apparent that we’re outgrowing our library! Either we need more shelf space, or we need a larger library!

Do you have any hints? Or have you encountered this nightmare while working?

Small Town Librarian

The Cardturner by Louis Sachar

The Cardturner by Louis Sachar, author of Holes, is about Alton, a teenage boy, who is forced to play bridge with his blind, dying, uncle in attempt to get Uncle Trapp Lester, to add his family into his will so all of Alton’s family’s money problems would disappear. Alton slowly starts to fall in love with the game of bridge while being Trapp’s cardturner. Alton starts playing at home attempting to understand the game and become a better bridge player. When Trapp dies Alton doesn’t let the game go, and neither does Trapp. Trapp and his first bridge play, Annabell channel there bridge experience through the children. Trapp talks to Alton, while Annabell talks to her granddaughter Toni. The Cardturner is wonderfully written and not only follow’s Alton’s life and how he’s feeling, but also adds in a little bridge. This is a must read book for all genders, and I highly recommend it!

Small Town Librarian