Bryce’s 5 Questions

So if you hang out with me here at Mel’s Desk you know that I’ve struggled in the last couple of years to have time for a regular posting schedule. Well, I made it all the way through July posting every Tuesday and Friday and I didn’t want to ruin my groove but didn’t have a post planned…

…enter Bryce’s blog post from yesterday! She shared the five questions she is asking all of the youth librarians in her new system as she starts to learn about the libraries and gets to know the staff. At the end of the post, she asks, “How would you answer these?”

Here’s how, and thanks for the questions, Bryce!

1. Can you tell me a little bit about your summer reading program?

What I like best about our summer reading program is the baby & toddler record we have created for the last 8 years or so. Like many other libraries, our “reading” record for the littlest ones has spots for caregivers to mark off days that they’ve read with their babies, and also mark off activity ideas such as, “Sing the ABC Song,” “Name all the food on your baby’s plate,” and “Tell a story from your childhood.”

2. How/Why did you become a librarian?

After college I worked in a large independent bookstore and wound up helping in the children’s section because I knew so many of the books. There I fell in love with talking to kids and adults about books, information, and ideas, and after a few years of bookselling, left to get my MLIS. My library philosophy has grown and deepened over the years, but everything I do still springs from that awesome intersection.

3. What is you favorite part about working at your library?

I love my department. We are focused on child & family services for children birth through 5 years and everyone on the team is working at the top of their game and providing support to our community in different, creative ways. We are offering a depth and breadth of service that I think is pretty cool.

4. What are some challenges you face as a YS librarian at this library? Do you have any tips for me?

One of my current challenges is learning how I can provide ongoing, personalized storytime mentoring and peer learning opportunities to a team of 15 people who work at 6 different branches. Getting around to spend time one-on-one with everyone as often as possible takes constant engineering and juggling of other responsibilities. However, based on my first year, my tip to anyone in this situation would be that the time and effort it takes is completely worth it and will continue to pay back exponentially.

5. What is your favorite program you provide? Would you mind if I dropped in to see it sometime?

We are lucky at my library that we are able to offer a robust variety of programs specifically for our babies, toddlers, and preschoolers and their parents and caregivers. I have to say though that regular old storytime is still my favorite: Here’s this amazing event that with the same basic underlying structure can provide a magical, rich, enjoyable literacy experience for pretty much any combination of kids of any age with any background in any size group that walks into the room.

Come over, Bryce, come over! You can drop in any time 🙂