Storytime Workload Survey: The Multiple Prep Issue

Now the Storytime Workload Survey was put together quickly, which you can tell because we totally forgot to account for the multiple-prep issue when asking, “How many storytimes could you do a week?” Thank goodness we left an open-ended comments section at the end, where you guys could put your finger on it:

If I was in charge of storytimes and could bend the universe to my will, I would change it to have 1 Lapsit, 2 Toddler and 2 Preschool storytimes each week, with Toddler and Preschool being back-to-back on the same morning. I find it easier to get set up and be enthusiastic for multiple storytimes in the same morning, rather than putting on just 1 storytime per day.

There is, of course, also the “repeat show” story time. Presenting more or less the same storytime 2 times in a row is easier than doing 2 completely different programs.

I’m answering the questions as if each storytime presented each week was completely different and not repeats or tweaks.

I think we also have to look at if these are unique storytimes, meaning is it the same storytime on bears presented 3 times or 3 separately themed or planned events. I think presenting the same program any number of times is much less stressful than coming up with multiple single use programs.

For me the questions go to not the number of storytimes but the number of preps. For example I do 3 sessions of toddler time and 2 sessions of mother goose. So a total of 5 storytimes. I would be willing do more of these programs but I would not want to add another age level.

The Thought Experiment questions are a little tricky to answer. If I presented the same storytime more than once (ex. I prepared one toddler storytime but offered it multiple times), then I could do many storytimes a week. Prepping several different storytimes would obviously be harder, especially if a craft or activity were a component.

Because of the number I do, I present the same story time material several times during the week. I vary the presentation/activity to accommodate the age group present.

If I were presenting the same storytime (same age groups, same theme/books), I could probably do more like 7 or 8 a week. But thinking about my schedule now, where I do sometimes 3 or 4 different preps a week, I went with 5. Which still might be crazy. Hard to say. Good question though!

I completely agree that whether you can present similar versions of the same storytime or if you must present all-fresh sequences makes a big difference in the number of storytimes that feel comfortable to take on. This is where the number of staff you have to provide storytimes can have a big impact on how you may arrange storytime responsibilities in ways that maximize prep time and minimize stress and burnout. And of course that is going to vary from library to library depending on the staff involved.

This is a good issue to keep in mind no matter how large your staff to use when you are negotiating the program schedule with your supervisor or coworkers. If you’re being asked to increase your storytime frequency, you might feel more comfortable saying yes if it’s understood (by your supervisor, by your publicity team/on your calendar, etc) that you will be presenting largely the same material at more than one session, or if you can agree that each staff will do all the storytimes one week and have the next week off rather than both providers giving storytimes every week. Or if you need to drop a session in order to add something new, which session would free up the most prep time if it weren’t on your schedule any more? Or whatever! The point being, this is a spot in which you can work to educate non-storytime-providers about the prep and energy storytime requires, and perhaps introduce a little gray area and points for potential compromise when a discussion about adding or dropping storytimes might initially feel more black-and-white.

More Storytime Workload posts about breaks, numbers of storytimes per week, and amount of other programming, here and at Libraryland.