Cathy the Librarian

I guess this is going to be a recurring theme in my posts. I haven’t written in this blog in so long because I’ve been trying to work on the two blogs that I started for my library. It’s frustrating trying to come up with new and interesting things to say to kids, because you want them to keep coming back. Plus I’ve been trying to finish up story time. Only two more weeks left! Not that I’m excited or anything…

I also invited the high school seniors portfolio class to paint a mural in the children’s area. It’s starting to look so cool!

On a non-library note, I finally convinced my husband that we need to add on to our little family. So now all the work begins!

I will encourage myself to write in this more often, but sometimes I forget how crazy life gets. Blegh

Hi! It’s been a long time. I was upset at my blog. The skin wasn’t working the way I wanted to, and everytime I would look at it, I would get more and more discouraged. Plus the chatter box (or whatever) was acting up and then the Weather Pixie stopped working! Then I wouldn’t want anything to do with the thing, so I stopped posting for a while. I revamped the blog and took out all the superfluious elements of the blog. I was a little upset getting rid of the stuff, but I didn’t really need it… and anyway, I’m back now!

Story times are better. I’m more “stern” with some of the kids, but then I don’t try to let it bother me if they misbehave. I also encourage the parents to stay with their children sometimes if they get too excited. That works sometimes.

During April recess I’m going to have a Kids Disco! Everyone gets to dress up in 70’s clothes (including me) and we’re going to dance like its 1974! I’m also going to start a Chess Group during the week off, and see if the high schoolers want to keep doing it. I think it would be a lot of fun. I hope I can encourage them to see how much fun it’s going to be.

I just joined a list on Topica called Next Generation Librarian (or something like that). I hope it will help me to connect to other librarians my age.

Well I guess I won’t go on too much. There really isn’t too much to say anyway (that’s pretty pathetic, considering I haven’t written in over a month!) I do think I should say… YEAH I’M A NEW AUNT AGAIN!!! Her name is Rachel Paige, and she is 7lb, 4oz. She’s very cute and red and I already love her to death. I guess I can wait and enjoy life as a free woman a little longer, especially if I’m going to get cute nieces like the two I now have!

So Tuesday I had my Anime discussion group. Boy talk about weird times. There were six people at the meeting (not including myself), which I was quite happy with, considering that I didn’t expect anyone. There were two boys that I think may have been in sixth grade. Their sisters: one in eighth grade and one in ninth grade. A boy who I think was a junior in high school but he could have been a very dirty thirty-year-old. And a girl in college who was probably a freshman. Pretty interesting. They didn’t stop talking once, which was wonderful for me because my knowledge of anime was exhausted in five minutes. They even said that they wanted to meet more than once a month! (I was impressed, but I’m already burnt out at month nine, so I changed the subject pretty quickly). Overall I was very pleased, however I have to find a way to make it last more than a couple months.

On a cheery note. The weather in upstate New York has been dismal. The temperature has been below zero and the snow has been blowing all over the road making conditions pretty horrid. Unfortunately its not bad enough to close the library, but I was able to cancel the story time for 6 – 7 year olds, with the scary child in it! One week free of scary boy! One disappointing side effect is my fingers and toes feel like they were going to fall off. Oh well we can’t have everything.

My boss decided at the spur of the moment to check out the library’s policy on maternity leave. After one year, I can get 12 weeks unpaid leave. So she gave me her blessing to be fruitful and multiple! I’m not happy about the unpaid part, but I can’t expect everything. She just said that before I give birth I need to make sure that I have someone to cover story time because she won’t do it. I guess I can handle that. 🙂

Just thought you guys should know…

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Anyway. I had to take a stuffed dinosaur away from a kid yesterday because he was hitting other kids with the thing and then he started to hit his head into the wall and a few times he ran out of the story time room. I had everything organized and planned. I think my first stupid thing to do was starting 5 minutes late. About five kids all came in 5 minutes late and totally disturbed any sense of peace there was. Then one of the kids had to go pee and I was afraid that everyone else was going to have to go pee. Luckily this didn’t happen. However just as I had all the kids sitting down (for the most part) and coloring pictures, the power went out in the library. The power went out in the story time room… where there are NO windows! Somehow all the kids got out. I do like being a librarian? What’s going to happen when I’m a mother!?! Jeeze.

I have an Anime discussion group today. My first. And there was a big write up in one of the local papers. So now I have another thing to worry about, since I’ve been reading the stuff, but I really am not an expert, so I hope the kids aren’t expecting much. 🙁

And tomorrow is my dreaded 6 – 7 year old story time. I heard that the woman I had trouble with has been kicked out of other libraries and other story times and that she has a habit of suing places she’s renting. My lucky day! Oh well. I figure I’ll read a few longer books and then do a craft (we’ll be making paper pizzas this time). Wish me luck!

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!

I’m a public youth services librarian in the Rochester, NY area. As woman in her twenties, I haven’t had too much experience as a librarian yet, but the experiences I have had have been very interesting.

I’m also a relatively new mother of a little guy who keeps me on my toes. Thank god he’s so darn cute because I might have lost my mind.