Today At The Desk....

Today was a little quieter than usual; it usually starts out very quiet, but gets pretty busy once school lets out, but for some reason we didn't get the usual after school crowd today.  There was a steady trickle of families with small children, though.  There weren't many toys and puzzles to clean up, but several faceouts needed replacing and the shelves needed quite a bit of straightening since a middle school group had been in earlier.  I also ran the report of requested items and got them all pulled, processed, and ready to send out to the respective branches by the time the evening crew came in.

I had a chance to look over some new books that had come in, but nothing really stood out.  There's usually a bit of a lull after the big summer release boom.  In between helping patrons and straightening shelves, I worked on storytime planning and collection development for the storytime bus.  I have been trying to put together a kit (assorted books & activities for a theme) for a cowboy theme, which has turned out to be a bit of a challenge.  Though there are a number of picture books related to cowboys, most of them are far too long for a preschool storytime. 

I have found 4 or 5 that I really like, and another 4 that are maybe's, and I found a few more at my local library that we do not have where I work that I've reserved so I can look over them tomorrow.  I thought expanding it to include horse books would help, but there really aren't that many picture books about horses that aren't too long, either.  There are quite a few early readers about horses, but they usually don't make the best group read-alouds.  If I can get at least 6 books I really feel good about, I think it will be doable, though.

Today all the customer service was routine, checking in returns, checking out items, helping people find materials, and validating parking.  I did see a few regulars, including the little boy who usually comes in as Batman.  However, he surprised me today by switching things up and showed up as Raphael, of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, complete with shell, mask, and ninja swords.  It was nice to see how he and the other little kids that were there played at the train table together, and then I noticed another patron's daughter helping him figure out a game on the computer.  It's always refreshing to see polite children willing to share and help others!