Week Three

         This week I worked two days in the library. I was able to take a day off of work and be at the Biloxi Library for the Preschool program in the morning and the After School program in the afternoon on Groundhog Day, February 2nd.  Liz and I were there early getting the Children’s area ready, putting the chairs in place for the moms and grandmothers that bring the children and getting the cart out with our craft that we had worked on. Liz has the Preschool program every Thursday morning at 10 a.m. The children began arriving slightly before 10 and ranged in age from a 5 week old to 5 year olds. The infant was just along because Mom and older siblings were there.

The program started out with Liz introducing me to the children and then I read a story to them, Go to Sleep Groundhog by Judy Cox. They were very attentive as they are very used to attending story time at the library. And they ask a lot of questions and participate when asked about the story. Liz and I then did a poem about Groundhogs and their shadows with paper puppets we made for the activity. We sang some songs about Groundhogs and then we went in the courtyard with the children to see our own shadows and step on each others shadow. Liz then read one more story I had selected, Bear Shadow by Frank Asch.

 The morning wasn’t over yet as we still had a craft for the children to do. When we had discussed activities for the program I mentioned to Liz what I had put on my calendar for my LIS 492 final project. It was a construction paper groundhog popping up out of a paper cup. When I started telling her she pulled out the picture of the one she was thinking of doing and it was the same principle so, that is what we did with the children, only we copied and cut our groundhogs for them to color. The children enjoyed the activity and were thrilled with their groundhogs to take home.

After the preschool group was gone I assisted Liz in working on her two bulletin boards that she is responsible for, one in the children’s area and the other in the teen area. Since Mardi Gras is later this month that is what the focus is for the boards. In the teen area we printed facts about Mardi Gras on “doubloons” in the three colors of Mardi Gras and placed them on the board with the saying, “Did you know?”  For the children’s board Liz, as I am not an artist, drew and cut out a large Mardi Gras mask in green. We then decorated it and made poster board “feathers” that we put the name, date, time and place of some of the parades in the area. At the bottom we also included the website that shows the parade routes for interested parents. Around the huge mask we placed Mardi Gras symbols. I will try to take pictures next week as I did not bring the camera.

By this time we were waiting for our After School group that was due at 4 p.m. And we kept waiting until about 4:45 p.m. when one child showed up. I unfortunately had to leave by 5 p.m. as I had a night class to attend so I was not able to stay so Liz worked with her and really let the child read the book, Shadow by Marcia Brown. I had selected that book for the older children along with a book containing facts and fun items about groundhogs. It was called The Groundhog Day Book of facts and fun by Wendie Old. At the end there were questions that I had planned to ask the children, had we had any. I was a bit disappointed that the older children did not show up, but Liz said she just never is sure how many will show up. She has tried having them sign up, but that isn’t always a sure thing either. Same has happened with the TWT group, we tried it both ways sign up before or just take you chances, and it all ends up about the same.

It was and interesting day on Thursday, not like Saturdays at all. The weekend patrons tend to go for the DVD’s and when there is something planned such as TWT, then we have children and parents. The patrons for Thursday were more interested in locating books and using the computers. I did take sometime to go into the Genealogy Department where I was given a brief tour of their Archives Room. It is very impressive, especially since it is all brand new equipment since Katrina. They are presently rebuilding their inventory since the storm since they were able to salvage very little. I hope in the coming weeks to be able to work with them and learn more about the department and what it has to offer.

My second day at the library this week was very ordinary and not much going on, the biggest excitement was the noisy meeting taking place in one of the rooms available to patrons.  It was basically a very slow day and once I had helped cover lunches at the Circulation desk I pulled the list off the library’s website for the requests from the other libraries in the system. The actual pulling of the material and checking it in for transport took the rest of the afternoon with a couple of interruptions to stop and assist patrons in locating items they were looking for.  Unusual for a Saturday was the slow activity for the movie section but we attributed that to the beginning of Mardi Gras parades and the Super Bowl this weekend and now, on to watch the Super Bowl myself, just wish my Saints were there.