Intern No More

So as the sun sets today my time as an intern comes to a close. I am still slightly stunned at the amount of new knowledge and skills my mentors managed to stuff into me. I am confident, though, that all of these skills will play a valuable role in any future position I may hold, be it intern, library assistant, or more hopefully, grad student and future librarian. Thank you all for reading, and I hope my journey provided a small glimpse into the realm of a small town library!

TIE-DYE TUESDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Alright, finally, after two and a half months of learning procedures and preparing materials, Tie-Dye Tuesday finally arrived. I mixed all the dye the day before, made take-home bags and instructions last week, bravely fought off a cold, rolled everything out onto the lawn and hoped for the best. We had 36 registrants as of noon, with the program starting at one-thirty, and 36 Popsicles. We thought we were ready. Then SEVENTY-FIVE people came. Thankfully we had plenty of dye, extra juice, plenty of buckets and were able to commandeer a spare table or three. I had fifty bags made up with take home instructions. We had to get creative with the extra folks. But man, everyone was smiling, and everything, (people, shirts, socks, pillowcases, the tables, the lawn, the parking lot) was every shade of the rainbow! It was awesome!

In light of the large turnout, I would have to say that my education in advertising and program planning was successful. I mean, SEVENTY-FIVE people came. That's more than many events earlier this summer! The only things I would really change for next year are to make more instruction bags and acquire more Popsicles. Oh, and withhold the dye bottles until after the shirts got soaked since some people did try to jump the gun a bit. But every single person left with a smile on their face and multicolored hands! Just check out some of the pics on our flickr account or at some shots below!

Two Weeks 'til Tie-Dye!

So the countdown has begun for Tie-Dye Tuesday! In one week registration will begin. So now the work of promotion comes into play with posters, previously tie-died shirt bulletin boards, and of, course, this blog! A week after that, and t-shirts, socks, pillowcases, the library lawn, a whole bunch of kids, and myself will be all different shades of the rainbow! haha.

In other news, the world has officially stopped turning, as the book Twilight by Stephanie Meyer was checked in, and was not on hold for anyone. This is the first time that has occurred for that book since its purchase several years ago.

Books for Sale! Come Get Your Books for Sale!

This week, the library played host to a Scholastic Book Fair. I found this to be an interesting approach to our perpetual goal this summer: raising money for the local food pantry SHARE. In the past, selling trinkets like bookmarks have worked well to bring in funds, and it's been a surprising week trying to sell books to go with those bookmarks.

Probably, the most critical experience I have gained from clerking this sale is the insight into how parents determine the difference between a book that should only be borrowed from our stacks and one that they are willing to purchase and bring home permanently. From simple observation, books that tend to sell in the book sale include baby boardbooks, (Some people felt that it would be better for their child to teeth on a book they own rather than one of ours.), beginner chapter books, and juvenile novels. All of the books that I have seen sell had original inventive plot, and were not necessarily tied to a specific series.

What has surprised me about what has not been selling are all of the franchised books, like those based on recent movies, video games, or popular toys. Prior to this sale, I would have thought that those would be the big sellers, since we do not have them in our collection and the kids are familiar with the icons that grace their covers. But I have not seen even one go home with a family. I guess people really are returning to basics in this recession.

Well, in any event, the Scholastic Book Fair will be continuing on until Saturday, July 18th. So come on by! Find a great book and support a good cause all at the same time!

Party with the Potters!

Yesterday's Harry Potter Party was a smashing success. We had young wizards and witches of all ages playing Quidditch, drinking potions, and crafting their very own wands! My mentors, volunteers, and myself, all got gussied up in the latest in wizarding wear to guide the young charges through our events. For scenes of the fun, follow along on our Flicker page here, or just take a look at a couple shots below:

IT'S ALIVE!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, so for the past five weeks, my mentors and I have been wrestling with Dreamweaver in an effort to create a new, user-friendly web page for our online database collection. Today, all that work came to life as that web page went live. I have made my mark on the library and it is awesome!
On the old webpage, as many of you may have experienced, clicking on a link to a database often brought you into that company's general collection of databases, thus prompting you to search for and click on the desired database again. I felt this defeated the purpose of our webpage. I mean, why list separate links for databases if they all take you to the same general list again. So for the new page, my mentor and I spent a couple weeks hunting down the direct links to the specific databases. (This process actually took longer than assembling the rest of the page. I mean, oh my goodness, one would think these links required a national security clearance or something).

But yes, after many hours of learning Dreamweaver and tinkering with graphics, links, and the rest of it, come see how it all works!!!

Half Way Home

So now a month of my internship lies behind me, and one last month lies before me. The first wave of projects have been completed, and the true tests start coming into view. The brochure on our online databases is now printed and ready for distribution and its companion website is waiting on only a few more links. The boxes of juvenile books that I started processing and cataloging a month ago are now being checked out. The cork boards of the library are littered with posters and other propaganda I printed for various programs. I find myself in wonder at all I have accomplished in the past month, and can only wonder at what awaits me in the next.