August 25, 2015 (120 total)

Date: August 25, 2015

Time: 10am - 6pm

Hours Completed: 8 (120 total)

Reference Desk:
Today I spend the morning with the library director at the reference desk.  We talked about chances in scheduling that occur when staff leave and new staff are hired and worked out a plan for two chances to be made to accommodate staffing requests - one to add 3 more hours to a staff members work week and one to allow a part-time staff member to work 4 days instead of 5.  It was really interesting to see how detailed the weekly schedules are to accommodate workers on the circulation, reference, and children's desks as well as roamer shifts to complete tasks such as receiving and preparing items for transit, covering staff lunch that are working the desk shifts, and working on additional duties such as covering and processing books, cleaning DVDs and CDs, and working on special projects.

Processing/Cataloging:
I spend the afternoon working with Kathy, a part-time librarian, on ordering and processing the large print fiction collection.  I few weeks ago I was offered and accepted a full-time position at the library.  I will be taking over Kathy's position beginning in mid-September (working at the circulation and reference desks,  ordering and processing large print items, and doing the fiction book display) and will then be taking over for Janine when she retires in December as the Adult Fiction Librarian/Administrative Assistant where I will take on the additional duties of managing the fiction collection and completing administrative tasks such as scheduling and training staff members, preparing material for board meetings and other meetings, and assisting the director with various projects.

Kathy gave me a general introduction to the large print collection, which gave me a good idea of what I will be doing starting in September.  The large print collection has a lot of the same aspects as the fiction materials that I have been working with over the past couple of months, but there were a some changes that include the following:

• large print items are catalogued as "LP [author's last name]"
• large print items are not separated into additional subcategories, but still get a genre sticker (especially the Christmas book)
• the library has two standing order plans per month for titles that include:

1. Spotlight Fiction (2 titles)
2. Christian Fiction (2 titles)
3. Cozy Mystery (2 titles)
4. Non-fiction (2 titles)
5. Thriller (2 titles)
6. Trade Paperbacks (4 titles)
7. Editor's Choice (8 titles)

• an average of 6-10 additional large print titles are also ordered each month
• large print items are ordered through either Center Point or Thorndike publishers
• all standing orders and titles are managed through online accounts
• large print titles are not always released on the same date as the general fiction title
• large print readers tend to have slightly more generalized reading preferences and there are several patrons who frequently request certain titles, authors, or genres of books that the librarian tries to accommodate when ordering additional titles in the collection

1000 Books:
I spend the remainder of my last official day of the internship finishing up the material of the '1000 Books Before Kindergarten' program.  I finalized several crafts that I had been working on for the past couple of weeks.  I designed 5 different craft stations that could be used along with a special storytime and/or open house for the program.  I pared each craft with a 'classic' children's picture book that was included in my top 100 list and tried to come up with a craft that meet the requirements of the age groups, was simple to complete with little staff involvement, and that used either low-cost material or material that the library already had.  The following are the crafts that I came up with:

Cookie Decorated from 'If You Give a Mouse a Cookie' by Laura Joffe Numeroff

Alphabet Trees from 'Chicka Chicka Boom Boom' by Bill Martin Jr & John Archambault

Caterpillar Magnets from 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' by Eric Carle

Monster Bookmarks from 'Where the Wild Things Are' by Maurice Sendak

Fish Collages from 'Rainbow Fish' by Marcus Pffifer

August 18, 2015 (112 total)

Date: August 18, 2015

Time: 10am - 6pm

Hours Completed: 8 (112 total)

Administration:
Today I spend the first couple of hours with the library director at the Reference Desk.  We went over some additional administration tasks such as preparing and adjusting the budget and went over more details on how the library operates on the system level.  There are a lot of changes going on with the library system, the Mid-Wisconsin Federated Library System, and it was a good chance to touch base on the many details, politics, and history of what has been going on over the past several years.

Reference Desk:
I was also able to help some patrons on more 'typical' reference questions instead of assisting with the usual printing/computer questions and placing items on hold.  I had two questions concerning the history of the Village of Germantown and the surrounding areas and I was able to become more familiar how to locate this type of information.  Roberta went through the local documents that we have behind the reference desk with me and also additional sources and places to look for documents that the library does not currently have on file.

Processing/Cataloging:
I spent the majority of the afternoon with Janine, the adult fiction librarian, reviewing processing of adult fiction.  I processed the new books for the week and put them on the shelf towards the end of my shift.  I also took off the new books from October of last year and processed them to be placed in the general fiction collection.  New books usually stay in the new book area for about six months, but they have been staying on longer in the sections at the beginning of the alphabet due to the lack of room in these areas.

This gave me a good chance to take a better look at both the new book and fiction area of the library and see how the books are organized.  We discussed some concerns with the lack of room in both areas and on potential solutions that she is working on with the library director to allow more room  for material.  Some of these solutions included weeding the print reference collection and separately shelving the Christmas and/or story collection books, expanding book shelves, and placing the books that are still important to the fiction collection, but are very old or not checked out frequently in an achieve area of the library. Unfortunately, these are mostly temporarily solutions that would only last about six months to a year, but it gave me a more realistic idea of the problems that medium-sized public libraries face - even if they are relatively well funded.

August 13, 2015 (104 total)

Date: August 13, 2015

Time: 1pm - 3pm

Hours Completed: 2 (104 total)

1000 Books Before Kindergarten:

Today I worked on finishing up some material for the 1000 books program.  I worked on reading logs and made a statement/description of the program and put together a budget & supply list:

August 11, 2015 (102 total)

Date: August 11, 2015

Time: 10am - 6pm

Hours Completed: 8 (102 total)

Processing/Cataloging:

Today I worked on processing and cataloging a few adult fiction books from start to finish by myself.  I used the steps that I had learned over the past two weeks that included unloading, sourcing, cataloguing, processing, covering, and putting out the books.  It was a great experience to put the steps I had learned into place.  

I also took off the new books from January off of the shelf and processed them.  I then processed the lease books that were being sent back to Baker & Taylor.  Below are my notes:

• New books usually stay on for about 6 months
• Put aside lease books that should be sent back to Baker & Taylor
• A - Gs are very crowded and can get left on for longer (for now)
• Take off new sticker / 14-day sticker
• Separate books into the following sections - sci-fi/fantasy, western, fiction/other
• Switch "item" and "type" in catalog using global modification
• Place books on cart to be re-shelved

I then prepared the lease books to be sent back to Baker & Taylor.  Below are my notes:

• Books should be sent back about once every six months
• Use 5 charges as a general cut off for new books that have been on the shelf for over six months
• Keep one book for every four books that are sent back
• Take off new/14-day stickers and barcodes
• Write number on packing list printed from Baker & Taylor
• Pack in boxes and write "1 of 1," etc. on front of box
• Request labels from Baker & Taylor, print, and place on boxes to be shipped

August 4, 2015 (94 total)

Date: August 4, 2015

Time: 10am - 6pm
 

Hours Completed: 8 (94 total)

Processing/Cataloging:
Today I continued to work with the adult services librarian in processing and cataloging adult fiction.  First, we checked off all of the books that had come in for the week on the order sheet.  There were about 20 of them total.  I then cataloged all of them using SirsiDynx.  Most of them were already in the system so I just had to do copy cataloging, but there were a few that we had to import from SmartPort which captures OCLC records.  Below are the notes that I took on the process:

Cataloging

• Using the cataloging module, search the ISBN number by General, Keyword, and ALL for libraries
• Find the correct record and check the title and author
• Add the call number and price to the record (round up) and scan in the barcode
• If the book is not in the catalog, capture using SmartPort
• Check for a "good" record (I, 8, etc) and check the record over for correct fields
• Delete any records that are unauthorized or too detailed
• Change the series field to match the correct '001' format
• When cataloging lease books, change the location and write 'lease' in the staff notes

After cataloging 20 books, I processed them.  This included sourcing the place where the book was brought, price, and date, typing up spine labels, putting the spine labels on the book, putting on the due date sticker, hinge taping the books, and finally covering the books.  Then I made a new books list for the books going out on the shelf and put a 'new' sticker with the date on each one.

July 30, 2015 (86 total)

Date: July 30, 2015

Time: 8am - 2pm

Hours Completed: 6 (86 total)

1000 Books Before Kindergarten:
Today I worked on some resources for the '1000 Books Before Kindergarten' program.  I made a suggested list of 100 book recommendations for children to hear before kindergarten.  I used several sources to make the list and looked at what books were on multiple lists.  I also tried to get a variety of classic and new books as well as books for different age levels.  The list of sources I looked at included:

• 1000 Books Foundation
• Cooperative CHidlren's Book Center
• New York Public Library
• New York Times
• Parenting Magazine
• School Library Journal
• Waukesha Public Library

The following is the list that I came up with:

jklj

July 28, 2015 (80 hours)

Date: July 28, 2015

Time: 10am - 5pm

Hours Completed: 7 (80 total)

Processing / Cataloging:
Today I worked with again with Janine on the adult fiction collection.  We went over some information on ordering books and then focused the remainder of our time on cataloging.  I was able to get a lot of practice cross referencing several lists of books for ordering and completing tasks in the Sirsi Dynx cataloging area of Workflows.  Below are my notes on the work that we did together:

Processing

• Unload books from the delivery on the table that are labeled "hot list" from Baker & Taylor (delivery usually comes once a week and Stephanie also orders from Baker & Taylor for children's)
• Place books on cart
• Check off books on packaging list and look at the status report for canceled / backordered
• Check the list for books that cannot go out on the shelf list
• Keep packaging list, return list, one copy of the invoice (one copy of invoice goes to Roberta) - stable together - hole punch and place in "Baker & Taylor Invoices and Returns" binder with the newest list on top and keep for 7-8 months after the book cycle is complete)
• Check off title on ordering list in black binder and write down the date that the book was received (once the list is all checked off the list can be thrown away)
• Check to see if any titles are fantasy, science fiction, mystery, western, short story and place genre sticker on the spine label

Cataloging

• Search "General / ALL" and scan ISBN
• Add call number for "Germantown" - FIC [full last name of author]
• Put barcode on back of book and scan in
• Type: BOOK28DAY / BOOK14DAY
• Item library: GERMANTOWN
• Home location: NEW-FIC
• Current location: AVAIL SOON
• Item cart: FICTION
• Item cart2: ADULTT
• Current Location: AVAIL SOON
• Price: round up
• Lease books - Add Item - Types LEASENEW / Staff: LEASE
• Sourse on versa (date 7-28-15, B&T, price
• Stamp top, versa, page 21
• Security / due date sticker
• Spine label on typewriter
• Reinforce the front and back cover with tape or clear tape
• For lease books - clear sticker over barcode, spine label and security / due date sticker

July 23, 2015 (73 hours)

Date: July 23, 2015

Time: 1pm - 5pm

Hours Completed: 4 (73 total)

1000 Books Before Kindergarten:
Today I work on creating resources for the 1000 Books Before Kindergarten program that the Germantown Community Library will be starting.  I talked to Stephanie, the youth services librarian, more about what specifically she wanted out of the program.  We talked a lot about the Germantown community and how to make the program fit the parents and children that live in the area.  One thing that was mentioned was that there are a lot of "over achieving" parents that tend to try to finish programs as soon as possible.  We discussed ways to encourage parents to spread out the program and come to the library more than once to turn in their 1000 books progress.

We also talked about the lack of staff and budget in the children's area and looked at ways to make the program low-budget and easy for staff to do.  Staff usually work at the children's desk while the youth services librarian is busy answering reference questions and working on individual tasks so programs tend to work the best when there are few steps to signing up and continuing the program.

I worked on finding additonal resources for the program and made a brochure:

And bookmarks:

July 21, 2015 (69 total)

Date: July 21, 2015

Time: 9am - 5pm

Hours Completed: 8 (69 total)

Processing / Cataloging:
I spent most of the day working with Janine, the adult services librarian and administrative assistant at the library.  Janine is in charge of selection, processing, and cataloging of the adult fiction collection.  Janine went over with me her workflows on selection and processing.  I also got a chance to try most of the steps out myself and we completed the adult fiction order for September.  We are planning to focus on cataloging next week.  Below are my notes on the work that we did together:

Know the collection - keep workflows on Germantown open to check

Collection Development Resources

• Booklist 
• Publisher's Weekly
• Baker & Taylor Forecast
• Library Journal (pre-pub)
• bbol.com - Libraries - Public Libraries - Automatically Yours - Forthcoming Titles (open in excel and short by publication date, print, and go through list of authors to make sure nothing good was missed - especially sequels and authors to order list)
• esequels.com - what's new
• fantasticfiction.co.uk
• keeps a binder of personal books read

Using Baker & Taylor

• Create account - Adult Fiction
• Shows Qty ordered on right side
• Previous list alphabetized by title
• All books go in cart and them separate by buying and leasing items
• Select all books to order through the end of September
• Move items to another cart
• Default folder
• Create a new cart - "JLMFIC9-2015 / FICREL9-2015 / --726"
• Move items
• Check that Qty is at 1 and that there is no duplicate

Ordering Books & Lease Books

• Order books around the end of each month
• Go through cart list and compare with e-sequels list (forth coming titles that are part of a series) and order any books that were missed on the list that you want to order
• Delete items by checking the box and deleting it from the cart
• Adult fiction cart - sort by published release date - check books - move to another cart - select September cart - only select books published in September or earlier
• Carts - default folder - chick on folder and double check hardcover / quantity
• Makes a lease cart - carts - "JLM Lease 9-2015 / LEASE-9-2015" - select lease account - cart
• Look through titles with unfamiliar authors and then duplicates (Baldacci, Box, Brown, Child, Evanovich, Grisham, Grafton, Jance, Kellerman, Lagercrantz, Patterson x 2, Picoult, Steel) for books that you want for the lease books 
• Move items to lease cart
• Average of 20 lease books per month - check number on "Book Leasing Status Report" from Baker & Taylor
• Red marks are not returnable lease books
• Check lease cart for duplicates / paperbacks / media - sort by title 
• Print copy of cart and lease cart
• Submit order (make sure it is only for the specific cart and not the whole order) - check lease number and account number - submit order
• Only order outside of Baker & Taylor for replacement copies (Amazon / Ingram)
• Remaining items in cart will be for orders in future months

Tips & Tricks on Ordering Adult Fiction

• Don't usually order trade paperback
• Don't usually order books that have a past release date
• Watch for items that change the publication date
• Order 2-3 month ahead for publication date
• Order about once a month - towards the end of the month (7/28 for September release date)
• Orders about 60 titles a month
• Sometimes orders multiples of popular books/authors - check holds list from director

Baker & Taylor Lease Program

• About 20 titles a month 
• Usually includes unfamiliar authors and duplicate author
• Take off new books that haven't circulated - 3-5 times in 6 to 8 months, duplicate authors, science fiction/westerns do not circulate as much, check in core fiction directory at reference, keep author with several titles (7-10 circs in a year is good, 4-5 in a year is good for science fiction, fantasy or western)
• Keep 1 title everyone 4 are sent back
• Books are sent back each quarter
• Take off Baker & Taylor lease sticker and change record in catalog / add that book was previously from the lease program

Processing

• Spine labels -  mystery, story collection, western, science fiction, fantasy
• Check when book comes in and write date on the right side
• Check to make sure packing list is correct and keep the list in the binder 
• Keep until books come off of the shelf
• Print your own order list to keep track of when books come in that are ordered each month
• Source, stamps, stick, type writer for labels
• New sticker with date on shelf, 14-day sticker if less than 500 pages
• Thursday is processing day - give to Grace to cover and should be covered by Wednesday so you can put new stickers on and get the new list out
• Put in catalog record and then give Monica new series books to process with blue (fantasy) and green (science fiction) and orange (western)

New Book Lists

• New book list once a week on Wednesday
• New York Best Seller List once a week on Wednesday
• Running list of new books from 2000 with date added when the list went out of shelf

Trends of Adult Fiction Collection

• High popularity - suspense, thrillers, mystery/cozy mysteries, spy/adventures, romance, gentle reads, women's fiction
• Medium popularity - horror, historical fiction, christian fiction, science fiction, fantasy
• Low popularity - urban fiction, graphics novels
• Order includes - suspense, etc. - women's fiction - cozy mysteries - others

July 16, 2015 (61 total)

Date: July 16, 2015

Time: 1pm - 5pm

Hours Completed: 3 (61 total)

1000 Books:

Today I worked on research for the 1000 Books Before Kindergarten program.  I sent out a survey last week through the wispub distribution list and worked compiled all of the answers.  I am still waiting for  more responses, but I created a response list and spreadsheet in excel to keep track of the information.

I created two pinterest pages to keep track of ideas and research for the program and resources for parents and caregivers:

1000 Books - Ideas

1000 Books - Resources

I also started a blog page where I will be keeping all of my research and ideas on the program, as well as actual documents that I created for the program.

While I was looking into different program and for information, I found a wide variety of articles, blog posts, resources on library websites, documents, and pictures of program.  I found that most libraries had a theme.  Some examples of themes included: road to reading, dogs, bumble bees, the circus, growing/flowers, caterpillars, trains, and reading or books.  

I also located this really neat Google Map that tracks each library that has an 1000 Books program:

After spending sometime looking for information on various programs, I visited several libraries around the area to get an idea of their 1000 Books program.  I took my 5-month old daughter along as well so we could sign up for the programs and so that I could get an idea of what each program was like both from the administration end and also from a parent's perspective.  I also was able to talk to someone at the children's desk about the program when we signed up.  I told them about the project that I was doing and asked how their program worked and how it was going.  Everyone was very helpful and offered a lot of suggestions on having a successful program!

The list of libraries I visited included:
Fond du Lac Public Library

West Bend Community Memorial Library
Slinger Community Library
Menomonee Falls Public Library

Waukesha Public Library

I am planning on getting together all of the registration information, reading logs, and handouts.

July 14, 2015 (57 total)

Date: July 14, 2015

Time: 10am - 12pm

Hours Completed: 3 (57 total)

Administration:

Today I had a quick session with the library director so that we could focus on discussing administration tasks.  Some of the things we talked about included scheduling staff members and assigning them various tasks in the library, the benefits of hiring staff with an MLS or equivalent, and the changes in staffing tasks that were implemented when technology began to become a bigger part of the daily operations of the library.  Examples of tasks that needed to be assigned were things like developing and updated the website, computer maintenance and trouble shooting, and assisting the public with basic computer use and printing.

We also spend sometime discussing program planning for adults.  I was very interested to find out what goes into adult programing since my experience has primarily been in planning and implementing programs for children birth through twelfth grade.  The library doesn't have as many adult program as they do for children, but some things they have done include participating in the big read, author visits, and an annual painting auction and fundraiser for the Friends of the Library group.  The library also has two book clubs, which I will be attending next month.

July 9, 2015 (55 total)

Date: July 9, 2015

Time: 9:30am - 12:30pm

Hours Completed: 3 (55 total)

Administration:

Today I attended meetings with the library director.  The Director's Council of the Mid-Wisconsin Federated Library System (a council made up all the library director's the in system) meets once a month with the system staff and board members.  The meeting consisted of staff member reports new business in the system and reports from individual libraries.  The was a lot of focus on the upcoming budget that needs to be approved.  Because of Jefferson county leaving the system at the end of the year, there were some changes in the system budget that affects the individual libraries.  The council also discussed a previous meeting with the Winnifox system and a strategic planning meeting that took place a few weeks ago.  Another change is that the system in no longer using Zinio for online magazine subscriptions and will instead use a service provided by Overdrive.  Many library directors were concerned about how the changes will influence patron usage and statistics.

After the Director's Council meeting, the director's in the Trio catalog meet.  I noticed that the meeting was conducted very differently because it was run by the director's themselves instead of the system staff and board members.  I was surprised by the number of additional committees that Trio has including the catalog and the circulation committee.  Since Jefferson county will be leaving at the end of the year, several chairs on Trio as well as the committees needed to be filled at this meeting and next meeting.

When the meetings were over, I went out to lunch with Roberta and several of the other library directors.  This was a great chance for me to meet the directors that I will be working with in the near future when I start my full hours at the library in Lomira.  I was able to see how the director's interacted with each other and heard how they felt about all of the changes taking place in the system.

July 7, 2015 (52 total)

Date: July 7, 2015

Time: 10am - 6pm

Hours Completed: 8 (52 total)

Reference Desk:

Today I spend the morning at the reference desk with the library director.  A lot of patrons had computer issues such as getting more than one page to print on a page, logging onto the Internet, and formatting emails to print.  I have been noticing that about half of the questions at the reference desk are actual "reference" questions and the other half usually have to do with technology, primarily printing, using the computers, or logging onto the library's wireless.

Roberta got an interesting phone call from a patron asking if we had the book "The Marshmallow Test: Mastering Self-Control" by Walter Mischel.  He was calling to see if we had the book and was angry that none of the libraries in our system (Dodge, Jefferson, and Washington counties).  He was very insistent that the library "has to have the book" because it is "the best book ever written."  We were interested to learn more about the book, so I spend some time researching reviews and looking at what libraries in Wisconsin owned a copy.

Children's Desk:

During the afternoon, I worked at the Children's Desk.  There was a program for elementary school kids going on and a lot of kids were turning in their summer reading logs.  I spent most of the time helping kids find books in the collection and putting books on hold.

Processing/Cataloging:

While at the Children's Desk, I also labeled and covered books.

June 30, 2015 (44 total)

Date: June 30, 2015

Time: 10am - 6pm

Hours Completed: 8 (44 total)

Reference Desk:
Today I spend the morning at the reference desk with the library director.  I helped patrons with technology questions and basic reference questions such as placing an item on hold, locating an item in the catalog, and finding ebooks.  I liked how the library has handouts for a lot of the basic reference questions including using the Wisconsin Digital Library for checking out ebooks, checking out magazines on Overdrive, and placing holds on items.  I found these resources extremely helpful for the patrons.  They included instructions and screen shots that went through every step of the process.  The patron that wanted to know how to checkout ebooks was able to understand the process very quickly even though she had never used an ereader or checked out an ebook before.  I would recommend putting these resources on the library website was well so that patrons can access them from home.

I talked to the library director a lot about hiring employees and dealing with problem employees.  The library had recently hired two new employees and one of the new employees was the one that I had observed being interviewed.  We discussed how the library director selected which employee to hire after the interview and the training process of new employees.  We also talked about how to handle employees that hand physical or mental problems that were interfering with their attendance and job performance and the village policies that go along with these issues.

Children's Desk:
I spent the afternoon at the children's desk answering questions, assisting patrons with turning in their summer reading logs, and covering books.  I worked with Connie, a part-time library assistant that handles the large print collection, handles the adult fiction book displays, and works at the circulation and children's desk.  She explained to me how she selects topics for the monthly book displays and showed me different lists that she had created throughout the years.  I thought it was great how she used book displays to highlight books that were in the collection that she wanted patrons to know about.  She was very interested in the idea of marketing books to patrons and used some of the books that she's read to give her ideas for displays.  She also tries to highlight different times of the year and thinks about what the community would be interested in reading.  This month's display was "Vacation Reads" and highlighted books that patrons would most likely bring with them while on vacation or at the beach.

June 23, 2015 (36 total)

Date: June 23, 2015

Time: 9:30am - 2:30pm

Hours Completed: 5 (36 total)

Processing/Cataloging:

Today I spend some time talking to the library director and various librarians and library assistants about processing items and cataloging library material.  Over the years, the library has developed sets of rules of standardizing classification and labeling items.  Items are cataloging into genres and stickers are also places on the spine for various sub-genres (mystery, fantasy, Dr. Seuss, etc.).  The library uses this sheet for standardizing library material in the children's department:

Cataloging Juv & YA Items

I spend a lot of time walking around the library and looking at different areas of items and seeing how they were labeled.  It was really interesting to see how each section is labeled and cataloged.  The library I work at has had a lot of turnover in administration, and the labeling is very different between sections and even within each section.  I am currently working on setting up a standardized system and it was really beneficial to see what the Germantown Community Library uses to get a good starting point.  

June 16, 2015 (31 total)

Date: June 16, 2015

Time: 10am - 6pm

Hours Completed: 8 (31 total)

Administration:
When I arrived at the library, I meet with library director to talk about administration duties.  We discussed the previous Mid-Wisconsin Federated Library System Director's Council meeting from last week and the changes that are happening with the system.

Roberta also talked to me about the community that the library services.  She has been the director for over twenty years and seemed to have a lot of insight about the patrons that the library services and uses this information to decide what type of services the library focuses its energy on.  She said that she thought it was important for the library director to live in the community that the library services, or at least close by, in order to get a good idea of the people that live there.

We also talked a lot about promotion of the library and how it has changed over the years with the internet.  The library has a fairly old website.  It is usually up-to-date, but does not have a lot of resources or things like links or pictures.  Roberta told me that she does not have anyone on staff that knows a lot about websites and that the youth services librarian updates it about once a week, but doesn't have time to make a lot of major changes on it right now.  Stephanie is currently looking into using WordPress for the website and has some templates and examples made up.  The library is hoping to use this sometime in the future to create more accessibility.

I also noticed that the library does not have a facebook page or use any social media.  Roberta said that this is also because of the lack of staff knowledge and time.  She uses facebook herself and thinks that it can be an effective tool, but feels that staff resources are better spend elsewhere at this time.  I thought that was really interesting, especially for a medium-size and well-established library.  I personally use facebook fairly often at my library and think that it has a lot of potential in the future, but this strategy seems to work fine for the library.  It was good to get a perspective of using social media - I have seen many libraries overuse this and spend a lot of time on it so it was beneficial to get a different perspective.  I personally think it is a great tool that can be used to reach a different population of people, but that it should be used with moderation if that staff and time are limited.  Roberta and I also discussed the importance of not just promoting services and program on facebook, but also using it to connect with people, share information about libraries and books, and share information about the community.

Children's Desk:
I worked at the children's desk in the afternoon with the youth services librarian and several library assistants.  Signup for the summer reading programs started last week and the desk was very busy signing kids up and turning in their reading logs - especially with the different programs going on. Stephanie shared with me the summer reading handouts that she uses:

Summer Reading Handout

Children's Summer Reading Logs

Young Adult Summer Reading Logs

Processing/Cataloging:
I also worked on covering and adding labels and sub-genre stickers to books while I was at the children's desk. 

June 9, 2015 (23 total)

Date: June 9, 2015

Time: 10am - 6pm

Hours Completed: 8 (23 total)

Reference Desk:
This morning I worked at the reference desk with the library director.  I helped several patrons with printing and scanning and also locating material in the library collection and through the catalog.  I talked to the Roberta about their wireless system that allows a patron to access the library's wireless internet for one hour, two hours, or three hours.  This is a very popular service that was started a few years ago and many patrons use this on  daily basic for work, school, or personal use.

Children's Desk: 
I spend the rest of the day working in the children's department.  I helped out the youth services librarian with the children's storytime.  Storytime meets once a week on Tuesday mornings at 10:30am for children ages birth through age five.  The program is popular and also has sessions during the school year.

I also helped set up and stayed to help with the "Inner Artist" program at 1:30pm.  This program is for elementary aged students and is held every Tuesday during the summer reading program.  The program features of picture book that is aimed at an older audience than storytime and is then followed by a craft project.  Today was the first program of the summer.  Stephanie read a picture book about a kid being a superhero and the children made super hero cuffs out of paper towel rolls.  She had all sorts of materials set out on tables for the children to decorate the cuffs with including colored construction paper, stickers, foam pieces, charms, feathers, and markers.  Many of these supplies are re-used in the art projects throughout the summer to save money.  The "Inner Artist" program went well and kids seemed to have a lot of fun!

Afterwards, Stephanie and I talked a lot about how to create fun children's programs with a small budget and that are fairly easy to prepare for.  She usually has all of the projects planned a few months before the program starts.  Many of the standard supplies are used at each session, but sometimes extra supplies are need.  A lot of the supplies are also donated by parents and teachers in the community.

Processing/Cataloging:

I also covered books at the children's desk after the program was finished.

June 2, 2015 (15 total)

Date: June 2, 2015

Time: 10am - 5pm

Hours Completed: 7 (15 total)

Administration:
This morning I meet with library director to discuss how my internship was going so far and to go over my objectives in more detail.  The library is recently hiring a library assistant and we talked about the process of hiring a new employee: posting a job description, going through job applications, the interview process, and selecting candidates.  Nine people had applied for the job and the director and administrative assistant are interviewing four applicants.  I was scheduled to observe two interviews today, but the first person never showed up.  The second applicant was a previous bank worker.  She had never worked in a library before, but had customer service experience and was very enthusiastic about working in a library.

Reference Desk:
I spend the rest of the morning shadowing the library director and working at the reference desk.  I learned about the local history collection and how to direct patrons to information about genealogy questions.  We also talked about serving problem patrons and enforcing library policies.  Some of the policies were on the library website, but not all of them.  The library does not usually have a lot of problems with patrons, but a frequent issues involves library cards.  Patrons are required to have a library card to check out items at all times and are not allowed to use their driver's license or ID.  This is sometimes a problem with children who tend to lose their cards a lot.  Another problem that the library tends to have is communicating with the school systems.  Many of the class projects require children to come to the public library to find resources and the library is usually not notified ahead of time.  Parents will come the day the project is assigned and check out all of the books on a topic and then there are no items left for other students.  The youth services librarian has tried to contact the school district's teachers about this - it has helped a little, but many teachers still do not contact the library ahead of time.

Children's Desk:
I also meet with youth services librarian again.  We talked about how to plan age and community appropriate programs for children.  The library has not had a lot of luck with programs for teens and adults and does not offer a lot of program outside of the summer reading program events for these age groups.  Program for children that run all year include children's storytime and "Read to Rover" where children signup to read to trained service dogs.  These two programs are very sucessful.  The youth service librarian spends a lot of time on school visits to promote the summer reading program.  It was very interesting to talk to her about serving patrons in the community in comparison to the library I work at which is much smaller and has a more rural population.  While Germantown has a very involved Parks & Recreation department and school system, my library has very limited options for children's program outside of the programs that our library offers.  I think it is important to have a balance between offering programs and keeping up with the other duties of a youth services librarian including collection development, outreach, and cataloging.  

Processing/Cataloging:
I spend the rest of my time processing children's books.  I learned how to cover books and also talked to a library assistant that I was working with about labeling books and organizing them into categories and sub-categories.

May 26, 2015 (8 total)

Date: May 26, 2015

Time: 10am - 6pm

Hours Completed: 8 (8 total)

Introduction:
Today was the first day at my internship at the Germantown Community Library in Germantown, WI.  The library serves a population of over 32,000 residents.  During my internship I will be focusing on public library administration, children's programming, and processing and cataloging of library material.

I meet with the library director, Roberta Olson, was given a tour of library, and meet with library staff.  Roberta and I discussed my objectives for the internship and talked in greater detail about what I would be doing and the types of projects that I would be working on.

Administration:
We also spend sometime discussing the basic duties of a library director.  We talked about how she created the daily, weekly, and monthly staff schedule and also the different schedules for the circulation desk, reference desk, and children's desk.  She gave me samples of the different schedules to use as a reference.  Coming from a much smaller library, it was really interesting to see how a larger library handles scheduling of staff members.  After observing how the library is run, I thought it was very beneficial to have designated staff members at each desk during different times of the day.  It allows for coverage at each desk and for staff to have equal amounts of time working at the desk and completing their individual tasks.

Staff Schedules

Roberta also talked to me about more specific duties that she has as a library director such as meeting with the library board, going to system director's meetings, and working with the Friends of the Library organization.  She showed me the packets that she makes up each month for library board members and the statistics that she gives them each week.  Roberta also shared with me the history of the Mid-Wisconsin Federated Library System that includes libraries in Washington, Dodge, and Jefferson counties.  There has been a lot of recent uncertainly with the system and it was very beneficial to hear more about it from someone that has been involved in the system for many years.

Children's Desk:
I also meet briefly with youth services librarian Stephanie.  She showed me information about the summer reading program and we talked about different aspects of the program including scheduling performers and programs, making the library appeal to different age groups, partnerships with local schools, promotion, and giving out prizes for completing reading logs.  I really liked how the summer reading schedule seemed very organized.  Programs were held on two different days of the week and students could turn their reading logs in until the end of August.  The program include a fair amount of activities, but didn't seem to take too much extra staff time and resources.  She shared with me how she has learned to balance difference aspects of her job since there is only one full-time librarian that works in the children's department.

Processing/Cataloging:
Towards the end of the day, I meet with Jeninie, the adult services librarian that selects and cataloges the adult fiction section at the library.  She showed me the resources that she uses for ordering material such as Book Page, Booklist, and Library Journal, We also discussed the lease program from Baker and Taylor, book lists that she has created for patrons to use, and reader's advisory (especially when answering questions about fiction recommendations from patrons).  She seemed very well-read and up-to-date on all of the newest and popular fiction titles.  I found it really neat to see how her personal interests played a part in her selection of fiction materials for the library.  She also stressed the importance of knowing your patrons and getting a feel for the types of books that they like to read.