Wednesday, November 3, 2010

November 4th - Day Twelve

Practicum Day 12
site: City Center
hours worked: 5
hours to date: 72

The Freeman's Bay school arranged for a field trip of 130 kids to come to the library today. There is a rule that there must be at least one adult for every ten children and I think that it probably helps with keeping everything safe and on time as much as anything else. Ben, Daniel and I, under Erika's leadership, planned for 8,9, and 10 year-olds to learn about the library in a rotation of four activities: taking a tour, exploring non-fiction with a worksheet guide, hearing a story and searching the library for objects shown in a handout called the Discovery Tour. It went well! I enjoyed showing the kids some rare books in the Shades of Grey exhibit and they were quite interested in the non-fiction. I read the story Wait! No Paint! which introduces the idea of an illustrator to three hapless and desperate pigs.

In the afternoon, the Community Outreach team had a staff meeting. Among the topics we discussed was roving reference and the plan to reach out to customers where they happen to be on the floor in addition to staffing a desk where they might find us. I think this trend of opening library service to customers more precisely when and how they need it will probably continue as it is one of the main ways that libraries can be of a clear benefit in a time when it's so easy to search google on your blackberry, or to just be satisfied with what you find and potentially miss out on the plenty in the library.
in the staff room
hot chocolates today: 2
hot chocolates to date: 17
AND....
there was a surprise at lunchtime. The Indian festival of lights, Diwali, is wrapping up and several staff members arranged for a potluck lunch feast of delicious Indian food. My favorite was the extra spicy biryani and the smoked fish rice.

1 comment:

  1. I have to admit that I was worried that we might have scared you away from working with children after we were all swarmed by 130 (somewhat unruly) children, but you took it all in stride.

    You have a great manner with the kids, and while they would have been fascinated by the accent, they also were thoroughly engaged with you while you were reading and while they were following you around on the tour like little ducklings.

    Look forward to doing more work with you over the coming weeks - you bring a fresh perspective on things that is both refreshing and stimulating at a time when things are changing at a rapid rate of knots. Although I am not sure that I will ever get used to "sectioning" being called "shelf reading"...

    Anonymous
    (or is this a super Chilren's Reference Librarian?)

    ReplyDelete