READy to Talk is a new discussion meme that will come up few and far between, just when I have something bookish on my mind. You might also see it if I have something I just want to talk with y’all about! Something that I want to get y’alls opinion on!
LONG POST ALERT!
I’ve been working with my public library system for 3 years now. I’ve held 3 different jobs while here: Library Technician, Children’s Services Specialist, and now Young Adult Services Librarian. Every year brought new learning opportunities and new challenges. After completing our Summer Reading Program, I now know that this one has been my hardest year yet. This year I’ve learned even more and so many things challenged me and I couldn’t be more grateful.
This year, our library system went along with the overall theme for summer reading: A Universe of Stories. This year I was terrified because this was the first year I was to PLAN and EXECUTE all the programming for my teens. (Sidenote: Last year after I left my old job I started this one on April 30th when everything was already planned. All I had to do was put the program on.) I was equal parts excited and terrified that things wouldn’t go right. But I have been blessed with a great library team (at my individual branch) and I am ecstatic with the way everything turned out.
A Universe of Stories was such a fun topic and I had so many different ideas! I was sad I couldn’t do them all, but the ones we did get to do turned out so fun. Here’s some of the things we did that I was proud of:
I heard Universe and space and I knew immediately I wanted to try making Homemade No Bake Moon Pies. We always have at least one food program, and this one with chocolately goodness was a large hit. All I had to mention was chocolate and marshmallow fluff. I got a shirt made for SRP because we live in Houston, Tx and there was a saying that we’d been using since we found out the theme, “Houston we Have a Summer Reading Challenge.” And I’d been looking for so many different picture books to keep our rapidly depleting displays together and “Babysitter From Another Planet” is really cute and went really well with the theme. We also did Bottle Rockets that were easy, actual science, and super explodey. In other words, the teens enjoyed it. I also got some Diet Coke to put Mentos in to make them explodey as well lol One of the last programs I did specifically for teens was Outdoor Laser Tag. In Texas it gets pretty hot, but I got them water and popsicles and they had alot of fun. I even got some thank yous from parents saying they loved that and their kid wouldn’t stop talking about it. (Weirdly, this wasn’t even my most successful program. We had an escape room that got about 5 more people than we had for this one!) And the very last thing I did for all ages was a “Moonwalk” or Bouncy House. They had a chance to put in their last few points and pick up their last few prizes and jump in the Bouncy House while the parents did these things. It was really fun and ended up having a huge turn out with over 40 kids.
*Not pictured: We made “Mars Rovers” out of Lego Mindstorm kits that my library system has available and raced them through a maze. There’s no pictures because I used my phone to time them smh lol
I was thinking about this summer during our “I Survived Summer Reading and All I Got Was…” (food pictured above) and I realized, all in all I was really satisfied with the way it all turned out. There’s some things I would change, but I can definitely say all the things we did had an impact in some way. Whether on me or on my teens.
The summer (well this whole year) was definitely a learning one. Although I’ve been at this location before (I spent my six months as a library tech at the one I’m at now) I learned so many things in such a different way this summer. I already can’t wait for the fall and all the programming it brings.
So library staff members, what did you do this summer that you’re excited about? Did you have anything that impacted you or your customers? What displays did you do? What books checked out the most? Tell me in the comments!