practicumblog

[practicumblog]

Another slow day. Watched story time training modules.

June 16

Mondays are always slow, however, today was extremely slow. I started with the usual holds and “put backs”, and then after this it was already time for my break. After my break I watched training modules in the teen room that the library uses to train its librarians. It was on a website called Webjuction which offers free story time training lessons. I enrolled in their “supercharged storytime” class and got halfway through it. Overall, it was an extremely interesting and engaging course. There was also a teen who frequents the library who was working on crafts and watching movies on the TV there from shortly after we opened all the way until I clocked out at 5pm. Although she distracted me from the training modules, I was happy to talk to her. I know that for a lot of kids, because school is out, the library is a great place to kill time and hang out. I used to do the same thing when I was a kid, however, my library did not have crafts and a big-screen TV to watch movies on. I was stuck to reading and using the computer, so I was pretty jealous that I did not have a library like this when I was growing up!

Like I mentioned before, I was a substitute teacher for three years and I mostly taught Pre-K through 5th grade, so I have done a lot of story times before. When I had brought this up to the library director at the Pasadena Fairmont location on the 12th, he told me that library story time was more about entertaining the kids more than anything. I thought this made complete sense because prioritizing children’s fun will drive further visits, attract more families, and keep numbers high. The training modules, however, almost completely focused on the pedagogical elements of story time. The modules focused on the development of a child’s brain, how to teach phonics, vocabulary, and rhyming during story time, and it even showed X-rays of the different life-stages of the brain! I guess I will have to take a middle stance on what is most important during story times. I will have to pick books that I think are challenging and educational, but also to make sure to prioritize the fun of reading. I hope I will never have to do a story time, but if I do, I will make sure to keep these two things in mind.

[practicumblog]

Slow day at the library.

June 14

Today was a very slow day at the library. Both of my supervisors were out of the library, so I did not do much other than man the front reference desk in the children's section. I started out with holds and “put backs” like always. The teen librarian wants to do a UFO and alien theme, so she had me cut out decorations she printed which was harder than I thought. She also had me help her find some UFO themed books in the children's section and put them on hold. In total, I pulled 20 UFO and alien books which she said might have been too much! It had been raining for five days straight at this point, so the moment the sun was out families rushed into the library. An hour before closing, we had a full house in the children’s department. The picture above is all the in-house use items I had to scan 15 minutes before closing due to the influx of patrons. After these were scanned, they went to the back for “put backs” on Monday.

This was a very relaxing day at the library for the most part. It had rained all morning which kept the library mostly empty, so I was able to take a breather and do a lot of small chores and small talk with my co-workers. Even though it was a slow day, I feel as though I got a lot out of it seeing as how not every day is not going to be as hectic as my week had been up to that point. After all, one of the many reasons I wanted to be a librarian is because I enjoy a quite space, so this was day cathartic.

[practicumblog]

June 13th

Today was one of my shorter shifts, and I was able to intern with the adult services department just to dip my toes in their jobs. My dream job is to work in an academic library, so I want to at least have some experience working with adult patrons. I started out in the workshop department and the librarian in charge of that space showed me how to work the 3D printer, cricket machine, and engraving machine. She had me help her make some 3D printed bookmarks which was fun. After that, I worked with the librarians at the front desk who showed me how to make a library card (I made myself an account as I still didn’t have a library card after working there for a whole week!). They also showed me how they processed money from the registers upfront. Next, I worked with Will who showed me how to work the micro-film machine. He also gave me a tour of all of the different databases offered by Pasadena Library. Finally, I worked with two librarians in the back who showed me how they come up with ideas for programing. I am terrible with faces, so I did not realize that I went to undergrad with one of the assistant librarians who I now work with!

I have to admit that this was my favorite day at the library. I felt much more comfortable with assisting the adult patrons of the library. In the kids room, I am always telling children not to scream or not to run, and I always feel that I am being too rude. Out in adult services, however, it was much more relaxed. I was even able to help a patron format a Word document. As a writing tutor, this made me very happy as I do this every day at my current job. All-in-all, I am happy to work where ever I can get a job, but I have my fingers crossed that it is with adults or teens!

[practicumblog]

Today, I went to the Pasadena Fairmont location for my practicum. Ms. Kenya wanted me to see how that library does their story time because it is a much smaller branch with a smaller audience. At the Central location where I usually work, we use an auditorium for the story time as there are usually 60-100 people who show up (adults included). The Fairmont location had 16 in total, so that story time was a lot more close quarters and the librarian who presented interacted with the children much more. Also, the librarian who presented the story time knew how to play the guitar which added so much to the story time. She even let all of the kids play a few strings which they loved.

Observing this story time made me realize it is not all about the numbers. Yes, numbers are important to show that the library is providing a valuable, needed service to their community; however, to those seven kids who showed up for this story time, they had an amazing experience that they will not forget. Unfortunately, this experience also confirmed a suspicion at the back of my mind since I started my degree, that being: I do not want to ever conduct a story time. At the beginning of my degree, I thought I would be okay with story time because I had read stories to children when I was a substitute teacher. However, a teacher’s story time and a librarian’s story time are two completely different activities. I feel as though, with all of the singing and dancing, your heart really has to be in the performance, and I just do not have that kind of personality. Hopefully, I will land a job in adult services so that I do not have to do a story time, but I will if I must.

[practicumblog]

Power outage and clown show

Supervisor: Hui Zhang & Kenya Johnson

Student: Jessie Martinez

Location: Pasadena Central Library, 1201 Jeff Ginn Memorial Dr, Pasadena, TX 77506.

Date and Time: June 11 [8AM - 5PM] (8.5hrs).

As usual, the day started out with holds and put backs; however, this routine was interrupted by a power outage due to a heavy storm. The outage lasted for two-and-a-half hours. When the power went out, there were a lot of patrons in the library, and they stayed safe in the library while the storm calmed down which was the right decision. All of the families who were in the children’s section read under the emergency lights. The library scheduled for a clown to put on a show at 3pm, and we were worried that the power outage would affect that, but the lights came back on around 1pm so it all worked out. The clown show was a huge success, too. Over 100 people attended, and all of the kids loved it. I was surprised by how many of the kids were raising their hands to be volunteers for the clown’s tricks, but they were all having a blast.

When I first heard about the clown show, I must admit that I was skeptical. I have never seen a clown before, and my opinion of them had been painted by popular media as scary or weird; however, I would argue that I had more fun than even some of the kids watching! I believe it was because he did not over-do the clown makeup, so he was a lot more friendly looking than other clowns. If I was a librarian, I never would have scheduled a clown as a program, but now I definitely will look into doing that in my future career because that was a lot of fun. When the lights turned off in the morning, my first instinct was to start herding people out the doors because, at my old retail jobs, that was the procedure to avoid theft. However, I realize that the library is there to serve the community, and the best way to do so at that time was to be a sanctuary from the bad weather.

Photos above: Photo number 1 was taken during a heavy storm. The lights such off and I was able to observe operating procedures for this type of emergency. The second photo was taken in the story time auditorium. We had a clown show program and it was super fun! The clown was pulling scarves out of the kid's ear, haha!

[practicumblog]

Observing and helping out with story time. Cleaning the Youth department after story time.

Supervisor: Hui Zhang & Kenya Johnson

Student: Jessie Martinez

Location: Pasadena Central Library, 1201 Jeff Ginn Memorial Dr, Pasadena, TX 77506.

Date and Time: June 10 [8AM - 1PM] (5hrs).

I have gotten into the groove of collecting holds in the morning. Now that I am familiar with all of the different sections, it is a super relaxing time before the library opens where I collect the holds and check them into the back room for delivery. Around 10AM, I was able to observe my first story time! I took the picture above (with staff permission) right when it was starting, but more families came soon after and even towards the end. In total, 87 people showed up which was great to see for an impromptu story time. I helped with the program by passing out egg-shakers and showing the kids how to shake them to the rhythm of the song. I also handed out vouchers at the end of the program for a free meal at Golden Corral and surveys for the program. After this, the kids and their parents went to the Youth Department and used the play area as well as some of the reading areas. Some families stayed for two hours after the program was done just reading and having fun with the Legos, puzzles, and books.

I really enjoyed this day. After yesterday when almost nobody was in the library, it was really fun to see all of the families enjoying the space and having fun reading books. It warms my heart to see so many members of the community use the library as a place of fun and learning.

Photo above: This photo was taken right outside of the auditorium before it started. This was my very first story time ever, so needless to say, I was a bit overwhelmed by the whole process. It was really fun, though!

[practicumblog]

Researching Summer programs in the Teen Room. Finishing up shelf-reading.

Student: Jessie Martinez

Supervisor: Hui Zhang & Kenya Johnson

Location: Pasadena Central Library, 1201 Jeff Ginn Memorial Dr, Pasadena, TX 77506.

Date and Time: June 9 [8AM - 5PM] (8.5hrs).

When the day started off, I pulled holds and learned how to process the holds on the computer using Sirsi, the library’s database system. I also learned how to check-in and -out books for patrons, report books as missing, and report books as damaged. After this, I went to the teen room because the librarian who was supposed to be there was late. I took this opportunity to research summer programs at other libraries in the surrounding Houston area for Ms. Hui. Overall, I looked at four major libraries and compiled an eleven-page document with summer programs that I thought looked interesting. This took a good bit of time, but afterward, I finished up the shelf readings for sections that I had not covered yet.

This day was very difficult as I was standing up and bending over for around four hours completing the shelf-readings. It was also very quiet in the teen room because (at least I suspect) it was a Monday. It was by the end of the day where I fully understood the ins-and-outs of the Pasadena Central Library collection. Ms. Hui wanted me to watch training videos on story-time, but because Ms. Johnson, the library supervisor, was out, I was not able to log in to view them. I believe that is why I did so much shelf-reading. However, I know that shelf-reading is important to the day-to-day operation of a library, so I was glad to be able to work on that task.

Photo above: A picture I took after completing the shelf reading in the Teen Room. I thought it looked so beautiful because the space was really messy the day before, and I had helped in making the Teen Room look so organized. Photo taken by Jessie Martinez at the Pasadena Central Library, 1201 Jeff Ginn Memorial Dr, Pasadena, TX 77506.

[practicumblog]

Spent all day today in the Teen Room. Working on cleaning a lot of the mess behind the desk!

Student: Jessie Martinez

Supervisor: Hui Zhang & Kenya Johnson

Location: Pasadena Central Library, 1201 Jeff Ginn Memorial Dr, Pasadena, TX 77506.

Date and Time: June 7 [8AM - 5PM] (8.5hrs).

I started the day in the back room taking the return bins and organizing them to be put back on the shelf. However, as the post title says, I spent most of today inside of the Teen Room with Ms. Lily, the Teen Room supervisor. I learned the ins-and-outs of this space, and I was able to interact with a lot of the teenage patrons. I worked on shelf reading the entire room, helping to clean up the space, and decorating the room with new decorations. This space was really small but also really busy. Because it was a Saturday, a lot of teens came in the afternoon to hang out in the space. At one point, there were four teens who were watching a movie on the flat-screen, just enjoying the library as a hang-out spot which I thought was great for the community. When we were cleaning out the area behind the desk, I had thought we were going to throw away much more than we did. It made me realize that librarians are very frugal and reuse as much as possible. We put the majority of the materials away in the storage room which was very overwhelming as it was completely stuffed with random supplies.

Overall, I felt much more comfortable in this space. I had recognized and read a lot of the books on the shelf and was able to talk to the patrons about them. Also, a lot of the kids had played the same games as me and watched the same movies, so I had a fun time talking to the teen patrons. Before I decided to become a librarian, I wanted to be a high school teacher, so I felt much more comfortable in this environment as it was more like my former dream-job. I look forward to working in this space again!

Picture description: This is a picture I took of the table when Ms. Lily and I had taken a lot of materials that were just sitting behind the desk and put it on the table for sorting and cleaning. We had saved a lot of materials that I expected to throw away for future crafts but did not. Photo taken by Jessie Martinez at the Pasadena Central Library, 1201 Jeff Ginn Memorial Dr, Pasadena, TX 77506.

[practicumblog]

My first day on site! We started with a lot of the basics.

Student: Jessie Martinez

Supervisor: Hui Zhang & Kenya Johnson

Location: Pasadena Central Library, 1201 Jeff Ginn Memorial Dr, Pasadena, TX 77506

Date and Time: June 5 [9AM - 1PM]. June 6 [1PM - 5PM]. (8hrs).

Although I was extremely nervous on my first day, I really enjoyed my first day on the job. The staff are all really friendly, and Ms. Hui, the Youth Department supervisor, showed me around the library, get me familiarized with the Dewy Decimal system, and walked me through the youth and teen rooms which is where I am going to primarily be stationed at. The Pasadena Central Library is quite a bit bigger than my hometown library and the library I work inside of, so I was a bit overwhelmed with just the youth room itself. I was also both overwhelmed and overjoyed with how many young readers there were inside the library. It made me so glad to see the community in Pasadena value and use their local library. I missed it, but apparently, the day before I started, there were 120 children who attened a puppet show program!

My first two shifts were only four hours each, and on the second day I did more of the same. Fortunately, Ms. Hui was very patient with me as I figured out all of the intricacies of the Dewy Decimal system. Remembering that there is a different section for English youth fiction, graphic novels, series, non-fiction, biography, early readers (and each level of reader has their own section with special stickers), board books, and then there are at least five languages in the collection each with their own section and sub-sections was difficult to remember. After all of this was done, I did “shelf-reading” for the remainder of the day which is basically just checking to see if books are in the right place; however, for someone with dyslexia like me, my head was spinning at the end of the day as I had to repeat the alphabet hundreds of times in my head. Overall, I had a really great time!

Photo above: My first day on the job! Did the basic stuff like shelf reading, holds, returns, and learning about the library space. Photo taken by Jessie Martinez at the Pasadena Central Library, 1201 Jeff Ginn Memorial Dr, Pasadena, TX 77506.