Why the change of heart?  When I took on Teen Services at RBPL, I did it because I knew I had this distaste for Teen Services and I knew I struggled to connect with teens.  I also knew that this was a huge flaw in myself personally and as a professional and that this was something I definitely needed to change.  I think that part of why I was given Teen Services was because I’m young and energetic and I’ll do my best with any task given.  And my best is what I have done.  By throwing myself in and doing the best job I can do, I have found the greatness that is Teen Services.  I have been given the opportunity to work with a great group of teens, who, finally, it seems, have really warmed up in my Teen Advisory Council and had some great discussions yesterday, and those teens have changed my mind and my perception of just about everything.

Maybe part of the reason I was so anti-teen was that, like many other adults, I was kind of afraid of them.  I mean, who isn’t afraid of raging hormones, really?  But the more I learn about Teens and the more I try to remember what I was like when I was a Teen, the more understanding I become and the more I realize just how necessary Teen Services are in libraries and in the community.  Whether I get one teen or 10 teens or 100 teens (I’d like to see that day!) at a program, I can feel confident that I’m helping those teens who show up by giving them a space and an hour to call their own and take ownership and be in charge of something.  I think part of it is expectations.  You need to expect that they’re not adults yet. They’re still learning how to navigate society and adulthood and they’re going to make mistakes and they’re going to need help.  Just like I am still learning to navigate society and adulthood and I’ve got a good 10-15 years on these kids.  We’ll never know everything, but by keeping an open mind and watching and growing, we can continue to learn and internalize and change.  Always for the better.

For my final workday, I played the role of Young Readers Librarian at Palos Verdes Library District

11:45-12:00pm – I learned how to alarm/disalarm the Annex, which is out teen center

12:00pm – 2:15pm – Reference Desk time.  It was pretty quiet so I spent some time catching up on Library Blogs and Library journals, locked up the Annex from the group that was meeting in it, and caught up on email.

2:15pm-3:00pm – The staff printers were down, so my goal of putting together the biography list was shot down.  Instead, I spent this time doing my monthly On-line Safety training course which is mandated by HR.  This month’s topic:  Dealing with Stress in the Workplace.  Some other topics from the past:  Alcohol in the Workplace, Ergonomics, and dealing with hazardous chemicals (this last one comes up frequently in the world of Children’s Librarianship )

3:00pm-3:15pm – Break time!

3:15pm-5:00pm – There was a elementary school age/teen scrapbooking program going on, so the reference desk was fairly busy as the kids finished up their scrapbooking pages and headed out of the library.  I didn’t get too much done by way of actual work since I spent most of the time answering questions – More Mission reports, books on Mia Hamm, and other school assignments abounded!

5:00pm – Onto the weekend!

Thursday, I played the role of Young Readers Librarian at Palos Verdes Library District again.  I had a normal, 1-5pm shift, of which 3 of those hours were on the reference desk which was actually pretty busy all 3 hours.  In my 1 hour off desk, I worked on finishing up the Biography list so that on Saturday I could just print it out and put it together.

Friday, I played the role of Teen Librarian at Redondo Beach Public Library.  I was only there for 4 hours, from 2-6, and spent all 4 hours straight on the reference desk.  The patron computers were being a hassle all afternoon, so I would say I spent at least 30-45 minutes messing with them.  I also spent about 10 minutes on the phone with a patron trying to help him locate his tax form inside of the booklet, which turned out to be much more complicated than you would think it would be.  There weren’t really any exciting reference questions and I spent some time working on my February Ordering and Organizing all my papers so that I can actually find stuff.

One more day of work and then I get 1 day off! yay!

I spent a decent portion of my early afternoon filling out job applications.  I would like to note that it is very frustrating when filling out paper job applications or applications which don’t let you copy and paste or which are not submitted through governmentjobs.com.  Today I spent 2 hours filling out the same information I’ve filled out far too many times, which is fine, except for jobs where they already have someone in mind, it can feel like a waste of an hour at the end of the day, or a waste of a few hours after filling out the application, driving an hour for a 30 minute interview, and getting rejected.  I fill out each application with the hope that they don’t have someone already in mind, or, that I will be so fabulous that that person will no longer bet he shining start they thought s/he was and will hire me instead.  I mean, you don’t know that they won’t hire you unless you apply and interview… But, sometimes you do… I’m being cynical, I must stop!  Positive outlook for positive results!

But, I digress.  So, here goes with Library Day in the Life…

Today I played the role of Young Readers Librarian at Palos Verdes Library District

8:00am – Quick email clean out since I woke up late due to being at hula late the night before and dreading the long day ahead of me with more hula practice after work

9:00am – 10:00am – Turbo Kick Boxing @ 24 Hour Fitness

10:30am – 11:30am – Visited with my Grandpa

12:00pm – 1:00pm – Filled out and submitted a job application for Altadena Library District’s Teen Librarian opening (no supplemental questions – this was straight job application filling out)

1:00pm – 2:00pm – Lunch with the husband

2:00pm – 3:00pm – Filled out Glendale Library’s Children’s Librarian job application and started brainstorming the supplemental questions

4:00pm – 5:45pm – Afterschool craziness on the Reference Desk.  When I got on the desk I think the counter read 38 or 40.  By the end of this period, I was up to 60+.  I wasn’t alone on the desk, at least!  There were lots of Mission Report questions.  In between, I tried to clean out my work email and started working on some Collection Development for an older list before I took over my new areas but which needs to get done ASAP.

5:45pm – 6:00pm – Break Time!

6:00pm – 8:00pm – More reference desk time.  Also, there was a storytime so I got to pass out some tickets and hand stamps to some super cute toddlers and preschoolers.  Mostly, though, I worked on my BIBZ list and tried to be productive since this period was a lot quieter than the 4-5:45 period although not as quiet as you might expect…  Some reference questions that came up:  Books on groundhog day.  Books for a 5th grade boy who doesn’t like to read.  Anything.  Especially the usual go-to boy books like Percy Jackson or Stormbreaker.  And the surprise of the evening:  A nice conversation with a 5th Grade Boy about the well-written satire and beautiful descriptions in Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn.

8:00pm – Out of the library and onto my personal life!

Anyways, onto my Library Day in the Life!

7:15am – 8:45am – Wake up, check email, check job search stuff and see an opening for a Librarian in Glendale.  Look into the application and supplemental information.  Reply to some APALA stuff and pay bills

8:45am – 9:15am – Go Running!

11:00am – 12:30pm – Go through work email which is surprisingly heavy.  Work on my Baker & Taylor Cart for the second half of January’s Teen Collection Development.  Make sure we have copies of all the recent award winners and honor books on order that we hadn’t bought previously.  Try to locate books that have been requested by teens and spend 10 minutes trying to figure out who Leslie Hall is and why she’s famous and conclude that thankfully, I cannot find the title the Teen requested we purchase which features her.  Receive a phone call for a job interview next week.  Spend a few minutes with that and then figuring out when the heck I actually applied for said job.  Troubleshoot for a few minutes for a patron who was having a hard time getting her Overdrive Audiobooks onto her iPod Classic

12:30pm – 2:00pm – Focus on Teen Advisory Council stuff.  Remind the teens that they have a meeting next week via email.  Start working on the Un-Valentine’s Day Party and write 2 Break-up Letters and Convert 2 poems to MadLibs style.

2:00pm – 4:00pm – Adult Reference Desk Time.  Lots of computer trouble shooting.  Some easy reference questions like “Do you have Lord of the Flies” and “Where can I find books on black holes?”

4:00pm-5:00pm – Break Time!

5:00pm – 8:00pm – More reference.  Too much computer trouble shooting for my taste.  Entertaining the RBPL regulars.

My post will be a little different than others… Since I’m part-time, not all of the Library-Related Stuff I get to do is done solely at work.  A lot of it flows into other parts of my day, as it does with many librarians, so its easiest for me to organize by an hourly breakdown.  I’ll stop once I leave work, though, since I usually try to leave the evenings for non-work related stuff since I have the mornings to be productive.

Today, I worked as a Young Reader’s Librarian at Palos Verdes Library District

7:00am – 8:30am – Wake up, Clean out email since I’ve been on vacation for 5 days and not really paying attention to email, check facebook, check and see what new library jobs have been posted in California, Oregon, and Washington (not many, let me tell you).  Make a list of librarian-y to-dos for the day

9:00am – 10:00am – Turbo Kick Boxing @ 24 Hour Fitness

12:00-12:15pm – Arrive at work (Straight to the reference desk), clock in, chat with my co-worker about how awesome NYC is and get the run-down on the reference desk and all the stuff I’ve missed at work.  Find out what kinds of assignments the kids have been working on and will probably have questions about after school.

12:15pm-1:30pm – Sit on the reference desk and go through my mountain of work email.  I have one question in which a patron asks for help in selecting a book to read to her child’s 3rd grade class as a mystery reader, so I give her a small stack of books which I think are great read-alouds for the age group, including some Jon Scieska of course.

1:30pm-2:00pm – Edit Talk Story Grant Application to reflect the new deadline, Give a few kids some hand stamps, Teach a father how to teach his child to cite an encyclopedia entry, and send out some APALA related emails and responses.

2:00pm-2:30pm – Leave the Reference Desk and go down to my own desk in Admin.  Upload pictures to PVLD’s flickr account for the previous week’s Pillow Tales Storytime & Craft.

2:30pm – 3:00pm – Go over revisions my co-worker made to the Biography Booklist we’d collaborated on.  Finish ordering in BIBZ for my JFiction area.

3:00-3:15pm – Try to finish labeling new Storytime Collection CDs, but sadly don’t get to finish

3:15pm-3:30pm – Break Time!

3:30pm – 5:00pm – A combination of afterschool reference questions, sending out the Talk Story Grant application to a number of listservs and battling the tide of emails as APALA gets ready for their next Executive Board Meeting (I’m the secretary so I need to compile the agenda).  Some reference questions I encountered:  Help finding Oliver Twist, Martin Luther King Jr. Books, and books for an 8th grader about modern-day holocausts which could be fiction or non-fiction.  My manager, who was on the desk with me, also fielded a patron complaint regarding the noise level and the allowance of teens in certain areas of the library.  Once the patron left, we discussed some options for a “quiet area” in the children’s section and how a remodel might develop.

5:00pm – Off work for the day!

The main idea is to have 30 free book sent to you and then you are supposed to go out at night and distribute those books to complete strangers – they want to reach people who don’t normally read or may not have access to books, but they are pretty insistent on giving the books to strangers and making sure you don’t know the person.  They also want individuals only to sign up, not groups… hmm…

FYI.  The deadline to submit an application is Feb. 1.

I have to say that the human bingo went over really well.  They all got to know a little more about each other and they all actually talked to each other.  One thing that was a little dismaying was that for one of the boxes, I put “Likes to Read” and when we were playing for blackout no one would admit to liking to read so they all asked me to sign my name.  It was a very interesting revelation and kind of made my question why exactly they chose the library for their volunteer hours.  Ease?  Location?  Our awesome Graphic Novel section?  Maybe I’ll ask them at next month’s meeting… Give them a little survey on how we can improve TAC.

Something I also discovered this month… RBPL teens are not into video games at the library apparently.  Or, at least Dance Central 2 & Kinect Sports.  My program for January was a New Year’s Resolution themed program – Get Fit with Video Games – I had available the two games I just mentioned, plus stuff to make trail mix and we were supposed to have stuff to make tea (Jan is also Tea Month) but I couldn’t pull it off so I just bought some tea in case any teens were interested.  I was pretty excited about it.  Especially since this was the first Teen program that I did where I was in charge from inception to implementation.  Sadly, though, only 1 teen showed up.  She had a blast though and played Dance Central for almost an hour straight.  45 minutes in, I dunno if she felt bad for me or what, but she asked me to battle, so I played with her for a little bit.  Some younger kids peeked their heads in, and I asked if they wanted to stay since the teen that was there was only in 7th grade, and these looked like 5th or 6th graders, but they said no, that they had to leave and they just wanted to see what was going on.  So, disappointing in the lack of attendance, but at least the one who did attend loved it.  Luckily, it was a pretty cheap program to put on and I now have trail mix for days…

Next month I’m throwing an Un-Valentine’s Day Party on Valentine’s day, so we’ll see what attendance is like… Below are pictures from the program!

In 2011…

I applied to 11 jobs

I went on 6 interviews

I filled out 1 supplemental application beyond the initial one included with the application

and I took 1 written exam

Out of those interviews, I received 1 job offer for my part-time LAPL substitute position that I have only been able to go to once, 2 of those interviews were phone interviews, and at one place, I made it to the second round, out of which they picked the candidate, so that’s not too shabby.

What I learned…

• Phone interviews are scary, but, according to the librarians who conducted it on the other end, I came across friendly, confident, and knowledgeable, which they said is difficult to do.  They are also awesome because you don’t have to dress up – although I did for both.  The first one because it was supposed to be a Skype interview, but they couldn’t get the Skype to work on their end, and the second one because I had to leave for work as soon as my interview ended.
• Read all job postings very carefully.  For one job, I found out that there was a caveat – they were only reading the first 200 applications and I took my time with my supplemental questions and turned it in the day before it was due.  Apparently there were more than 200 applications and mine was never read (and let me tell you, it was an amazing supplemental application).  In the postings on list-servs and the job application descriptions I read I never saw this announcement, but a peer said that they saw it in one of the postings on a list-serv, so I need to read all of them and read them thoroughly and don’t procrastinate and turn in the application with plenty of time to spare
• Don’t get too comfortable.  Depending on the interviewers and their style, sometimes I get too comfortable with my answers.  Interviews are not a time to be playful or joke around, no matter how the interviewer may seem.  You never know how your words can be misconstrued and since its a high stress situation and you’re kind of on edge anyways, who knows what will come out of your mouth.
• Be descriptive.  Sometimes places don’t even look at my application because I’m only part-time and they feel that I haven’t worked enough hours to meet their minimum 2-years experience requirements.  One HR department let my friend in on a little secret – list everything.  List hours worked, # of months doing out of classification work, paid and non-paid professional level work.  Some places literally count minutes on the HR part of your application, so make sure you’re well-represented.

Here’s to lessons learned in 2011, an interview the first week of 2012, and hopefully a shot at a full-time job.

Anyways, I was left with a program title and the ever fateful words, “If you Goggle it, you’ll see a lot of really cool ideas”.  I did, and I sure did.  The options for converting old Altoid Tins into other fun stuff were overwhelming.  I picked my 6 favorite, most shoe-string friendly, teen appealing options and had my TAC vote on their 3 favorite.  I like to give the kids options.  A lot of the supplies I brought from home.  The Altoid Tins were collected before I was involved with Teen programming, but I suspect they were staff donations.  I brought my iPod for them to listen to music because the awkward silence is really too much for me to handle and I facilitated a little bit of conversation but not too much.  I also told my first parent that she couldn’t hang out — the program was for teens and she was welcome to come back at 4:30 to see what her very capable teens came up with.  And creativity flowed through the room.  Check out the photos below of some of the results!

the three options:

First Aid Kit:  In the first aid kit, I offered cotton swabs, gauze pads, bandages, hand sanitizing towelettes, alcohol wipes, tylenol caplets, and a little baggie to keep things sterile.  All of this was purchased mostly by me because the kids didn’t use too many of them and I can always use first aid supplies.  A lot of it was bought from the 99 cent store, so its not like I was out a ton of money either…

Travel Games:  This one was my favorite and required the least number of supplies.  I printed the template available at instructables and bought some sculpy from Joanns for game pieces which I baked in the oven while the kids finished up with other parts of their craft.

Zen Garden:  All we needed was sand and rocks, readily available at the beach.  I used some old tongue depressors which have been sitting in my craft box for years and skewers so the teens could make rakes.  This one took the least amount of time to make — under 10 minutes, but garnered the highest number of votes from TAC which surprised me.

The Results!

This was my favorite first aid kit made for the day.  I asked her if she was a girl scout, and of course she said yes…

The teens got super creative with their game pieces (see photo below) and for the photo above, the teen actually made up her own game within the game pieces – each red square has a design that matches a brown square to create a kind of matching game.

I forgot to bring a pan from home and this was all I could find in the kitchen... We improvised.

All the Zen gardens came out looking more or less the same but the size of the rakes varied greatly.  This is one of the larger rakes made that day…