Kidding About Blogs

To those who view Anime, I am interested in your thoughts about Fushigi Yugi: The Mysterious Play. Especially Miaka's response to the beautiful Emperor. My group and I just cracked up laughing. So if you have not seen it be sure and check that part out at least.

Okay, if you've been following the chain of discussion on outreach (part 1) then you're up to spead with a debate between regionalizing Preschool outreach, centralizing it or leaving the status quo. If you haven't been following it, please go read the first part first.

Here's the second part, so far, everyone is leaning towards one of two choices, status quo or regionalized Preschool outreach. Because I'm a sadist, I had Laura go back and pull outreach stats for me. It looks like in over the last 3 years, that based on the amount of outreach done and the number of YS staff we have, it works out to be around 24 - 25 programs per person per year. However, I'm not sure how accurate the information is in reflecting what you guys actually do. So please help me out.

I need to know, how many Preschools and Daycares (preschools and daycares only, hopefully broken down by number of preschools and number of daycares) your branch is responsible for. I also need to know how many of these programs each of your YS staff has done since January 2006. (I'd go back farther, but that would be torture.)

You can send it to me via email, no need to post it to the blog. However, questions and comments in this discussion continue to be useful in decision making.

Why???

In the ALA weekly e-newsletter I get, they had a couple of links that I thought might be worth you checking them out. (If I can figure out how to attach them to this) One is on the YALSA stance on social networks and the other is on the move to include them in the CIPA legislation and possibly link them to e-rate as a way to governmentally regulate access to them. We have so much use of them, that this is a debate we need to pay attention to. (especially since we receive e-rate and have to stay CIPA compliant to apply for LSTA money.)
http://www.ala.org/ala/alonline/currentnews/newsarchive/2006abc/july2006a/dopahearings.htm
http://www.leonline.com/yalsa/dopa_teens_social_networking.pdf

Now if I did this right you should be able to check it out. If not, I'll ask Laura to fix it.

In preparation for a time when staffing shortages mean we have to make program cuts, or adjustments, we are thinking about adjusting how PS outreach is done this fall. Outreach, especially to preschoolers, is one of our services to keep as long as possible, but I don't think e can continue it in the present format with out going a little crazy.

The discussion, which is right now happening between Liz, Tracey and myself is still in the VERY early stages. What we're tentatively thinking about is identifying YS staff who enjoy doing outreach and moving from an approach that has every branch doing all the preschools in their service area to one that would let this team of YS staff do the outreach throughout the system. Because it would become a system project at that point, supervision of it will fall under the Office of Public Affairs.

One of the isues that Tracey has raised is the question as to whether or not we should continue to do all preschools or stick to non-profits. Another question is how would we adjust work time in the branch when one YS staff member may be very involved in outreach? I know there are more questions than these, what I need to hear from you are ideas for how to approach it, which of you like to do it, what questions do you have or how could it work? And, if you think you have another, and perhaps better, idea I need to know that too. So can you all contribute a bit to this post, and I'll check in from time to time over the next couple of weeks to watch the discussion?

If we can identify the people who enjoy or like to do it, we can always do a traditional meeting and find a way to do it. I hope this isn't too confusing. I'm looking forward to your discussion.

Two suggested book display thoughts.

Pirates

Superman (think of all those graphic novels!)

Liz

This summer I am spending some time visiting branches to observe various programs. I want to tell you all that I am truly seeing some wonderful programs. Signed story times, teen book discussion groups, music groups, and fabulous Day camps, to name just a few. I will continue to drop in occasionally because I am having a great time out there with you. Kudos to everyone!!

Liz

If you want to keep up with current happenings with the library budget and funding issues, there's a new folder in the shared files called current budget. Currently you'll find an explanation of the situation and the 2007 budget, and as more information develops, you'll find it there too. If you've got questions, comments or concerns, please let me know and I'll try to find answers for you. If you want to talk to me directly, get in touch.

Seattle Times article about the Dos and Don'ts of getting kids to read. Read more.

Hello, does anyone have a dinosaur craft idea (that doesn't include a toilet paper roll) that would work well for the preschool set?

Thanks in advance!