at 9:45 this morning i stood in my children's area and did a slow pan around the place. tears were welling up in my eyes and i was making every effort to stop them before they fell. i didn't want to show any signs of defeat.
so far my summer reading program has been a flop. not a big 500 lb. belly flop, but a oops-i-slipped-off-the-diving-board-and-fell-in flop. kids are signing up, but not following through. the staff is totally confused by the procedure i laid out for the program. attendance at my events is low. headquarters keep on sending more and more stuff to add to the minutia. i'm thoroughly frustrated with it all. the only time i'm happy is when the kids exchange the coins they earn for reading for the prizes.
and its only july for goodness sakes! i've another full month of this madness.
the only thing i am looking forward to is my upcoming sidewalk chalk festival. its going to a crazy event because i have so much going on at one time, but i think, at the very least it will boost my spirits again, and at the most raise the community's awareness of the children's services @ my library.
what i've learned so far for future planning and especially for next year's summer reading program:
1. keep it simple. i love cool titles, bright colors and exercising my amateur graphic designing skills for flyers, but unfortunately, people don't get it. so go minimal.
2. espionage. visit other libraries to see what they're doing. steal ideas. don't trust what people say when you run ideas by them. find out what really works.
