Finally, my own library!

You know, as a teenager, I don't think I would have ever told you that my dream job would be librarian, but here I am, 34 years old and it is truly the greatest job ever. I've worked at our town's regional library for 5 years as a part-time library aid. I started out with the job of just checking books in and out, helping patrons and other basics. Over the years, I have added all kinds of little things here and there to make my job more interesting (yes, even the library can be boring on slow days.) I started a monthly display, complete with designing posters to match it, a book club for elementary kids and then I was asked to create and maintain the public information slides we show on our public channel. I have been teaching eReaders/eBooks for about 2 years and I've even taught digital scrapbooking classes for the adult programs. It seems like I've always got something to do and plenty of ideas to fill my free time.

But as I said, I was part-time. That means less than 20 hours a week during the school year and around 30 a week during the summer. That has worked okay since my kids were young, but starting next year they'll both be in school all day long. Even with Girl Scouts, my graphic design and sewing for extra money, I don't know that I could have stayed as busy as I needed to. I've waited for a full-time position to open up, and I think the one I had my eye on will open up in the next year, but I'm not sure.

In mid-April, my friend texted me to tell me that the school librarian position at my girls' school was open. She encouraged me to apply and I thought, why not? I didn't know that I'd even get a call back. I don't have a college degree. I've never worked in a school before, and I don't even work in the children's area of the public library. I applied on a Tuesday and by the next Thursday, I had interviewed and been offered the job! I do want to share that when asked to describe myself, I said, "Intelligent, Creative & Unconventional." I accepted and now I feel like my head won't stop whirling! So many ideas, and so many questions!

The librarian I will be replacing left before the end of the school year, so I was able to do a little bit of subbing before school got out. I won't be needed at the school this summer, so I'll finish my summer at the big library. I've used some of my time at the school to get some things done, like shifting (which ended up including dusting a lot!) but that led to more questions. I think that I will have a lot to do this summer before the kids come back before I'll feel ready to call the library my own. I decided to start a blog because I had a hard time tracking the answers to some of my questions down online. I am lucky to have the other elementary librarians in town to act as mentors and the friend who suggested I apply worked at the same school as the librarian 8 years ago, but there are other ideas out there I want to see. I started a few Pinterest boards, which you can follow at these links:

Library Resources
Library Ideas
Library Bulletin Board Ideas

I'll post things that work for me, and things that don't work for me. There is so much to learn and so much to create!