4/15/08

4/15/08
5-8 pm
3 hours

Originally my reason for coming in on this day (since normally Tuesday evenings are well covered) were two-fold. It was Brian's birthday so he was taking off to celebrate and I was going to help by giving a short tour of the children's selection to a local Daisy troop. However the tour was canceled at the last minute. Cheryl also thought it would be good for me to see the evening story time being given by Mary Ann Owens.

Until the story time, I continued my task of finding Newberry winners and putting stickers on the spine. I covered the desk for a while as the other clerk did a few other tasks. Until the story time started, I checked books in and aided patrons in checking out their materials.

The story time began at 7pm. The library advertised it as "Stories From Around The World" with Mary Ann Owens. The attendees were the Daisy Troop that were going to come in early for the tour. Mary Ann's theme was Native American Stories. She had a small set up with a cloth that had a Native American pattern, small battery lights that looked like candles, Native American story telling dolls and one small tea light candle. The real candle was a wonderful mood setter.

I was glad Cheryl suggested watching because it's great experience to see different story telling styles. I liked this one because it felt like I was sitting around a camp fire. She didn't have any books, but were telling the stories from memory. The best thing that I think she did was involve the kids within the stories. She gave them parts and they got up and moved around as she directed them. They really enjoyed it. For her other story, she used stuffed animals and handpuppets to enact the tale.

After the story time, there wasn't much time left before closing. I returned to the circulation area to help finish checking people out and checking in returned items. The last half hour on a Monday night is always the busiest with last minute patrons.