Plans for the new year

Like everyone else in the world, we're well into planning for 2010 at the Tumbler Ridge Public Library. From the sounds of things, patrons and staff alike are in for a very good beginning to the year.

First, Sharon and I have been ordering books like crazy since we received the go-ahead from the library's accountant late last month. A handful have been delivered (in record time no less), but the majority of them will be arriving in early 2010. These books comprise our choices from *two* quarterly hotlists published by United Library Services (our main book supplier), a dozen smaller brochures from various publishers/distributors, and titles we've stumbled upon over the course of the last few months. While the books from these orders arrive, Sharon and I will be going through our non-fiction section to identify gaps in the library's collection and then ordering books to fill the gaps.

Second, I received a call from IT North (the library's tech support company) yesterday. Our new patron computers are ready to be installed. Regular users of the library probably know that our current patron computers are getting pretty old (the majority of them are still Pentium-IIIs) and that it's definitely time for an upgrade.

Third, the library's seventeeth Itchy Feet season will begin in the new year. We had over a dozen Itchy Feet presentations last year (including a stellar one by yours truly), and they provided an excellent respite from the winter doldrums.

Finally, the library's children's programming will start up again in mid-January. Wednesday Club, Lapsit, and Storytime will return to provide the weekly recommended allotment of library fun for children.

We've got an exciting start to the year ahead, so stop by the library early and often in 2010.
Merry Christmas folks!

--Jacob Fehr

=====Coming Attraction=====

Stay tuned for A Very Special Storytime on January 29th.

Featuring the King of Itchy Feet 2009, the Illustrious Impresario of ILLs, the Overlord of Overdues, the Charismatic Captain Amazing, the library's Head of Technical Services himself:

Jacob Fehr

in his first storytime ever with Sharon in attendance.


The Theme: Hockey (to coincide with the Olympic torch passing through TR that weekend)
The Books: The best hockey books in the library's children's collection PLUS Jacob's favourite children's story
The Craft: a Jacob original craft

9:30am - Daycare Storytime
10:30am - General public Storytime (pre-registration for 2010 storytime sessions is on now)

Children's Books and Programs at the Library

I've recently heard through the grapevine that a patron or two has complained about the amount the library spends on children's books and programs. Here is my response to that: (please note that my response is my personal feelings on the matter both as an individual and as a library technician, but is not and should not be taken as the library's official stance on the matter)

:-P

I recently joked to Sharon that library staff are like drug dealers. We try to get our customers hooked young. In fact, that's not all that far from the truth. If we catch children while they're young and get them interested in reading, the chances of them becoming life-long readers is much higher.

Does it work on all children? Of course not. But it seems to work on quite a few. Look back to the salad days of cigarette advertising. Cartoon characters such as Fred and Barney from the Flintstones appeared in cigarette ads. There was a reason for that.


Ideally, children start visiting the library for Sharon's lapsit program while they are still babies. Lapsit establishes a routine of visiting the library and having fun. Sharon's rhymes and songs are all intended to help develop early literacy skills.

When the children get a little older, they can start to attend storytime. The mix of stories and songs continue to develop literacy and help to create a habit of visiting the library. Children start to read and sing along with their favourite books and songs, and most drag their parents over to the shelves to borrow some books before they leave the library. At this point, the children have already become weekly library users!

Finally, Wednesday Club and the library's Summer Reading Club mostly cater to school-age children. Sharon can read books to them that explore more complicated ideas and introduce them to a wider range of books and ideas.

We are in a time when literacy is a stated goal of the government. There are a large number of people who never read a single book once they graduate from school. Children who go through these programs (and have access to a wide variety of children's books) literally grow up in the library, and these programs increase the odds that they will continue to use the library for the rest of their lives.

In short, to suggest that we should be spending less money on this goal is absurd.

--Jacob Fehr