Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Daisy Duck and Tagging

I helped with my first costume-character program this week. The library system rented a Daisy Duck costume (not Disney's Daisy Duck - but a duckling character from a book - very cute) and all the libraries had to plan a program to use the costume. My co-worker, Debbie, volunteered to be in the costume - and I didn't envy her. It looked so hot inside and she was so sweaty afterwards. So, I planned a family program with some stories, songs and a craft. We have a big screen and projection equipment that lets me plug in our laptop and run a PowerPoint presentation. I scanned in the pictures from the books - then showed them on the big screen. I blurred out the words on the pages and read those myself. We sang some duck songs and Debbie came out in the costume, and the kids went crazy. She went outside and we read another story then we did an easy craft - then Debbie came out again and the parents came up and took pictures of their kids with the the Duck costume. It was a success, though a little crazy on the kid's part. Debbie told me that was to be expected - the kids love the costume characters. Yeah! My first successful program! Jean was planning on coming, but then had a meeting to go to and I was grateful again for the tender mercies of the Lord. I needed to do this program without someone watching over my shoulder. I feel more comfortable about these story programs now and will be okay if Jean wants to attend in the future.

Work is going better. We're all keeping busy with a big system-wide project. We are in the process of putting Radio Frequency (RFID) tags on all the library materials and that will let the patrons do "self-checkout" and also help from theft. So, we are all working on "tagging" the books - meaning we need to place a tag in each book and scan the barcode to match it up, etc etc. We have a deadline of June and we're all scrambling to get this completed. With this process, Jean wanted us the library to be heavily "weeded" so we weren't wasting money by placing tags in old and dirty books. So, we've all been working on that - and it's been keeping me busy. I'm getting faster in doing it, but we are currently tagging the section that I'm still weeding. Yikes! I hope to get my part done my next week, then I can help with the tagging and what not. We also have to shelve our own books - just because we only have one person to do shelving in the whole library and she's only part-time. The library is short-staffed and we have a hiring freeze. I know, nothing new right now. It's just keeping us on our toes!

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Elizabeth! I bet it’s a relief to have your project completed and to know it came off so well! I’ve learned that when you have a ‘get in the fast lane’ kind of supervisor, it makes being in the swing of things a never ending task. I know I’m proud of you for your effort and determination and it sounds like your parents are too, but more importantly, from taking this job, you just keep getting to learn and learn and learn…I envy that. I hope you’re feeling more homey in your new surroundings, too. Seriously, if you could conquer the streets of Taichung, what’s little ol’ Virginia? Heck, it has twice the temples within driving distance ;) I do wish I had been back here in time to see ya before you made the big move though. Anyway, keep up with the wonderful work you’re doing. You are an inspiration of mine!

-Ashley Hansen