I am excited at this brilliant opportunity to let my organizational skills, my love of literature, and my down-wit'-da-Dewey-ness shine like the output of a thousand quasars. Within the year, I am going to triple our circulation, and turn our modest little hall-of-stacks-with-a-desk into the third most popular community gathering place after the bar and the Mexican bakery. We're talking seasonal and holiday story times and open mic nights and a weekly Library blog that gives the high schoolers a chance to be their own stars in a neverending narrative. We're talking adult literacy programs and three more stops for the age-5-and-under ImagiBus. Mine is going to be the hottest biblioteque in rural Northern Cali in which to see and be seen.
To be sure, there is some trepidation: Nobody's been a regular librarian there for a year. Means tons of cleaning up. And of course, there will be the quotidian battles with local holy rollers heck-bent on banning the latest bete noir of the American Family Association. There will be black widows and wasps. The worst, however, will be a certain amount of local hostility.
I went to high school for three years in this town. I'm acutely aware of the prevailing culture of anti-intellectualism. More personally and specifically, there is quite a bit of bad blood between a certain group of locals and the head office due to the downsizing of the previous librarian.
I know this town. I know that everyone is related to just about everyone else. I'm well aware of how long a community like this can hold a grudge. I expect to get shitloads and earfuls from disgruntled locals who hate change and can't understand why this piss-ant interloper has replaced their aunt/cousin/great-grandmother/sister-in-law's niece.
It's going to be an uphill battle. But I am going to make this library work and get everyone to love me even if I have to kill half the town to do it!
Wish me luck!
BASIC TO-DOs
* Clean and weed the stacks.
* Properly archive all the periodicals, track my EBSCO subscriptions and gifts, create card catalog for magazines and newspapers, etc.
* Re-organize reference/locked-room section, paying particular attention to geneology materials; update County books (the ones with all those by-laws and ordinances and stuff).
* Clean out computers.
* Clean and update displays, bulletin board.
* Kill those fucking wasps.
* Put out feelers for expanding the ImagiBus's exposure.
* Create branch e-mail address.
* Accumulate on-the-fly materials for entry into Millennium system.
* Trace lost/missing materials, issue notices and late fees for on-the-fly materials.
* Check and, where necessary, replace: slippery floor warning signs, fire extinguisher, first-aid kit, evacuation sign.
* Issue new Millennium-coordinated library cards (mine is the only branch which is not completely up-to-date with the new system. Most patrons still have those ghetto-ass old blue cards.)
GRAVY
* Halloween decorations, schedule Halloween story time. Plan ahead for Thanksgiving, Hanukah/Christmas/Kwanzaa, New Years, President's Day, Easter.
* Create promotional materials.
* Create branch website, blog.
* Compile procedure manual/guidebook for subs and possible future replacements.
* Use various media (bulletin boards, contacts at local groups [churches, VFW, High School clubs, grange hall, etc.], newspapers, teh 1nt3rn3tz, etc.) at my disposal to boost the library's visibility in, and convince others of its relevance to the community.
* Schedule a one-hour-a-week creative writing club for teens (open to regular and alternative high schools).
* Open mic night/poetry slam.
* Invite local authors (yes, we have a few) to speak at the library.
* Encourage and make space for a weekly or biweekly senior book club.
* Facilitate a reading program between likely high schoolers and the elementary school.
Got an idea? Put it in the comments, and I'll shamelessly steal it!
