Good morning, Cyberspace!
As you may have noticed, it has been a while since I’ve posted here on the blogsphere. This, of course, was completely unintentional, but necessary as I adjusted to my new position as a Children’s Librarian! It feels so good to be back in the world of libraries, but goodness gracious, it was a bit of an adjustment. Thankfully, the newness is starting to wear off, and I feel a lot more relaxed and excited to dive into more projects soon!
With that being said, I thought it might be fun to clue you guys in on A Day In The Life Of A Children’s Librarian! A bit of a caveat before that: this is a very simple day in my life. 9 times out of 10, my day looks a lot more wild than this. But I’ve condensed the general idea of my job down into a very simplistic bullet point outline to give y’all a better look at what I do within a day!
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A CHILDREN’S LIBRARIAN
9:00AM – STORY HOUR PREP
At my old library, I did exactly one–sometimes two–storytimes a week. At my new location, we do six. Every single week.
I arrive to work around 9:00AM. After shoving all my stuff in my locker and grabbing my nametag, I head out to the floor where my desk sits. I love to have my desk clutter free, but more often than not it’s covered in whatever project (usually a story hour craft) I’m currently working on. At this very moment, there are a bunch of crayon cutouts and eyeballs. (Don’t ask.)
The severity of story hour prep depends on how well I set myself up the day before. In fact, it’s a direct correlation of how well I set myself up the day before. If I prepped nametags and the craft well, it’s simply a matter of setting out supplies (kids’ nametags, books, puppet of the day, craft, felt/magnet board activity, etc.). If I DIDN’T set myself up well, I’m usually writing the nametags and getting the craft sorted out the morning of.
I don’t recommend this. I learned my lesson REAL quick that my day goes a lot smoother if I prepare well the evening before, so it’s been my habit (and occasional failure) to make sure everything is ready to grab and go when I get there.
10:00AM – STORY HOUR!
My most favorite part of the day! The kids have arrived, the toys and games have been put away, and it’s time for Story Hour! I’ll do a post later on detailing how I build my programs (in case that is somehow helpful for someone out there), but the general gist is an hour filled with books, early literacy activities such as felt/magnet board activities, fingerplays, songs, crafts, and whatever else I want to throw in there to entertain preschoolers for a full hour.
It took me a couple weeks to get the “full hour” flow down. Sometimes I’m still a couple minutes shy of it. But I’m learning to adapt and modify as we go so that the kids aren’t bored, things flow smoothly, and the hour passes with both myself, my helper, and the children unscathed.
(So far so good… *knocks on wood*)
11:15AM – STORYTIME!
Different to Story Hour in its age group and timeframe, Story Time is for 2 year olds and early 3’s with a caregiver. It also only lasts 30 minutes, and usually features simpler activities and songs. In the beginning, I thought there wouldn’t be much difference between story time and story hour…
Hoo boy, was I wrong. The Story Time kids aren’t as vocal, are much more shy, and basically just stare at me with huge, unblinking eyes.
They are adorable. I am usually intimidated by the cuteness.
12:00PM – FREE TIME
And by free time, I mean time to work on whatever projects I’m currently working on outside of Story Hour. Currently, this would be planning for Family Literacy Night at the local Elementary School! We’re doing an ocean theme this year, which means a lot of what I’m doing is cutting and laminating a bunch of different ocean creatures, cutting strips of paper to make jellyfish tendrils out of paper chains, and figuring out how to incorporate a magnetic fishing rod into an early literacy activity.
Time is ticking down for the deadline of this project, so the pressure is on to get all of the pieces in my head tightened down into something real and tangible. Once everything is beginning to take shape in the real world, and not just in my head, I tend to feel a lot better about the project. But when everything is just an ambiguous blob up in my brain matter, I tend to get a little overwhelmed.
Thankfully–praise God!–everything seems to be coming together in just the right amount of time!
1:00PM – LUNCH
I take my lunch break around 1:00PM. This is my time to decompress, text my mom, and either read a book or work on my stories! Lately, I’ve been reading a book. My current read is Tender Is The Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica. I do not recommend this book. It is absolutely awful.
2:00PM – MAKERSPACE PREP
After lunch, it’s time to prepare for the middle schoolers to come to the library for our Makerspace time! Eventually, I want to be able to have these projects prepped out a week in advance (less stress, more fun), but right now that balance is hard to strike. I hit the ground running with this group, so catching my feet underneath me has been a struggle.
Thankfully, we have a lot of paint, perler beads, and origami projects to keep us busy! (Even though they told me they didn’t like origami and then proceeded to make me the world’s largest origami frog from memory the next day… lol!)
3:00PM – MAKERSPACE
From 3:00PM to 4:00PM, my time belongs to the middle schoolers! I never had a full-on middle school program at my old library, so stepping into this role was terrifying at first, to say the least. But I’m happy to say these middle school kids are quickly starting to become one of my most looked-forward-to moments in the day. Working with kids comes with its set of challenges, but I couldn’t be more grateful for the people God has placed in my life to help me grow.
4:00PM – SETTING UP MY NEXT DAY
After the Makerspace kids program, it’s time to set myself up well for the next day. Like I said earlier, this doesn’t always happen as it should. Sometimes the Makerspace program takes longer than I originally intended. Sometimes I’m elbows-deep in a project and don’t have the time to set myself up for the following day… Whatever it is, if this crucial step does not happen, I can be sure that the start of my next day will be crazyyyyyy. Usually set-up includes prepping the craft for the next day’s Story Hour class, writing out nametags for that group, and doing any other last-minute prep I need for programs the following day.
This is also when I tend to check my email inbox, respond to anything that can’t wait till the following morning, and do one last walkthrough of the Early Literacy Center and the train tables to make sure everything looks nice and neat before I head home for the day.
5:00PM – HEAD HOME
With the work-day done, I grab my things out of my locker, say goodbye to my new little library, select a smashing playlist to listen to on my drive, and head home.
This, of course, is what one simple day at the library looks like. If I have other programs scheduled for that day, any meetings, or if Summer Reading Program is in full swing, things will look a lot more hectic crazy than this. (In fact, with the week I’ve had while writing this, I’m a little jealous of how simple this schedule looks written down on paper!) For the most part, though, being a Children’s Librarian is a relatively simple (ish) job, with a lot of positive outcomes and a whole lot of heart behind it. The fact that I was able to so quickly return to this line of work–and return in such a way that it feels even sweeter than when I was in it before–has been such a blessing in so many ways.
I’ve been told by multiple patrons that this is the line of work I’m called to be in, and that in itself is enough to steady me during the stressful days. (Like when I have to cut out over 200 Pout Pout fish puppets for a Family Literacy Night…) Whether the day is simple, crazy, or somewhere in between, I’m so unbelievably grateful that I can once again call a library home!
talk to me!
Have you ever wanted to work in a library/have you ever worked in a library before? Do you have any questions about working in a library? I’d love to answer any and all questions you might have about this career! (hint: we really do not get to read books all day. at least, not in the little rural libraries!) Let’s chat in the comments below! And until next time…
Mackenzie K. Writes 
Talk To Me, Peasants!