"But Charlie, don't forget what happened to the man who suddenly got everything he always wanted."

Just home from the library's board meeting, and, as you may have guessed from the line I quoted above, I am a happy girl.

Everything I wanted, I got:

1. The board approved my suggested changes to the days and hours we're open. In other words, NO MORE ELEVEN HOUR DAYS AND SPLIT WEEKENDS, WOOOOOOOO.

Instead, the library will be open a much more managable (and sane) eight hours Tuesdays-Fridays, three hours on Saturday, closed Sunday and Monday.

2. They also moved to start accepting physical donations again, which means I can FINALLY publicly thank Jenne at Scholastic for THE BEST CONGRATULATORY GIFT EVER--->

Note: That picture? Is only of TWO-THIRDS of her donation. SHE (and her buddies) SINGLE-HANDEDLY INCREASED MY YA SECTION BY A QUARTER, IF NOT A THIRD.

I love you, Jenne.

3. They—with no debate whatsoever—voted to shell out in order to join the library delivery van service, which will allow me to A) provide ILL services and B) host book groups.

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.

And now, as promised, here are the highlights of what I've done over the last month (in addition to the aforementioned new YA section):

• Created a HUGE book sale area. 
• Started HEAVILY weeding the adult nonfiction, which is... well, it needs to be weeded. Bad.
• Moved stuff around in the children's area and created an island display area with books faced out at actual kids'-eye-level.
• Separated the audiobooks on CD from the audiobooks on cassette (they were mixed) and catalogued all of the ACDs.
• Deep-sixed all of the VHS tapes and the audiobooks on cassette.
• Created a (very low-key) website.

Like I said, those are the highlights. There was WAAAAAAAAAY more.

But HOLY CATS, I NEED A NAP.

Comments

[GWENDA BOND]

You are amazing, but we knew that. Brava!

[Beth]

...WOW. Congratulations! That is one awesome gift.

[marjorie]

YAY! ROCK STAH!!!

[Annie]

That's awesome!!! Way to rock library-dom.

[tanita]

It sounds like SO MUCH FUN to get everything you've ever wanted, to use every cool idea you've ever heard of in a library. The Duplo library! The cake pan library! The tool library! And CHEERS to getting rid of VHS!!!!!!

Yes. Do take that nap... so excited for you!

[JessB]

Wowsers, that is amazing! Congratulations, that is fantastic that the Board really listened and supported you, and that you've managed to get all that work done. Take a nap, you deserve it.

[Christina]

Congrats! You are rocking this job.

[Amanda]

Wow! What amazing changes in such a short time, with so many new things to come. I hope the patrons appreciate the work and you!

[cc]

Leila Roy: Superlibrarian.

I'm so thrilled that everything in Maine continues to be awesome.

[Patty]

Congratulations on all the accomplishments. My pet peeve when my kids were little - the only books that were shelved face out at kid level were the "series" like Berenstain Bears and Clifford. My daughter would walk up, pick up six books and declare herself ready to go!

[Jenne]

Your library patrons are lucky to have you!

[RTBoyce]

Just my 2 cents - while weeding may be in order, consider holding on to both VHS movies and audio cassettes of popular/worthy items - if you can wrangle the different shelving requirements. My husband, the audio book fanatic and library superuser, has found that cassettes are far more durable in circulation than CDs, and I have often found library DVDs unusable. Experience has shown many times that the frail-looking magnetic tape in cassettes and VHS is strangely reliable. (And we live in central Texas, where you might expect magnetic tape to fail even earlier than elsewhere.) Don’t be a format hater!

[Leila]

@RTBoyce: I haven't gotten rid of them, I've just moved them further back into the stacks. That way, I can keep track of how much they get requested, as well as making the section less of a jumble. So far, it hasn't been about the items breaking down: it's that—at least according to to my anecdotal evidence—less and less people have access to machines that actually PLAY them.

Anyway. I definitely agree that tapes hold up better than CDs in circulation, but if my patrons can't/don't use them, then I'd rather use the space to house something that they can/do use. They aren't going anywhere just yet, though! :)

[RTBoyce]

OK, it's true: you *are* the most awesome librarian!

[Emily]

Congratulations! That is fantastic! And I believe you mentioned that you are the only full time librarian too! That is just mind blowing. Well done!!! All the awards to you!