Thursday, June 18, 2009

We Were Warned

I had heard that it was going to happen.
But didn't realize it was really, truly going to happen.

We were warned that, during hard economic times, people would look toward the public library for free programming. And they certainly have done so this year.

The usual Summer Reading Program registration for my small library branch is about 400 to 500 children-- from babies through high school. (I'll check these statistics on Saturday to see if this estimate is accurate, and will change these numbers if necessary) However at this time, four days into our Summer Reading Program, we have already registered about 400 children. Wow. We usually register at least 200 more children during the summer, which means this year we'll have the most ever registered at our branch.

The largest branch in our county usually registers over 4,000 children. I can't wait to see what their final numbers.

Remember my last post that said we had registered 200 on Monday? Well, when ADM added the totals from all the branches for last Monday, it turned out that 4,600 children had registered at our 10 library branches.

Are we ready for that many people to come to our various programs? You Bet. We've invited super performers to come and expect at least 80 people or more at those events. We plan to vary those with more traditional craft and storytime programs. (Come to our Fancy Nancy party) Along with Bingo and a huge Games Day. (We collect White Elephant prizes all year long for these.)

We were warned.
Yes, we are prepared.
Having lots of (free) fun at the library this summer.
-wendie old

2 comments:

Karen Packard Rhodes said...

How's your staffing? Economic times like these result in libraries getting cut. That's how I ended up an unemployed, and now former, librarian. Ah, well. I have had the happy talent of being able to reinvent myself from time to time, but I do wish I could have stayed with libraries.

Good luck with your programs.

Wendie O said...

Karen, yes there are problems for our library system. But I'm not going to talk about them on the blog until they are finalized sometime in July.

I can't seem to make your e-mail links work on your blog. If you want to talk, please e-mail me at
wendie old
at
aol.com
(There -- that should fool those mechanical spiders that collect e-mail addresses from unsuspecting people.) -wendie O