Outreach In The Park...

Today I ended up being sent to a local park to represent the library at an event with other community groups that deal with children -- It was an outreachy type thing. It was a pretty dull event with the exception of "Bad Mommy #1" being there and her son pulling down his pants in some random section of the park and peeing against a wall -- She obviously wasn't paying attention to him, so she had no idea what he was doing.

I did meeting random program providers and other local individuals that deal with children. One of the women in particular though for some reason that I would be interested in joining some Long Island group of young Latino professionals (I'm not...) and invited me to some events throughout the next few months.

I was stuck there for two hours before I had to go back to the library and work my night. I have mixed feelings on doing the event. It was nice to get out of the library, but it kinda also felt like a waste of my time. At least they only do it once a year, so I won't have to do it again until next summer.

Library Day In The Life Project...

Sharon (@ReadingChick on Twitter) suggested that I take part in the 'Library Day in the Life Project' and document a day in my library life after I Tweeted about my decision to tally how many times I say "Stop running" throughout the course of a week. So here it goes...

Scheduled Hours: 9:00am to 5:00pm
Arrival: 8:50am

• Spent the first 30 minutes of the day having casual chit chat with "Marie" and my Department Head. (Talked about our weekends, Erin jumping out of a plane because it's her birthday today, etc.)
• Wore a fake mustache for a bit.
• Ate breakfast in between reference questions.
• Canceled a craft program that I was supposed to have on Wednesday because only one person signed up to do it.
• Dealt with several annoying mothers. Mommy #1 was annoyed at our lack of coloring sheets & I had to explain to her why we don't have anymore. Mommy #2 (aka "Bad Mommy #1") forgot yet again to bring in her child's birth certificate even though my Department Head put her in her place the other day.
• Answered texted messages from my friend's boyfriend about a party my sister and I are throwing in a few weeks.
• Dealt with questions pertaining to the kiddie program that was going on throughout the course of the morning.
• Looked through various blogs (The Dainty Squid, Little Messy La, etc.) and Etsy shops to get ideas for crafts.
• Answered some reference questions.

Lunch Break: 1:01pm-2:01pm

• Got a phone call from a mother looking for her teenage daughter who should have been home already after finishing up her volunteering hours for the day -- Her daughter was still here, she is gabbing with her friends at a table.
• Watched a father walk back and forth from the OPAC to the stacks attempting to find books on his own -- I told him if he needed help I'd get the books for him, he insisted on doing it himself because he didn't wanna "bother" me.
• Tried to find books for a 12-year-old boy that was visiting for the summer from Costa Rica who needed to strength his reading in English.
• Signed up kids for computers.
• Accused a teenage boy of leaving porn running on a computer last time he was in the library.
• Dealt with one of the annoying mothers that comes in with her bad little children. He son wanted a book on the Little Mermaid that wasn't the Disney, but she didn't know what exactly he wanted. So there was a lot of guessing on my part.
• Had meaningless chit chat with "Amy" for a bit.
• Explained to a teenager from out of district why we no longer had a manga club.
• Signed up more kids for computers.
• Told the same girl several times that she needed to stop running in the library -- She didn't listen.
• Helped parents find their kids books from the school summer reading lists.
• Read the Huffington Post.
• Signed someones kid up for the craft that was going on that evening.
• Was inspired to find photos of awesome things made of Legos to show my Department Head after reading an article in the Huffington Post.
• Told my Department Head about said pictures when she came back to work the evening (She was working a split shift).
• Told everyone I'd see them tomorrow.

Departure: 5:03pm

And that was my day at work. Not very eventful, but not super boring. It was an okay day.

Bad Mommy...

Thinking about the mommies at the gym made me remember that I forgot to post about what one of those mommies (I shall call her "Bad Mommy #1" from hence forward) did last week.

On "Sarah's" last day a little boy started screaming and crying in the middle of the department with no shoes on. "Sarah" walked up to him and kept saying "Little boy where is your mother?!?!" (Not a question a scared two-year-old is going to answer). I noticed what was going on and walked up to them, I instantly recognized the child as "Bad Mommy #1's" son. So I calmly said his name and asked him where his mommy was (Me knowing his name seemed to calmed him down a bit). At this point our Department Head noticed what was going on and ran over to us and the flustered child. Just as she was about to run out of the room to look for his mother she swooped in on her cell phone like a bat out of hell and ushered her child along like nothing had happened. She apparently thought it was a good idea to leave her child alone while she went to the bathroom and make a phone call.

Oh, did my Department Head ream her out. She yelled at her for leaving her child unattended, for him not wearing shoes, for her not wearing shoes, for talking on her cell phone in the library, etc. It was great. She totally deserved it. She always walks into the library like she's the shit and that no one is better than her, so it was nice to see her get torn a new one.