Thursday, July 03, 2008

The librarian is back.

Life in a small town library is very uneventful. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop and it hasn't. Yet. Besides my pessimistic nature, I am enjoying this new atmosphere. I have come to the conclusion that my last library had made me cynical and apprehensive. I realized that I am not as friendly as I used to be which is hindering my contact with my community. So from this day forward I will be going back to my non-cynical post graduation euphoric state of mind. Where I thought I was out to save the world of their information-less selves. Hi I'm Tollula and I will be your librarian.

My new library is really small and mostly caters to young families. Therefore, the programing is directed towards children. But I have found something interesting. We are the neighborhood teen watering hole. Because our building has a front and back exit, our front entrance is facing the High School. We are in the direct path of the kids going home from school. So they walk through our library, past the circ desk, past the ref desk and drink water from our water fountain and keep going out the back door. Like clockwork after 2:30pm groups of teens walk by without a second glance. I think it's hilarious!! It is my mission to try and divert them to our YA collection or at least say hello and acknowledge we are here and we are not here just for their thirsty needs. Here is what I have come up with so far:
  • Plan A: Place book "trough" in their path filled with YA titles. Results: A couple from the herd glanced at the collection.
  • Plan B: Fill the "trough" with graphic novels that were recently made into movies. Results: Some of the "glancers" pulled away from the herd and stopped to explore more and commented on the titles. Set them back down and caught up to the group.
  • Plan C: Combine popular titles, bios and graphic novels but add a "Coming soon: Cracking Dawn" banner to attract attention. (I'm hoping some of them are Twilighters and will order the book. I just placed it. So I will keep you posted on the results on Monday)
Does anybody else have any ideas? I want to approach them and start a communication with them, but don't know how. They don't stop other than to drink water. I don't want to make any sudden moves and spook them.