The Story Time Room


I’m not the only D.L. at our library. One of the staff has the same initials as mine. You wouldn’t confuse us at all by appearance, but over the telephone the similarity of our names has been known to cause calls for one of us to be forwarded to the other.

Some weeks ago the other D.L. and I went to our state’s annual Children’s Services Workshop. Well over a hundred library ladies (and a few rather conspicuous-looking library guys) attended. The smaller workshops that had to do with planning aspects of the upcoming collaborative summer reading program were interesting and useful as always. We spent most of the day in the main sessions, where an expert in the use of puppets in children’s library programs showed us the many ways to make and use your own puppets. She was a fascinating speaker, full of creative ideas and stories about how she had used puppets to reach children in her library’s activities.

The other D.L. was entranced. She admitted afterward that she had come to the workshop (her first ever) mainly because I, the boss, had asked her to. The idea behind taking people to these events is to get them interested in children’s programming for the library. It worked brilliantly this time. D.L. was as fired-up and full of enthusiasm and ideas as I’ve ever seen one of my staff.

That’s a wonderful thing. Children’s programming is an important part of any public library’s mission. Unfortunately, I’m not all that good at it. I spent years working for an academic library, dealing with college students and professors instead of children. True, some of them could be rather childish at times, but it really wasn’t the same thing. While I like children and get along well with them, my experience working with children is limited. I’ve also been unable to become a parent. So to put on a good children’s program, I need staff with the right experience, ideas, and enthusiasm. The other D.L. had the experience with her own children and those at her church. Now she has the ideas and, most precious of all, the enthusiasm.

We put that enthusiasm to work immediately. Since coming back from the conference D.L. has been just bubbling over with ideas. She has been making plans, putting together story time materials, making decorations, and contacting parents and local organizations that work with children. I, buried in a computer network redevelopment project, a new web site, and personal issues, have hardly been able to keep up with her. Several times a day she gives me an idea or bit of new information. I give it the quick once-over, make any suggestions that come to mind, and turn her loose on it.

Her biggest idea so far has been the Story Time Room. Our library has a nice children’s area on the far side of the lobby from the main entrance. It has a beautiful three-sided window seat, child-sized furniture, stuffed animals, and big bright-colored pillows made by local hands. It is also located where we can keep an eye on it easily from the circulation desk—an important consideration when we’re short-handed. Unfortunately having it out in the open like that does create problems when we have story time. We have to try to keep our programs quiet, since otherwise they could prove disruptive to patrons working at nearby patron computers.

What we really needed was a separate room where we could have story times. D.L. found just the place. Opening off of the children’s area was a staff work room measuring about twelve by fifteen feet. It has a long work counter with a computer station and the library’s color printer and two large closets. We used it mostly for storage and for special printing jobs.

D.L. proposed to turn this room into a story time space. I was a bit skeptical. We had a lot of gear in there. Where would we put it? Where would we get the means to decorate it? I don’t have a designated budget for children’s programming, so we can only spend little bits of money here and there for it. D.L. laid it all out very plausibly. So I told her to go ahead and try it.

Soon she had most of the equipment stored in efficiently-rearranged closets. We moved a couple of pieces of furniture out of the room. D.L.’s husband came to help move one of them. We had a nice chat while he was here. D.L. soon had the room cleared out and child proofed. Yet we could still easily get back to work printing when the children were not there.

She went to the local carpet place and got them to donate a bunch of old sample carpet squares. These would make excellent individual seating mats for young children. She found an old rocking chair for almost nothing at a thrift store. A retired school teacher who runs our Friends of the Library group supplied a little puppet theater that she had had in her garage. It had hardly been used and looked like new. The room was large enough to get thirty children and a couple of adults in without crowding too badly.

D.L. decorated the walls with posters that we already had, and one that she made. Her enthusiasm proved contagious. Another staffer made a fringe for the chair to make it look better. She also took needle and thread and performed surgery on Clifford the Big Red Dog from the children’s area to keep his stuffing in.

The new Story Time room had its debut last week when we hosted our monthly visit from the local Head Start program. There were 28 children. As usual I had no involvement—the day of the week they come also happens to be the morning when I have to do all of my weekly payroll and bill paying and am buried in paperwork. D.L. and another staffer with children’s experience led the children and their teachers into the Story Time room. They sat on their carpet squares. D.L. led them in a couple of motion songs to use up energy. She read them a version of the old folktale about stone soup. She distributed cutout “vegetables” that she had made and led the children in making their own imaginary stone soup. They all pretended to taste it. They seemed to enjoy it.

Then D.L. brought out her first puppet, a monkey named Brownie. She carefully followed the suggestions she had learned from the puppet expert at the workshop. When the children became a little too rambunctious, D.L. pulled Brownie back and let them know that they were scaring him. They quieted down; nobody wanted to scare Brownie. So Brownie came back and had fun and the children got to pet him.

When it was over and I was back on top of my work, D.L. briefed me on how it had gone. She was so happy her feet hardly touched the floor. She talked about the story time for days afterward. I now know that with her efforts and the new Story Time room we have the makings of a great summer program.

If it turns out as great as I’m hoping it will, the summer program will create one small awkward problem. At community meetings when I go out and show the flag for the library, people will be talking about what a wonderful children’s program I’ve got. And I’ll have to tell them, no, it’s not really me. It’s the other D.L. who should get the credit.

That's an awesome story, D.L.! It's great to hear that you've got such an enthusiastic employee now. Relay all the compliments you receive to her, but don't forget to pat yourself on the back for helping to motivate her in the first place. Her success is also a sign that you're doing your job well.

Happy story, indeed! It is so wonderful to see someone getting fired up like that and being rewarded for it.

Wow. I've never read about the beginnings of a story time room. I've seen them at various libraries, usually already matured in their usage. DL-2 sounds pretty awesome. I already knew that you are awesome, DL-1 (Using good ol' DC terminology). A wise leader, trying to energize your employee in an area that you needed.

Again, I have to say, wow.

I printed this story and gave D.L. a copy of it. She said "I think you're trying to make me cry!"

This morning we've been working on trying to change rolls on our laminator and are both ready to scream. The rolls have not been changed in living memory. We have an instruction manual, but it apparently omits several necessary steps. In addition, we learned that some unknown employee at some point in the past jacked the machine up pretty good. After half an hour of fiddling with it, we're trying to contact someone else in town with a similar machine to see if they can help. I'd like to kick whoever wrote that instruction manual!

We fixed the laminator this afternoon. I hope we won't have to change rolls on that thing again until after I retire! In addition to not having all the steps you need, the instruction manual makes reference to parts it doesn't show in the diagrams. Arrrgghhh!

D.L. has already laminated her next project. It's a big paper tree for the Story Time room.

How big are the lamination rolls? Wow... they must be huge!

No, they're not that large. But they're a huge hassle to change! They are also expensive, so we have to use the machine fairly sparingly.

Ah. At the schools I've worked at, we have to change them about twice a year. Somehow, I am always the one that gets called to help change them.

It's because you're super-fast. Duh.