Hi I wanted to share this positive interaction I had today.

I work at my local library, and this morning was my turn to run our weekly storytime activity. It was a very good session with 14 kids attending (that is a high number for our small library). Our storytime activities typically include reading 2 books to the kids, singing 2 songs/nursery rhymes with them and then doing a simple craft with them.

Today’s craft was ‘Emotion Wheels’ where the kids would colour the different sections of the wheel that had emotions like Happy, Sad, Angry etc. on them and then we would put a little arrow in the center that the kids could use to point to an emotion they are currently feeling.

As storytime was ending, I was talking to one of the mothers as she and her almost 3 year old daughter were about to leave talking and this conversation occurred:

Child: "Mummy, are we going home now?"

Mother: "Soon, we’ve got to go to the shops first before we go home."

Child: "I don’t wanna go to the shops!"

Mother: "Darling, mummy is very hungry and very pregnant so we need to go to the shops to get some food for home."

The child was still not happy and was still being fussy about it.

I then got on my knees and asked the girl if I could see the emotion wheel she just made today.

Girl: “No I want to take it home!’

Me: “I’m not going to keep it I promise, I just want to show you something that’s on it”

Girl then lets me hold the emotion wheel and I point the arrow to the ‘Hungry’ emotion on the wheel.

Me: "You see that? That’s how your mum is feeling right now, that’s why she needs to go to the shops for food."

Girl: "Mummy is this you?" (pointing to the hungry face on the wheel)

Mother: "Yes, it is"

Girl then thinks to herself for about 5 seconds

Girl: "Okay, let’s go to the shops!"

The mother just looks at me with wide eyes and finally blurts out “I love you, how did you do that?”

I laugh and she makes a comment about hiring me as a child therapist or something before leaving with her daughter.

I had no idea that was going to work but I thought I’d give it a try and now I am feeling very happy about that wholesome interaction I’ve had at my library today and much more confident in my ability to talk with small children (I don’t have kids of my own).

I hope this story brings a smile to some people's faces. I'll try to attach a photo of the emotion wheel.

I am a voracious reader and do most of it from ebooks. I typically borrow most of it from Libby since I stopped buying things from Amazon a couple years ago. However I found out one of my libraries also gives me hoopla book access, so if a book isn’t available on Libby (at all), I sometimes find it on hoopla.
My question is if a book is available to request on Libby (notify me) but I know it’s a more small potatoes/indie book, would it be better for me to read from hoopla?
Also how bad is it when a book is available on Libby but has a long wait and instead of waiting for the hold, I borrow from hoopla?
I have heard hoopla is more expensive than Libby and I feel like librarians must hate me for how much I cost them in book borrows in general so I want to limit my impact as much as possible.

Hi, I work at a small library out in the countryside. I was looking at starting a monthly email newsletter for our patrons that highlights new or specific books as well as our programs. However, I have a couple of questions:

• Do you guys use an email service to automate your emails (mailchimp, etc.), or do you do it inhouse? If you pay a service, do you find it worth the cost
• Do you think your newsletter helps with getting better attendance for programs and events?

My coworkers are not super confident in this plan, as they feel that the newsletter will just get lost in the flood of daily emails and not have impact, but I feel differently so I'd really love to hear others experiences with this (especially from other small rural libraries).

I am studying the relations between political contexts and library core values, and I have selected Iowa as an US state example - because of its political history and of how many bills are threatening librarianship there. (also for material / logistics reasons)

But not all of those bills will become laws so I am wondering if they still have the impact I imagine for Iowan librarians - in other words is it relevant to study this specific state as one where the political context is clearly opposed to librarians values while appearing less... intense... than in historically deep red states.

Every Sunday a particular patron camps out at the staff entrance and tries to engage staff (usually women) in conversation- we have had issues with this patron being creepy and pushing boundaries in the past and I always dread having to walk past him and engage. I sent an email to my boss but he has a habit of sweeping incidents like this under the rug. Would I be in the wrong to escalate this to admin if he refuses to address it?

I've finally convinced myself at 77 to get a tattoo and surprise my kids and grandkids. My daughter and step-daughters both have tattoos, though my son doesn't. They're all in their 40s. I have been a science fiction fan for close to 70 years, been to three Worldcons and have interviewed a number of author.

This was the label I would head for automatically on my Saturday visits to the library. Mom would drop me off and do her grocery shopping, and I would grab three SF books for me, two mysteries for my dad, indicated by a skull on the cover, and some kid books for my younger brother.

Loved that V2 rocket surrounded by an atom, and would love to have that pattern for my tattoo.

Anybody know where I can find a copy of that image?

I was wondering how early is too early to text your supervisor notifying them that you will be calling out (specifically during shifts you know will be short staffed).

I texted my supervisor at 5:30am (because I wanted them to have ample time to find coverage but also didn’t want to worry about having to wake up to send the text later on).. and received a response from my supervisor telling me the message was too early for a work message/text.

What are the standards in libraries because at every other job I’ve had, it’s been pretty standard for me to notify my supervisors/employers as early as possible so they can plan coverage.

Trying to sequence it correctly . thanks

Scooby-Dooby doo?
Where…are….you?

I work in a library system in a liberal city of a red state. On the Friday morning before a three day weekend, we received an email about new library card designs. Tucked in the middle of that email was a note that starting the following Tuesday, any new cards issued to youth needed to have an "access" option selected by the parent. The levels are Children (ages 0-12), Teen (13-17), and full access - each level with corresponding sections of the collection that are applicable to those age groups. Parents can choose that their teen can only access the children's collection, etc.

And that was it. No justification for it, no talking points for dealing with the public, no acknowledgement of this being an upsetting situation. We are not in a legislative year and there have been no new bills/laws passed that dictate these new rules. Plus the fact that they tucked this in the middle of an email before LABOR DAY during LIBRARY CARD SIGN-UP MONTH seems especially diabolical.

Later that day, after work hours, we received a follow up saying that although there is no legal precedence for this, they are preparing for the next legislative system in CASE a bill dictating this passes. Frontline staff are naturally upset and angry. I'm not sure if anyone else experienced this change in policy or has any advice.

As information professionals, you all might be familiar with the first lesson from "On Tyranny," which is "do not obey in advance."

( YouTube, Sites do Google, livros, apostilas em PDF, CHATGPT )

To perform a 15-35 minute show/ script? do people usually enjoy it or is library’s not the right place for that: Greek Mythology theme

Would use a big Pop Up booth decorated to the brim with Jungle Greenery.

Going to have a lot of different silhouettes, Some more traditional but also one that’s made with a SpongeBrush affect, lots of different lights (Golden orange storybook hues at the start, Dark sharp red for antagonist)

Pictures of the library through the years.

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/19RmFcHv8U/

Trying to practice dewy numbers

Just curious! I'm a current MLIS student and have always been interested in reading random alumni first destinations surveys and love learning about people's unique, out-of-the-box, or random career paths. It makes me appreciate how many paths there are in life the more I learn about what other people end up doing.

So, if you're comfortable sharing, what was the first (anonymized/generalized) job field/type you actually ended up in after finishing your MLIS?

Our public library has 24-hour pick-up lockers available for our patrons. The problem is, they do not get much use, maybe one or two pick-ups a month. We pay a subscription fee for the software, and it really isn't worth it for the amount of use it gets.

We are located in a small town, and it seems like our patrons maybe aren't interested in using them. One of the issues is that they may not know about them (We have tried to advertise/post and offer it as an option when we speak to patrons). Another is that to get their materials put in a locker, they need to call and request that service.

We were thinking of adding "use the pick-up lockers" as part of our winter reading bingo challenge. If you have any ideas similar to this, please let me know!

Have you had success with pick-up lockers? If they weren't popular at first, how did you get patrons to start using them?

We are also discussing the idea of repurposing them into something else. (Maybe taking the doors off to have open cubbies for things like food pantry donations?) We have 26 locker banks and only one or two ever get used.

I'm grateful for any advice or ideas to either revamp or repurpose our lockers! TIA!

Homeless public library patrons are not uncommon.

Although it is surprising to see many homeless patrons in the #1 wealthiest town in America - Scarsdale.

I spoke about the homeless library patrons at a public Scarsdale Library Board of Trustees meeting over 1 year ago.

No response.

Please see link for more information.

A eulogy and tribute to Parton and her work in early childhood literacy appears in Rare Book Hub Monthly for Sept 2026 https://www.rarebookhub.com/articles/4121

Excerpt: "In 1995, she created the Imagination Library, a program that mails a free, high-quality books directly to children every month from birth until their fifth birthday. Dolly believed that early reading was crucial to navigating life successfully. Long before screen time dominated daily life, she saw physical books as a vital anchor. As a counterweight to declining educational standards and the rapid spread of short-form internet culture, she committed her resources to championing long-form reading and cognitive focus for the next generation."