Strategies for the Burnt-Out Librarian: OLC Northeast Chapter Conference - 3.30.17

Here are the notes from the Strategies for the Burnt-Out Librarian presentation at the OLC Northeast Chapter Conference yesterday:

Link to the Power Point

Symptoms of Burnout:

• fatigue
• irritability
• crying jags
• anxiety attacks
• loss of appetite
• weight gain 
• teeth grinding
• insomnia
• nightmares
• increased drug, alcohol, tobacco use
• forgetfulness
• low productivity
• inability to concentrate 

Audience suggestions:

• awareness of how long you have left to work on your shift
• low productivity - not feeling like completing tasks but not having the option not to do them

Causes of Burnout:

• budget pressures
• heavy workloads
• an overload of clerical duties
• the need to respond quickly
• administration demands
• difficult patrons
• technology-related problems
• little input into collection decisions
• few opportunities for advancement

Audience suggestions:

• being "on" at the service desk constantly or if you work in a small community, being "on" everywhere because you run into patrons outside of the library
• renovations
• having experience but being stripped of responsibilites
• in regards to "administration demands" above - someone suggested to just wait 5 years and it'll change - or hold out and try to be the change
• lots of gossip and venting to coworkers - creates a negative work environment

Strategies to Deal with Burnout:

• recognize burnout
• use your vacation time, breaks, etc.
• exercise, stretch
• eat well
• know your limitations
• learn to say “No”
• don’t be a perfectionist
• accept help from others
• go home on time
• straighten office everyday
• don’t take work home with you
• identify activities that relax you 
• develop a support network
• ask for new job duties
• consider a job change

Audience suggestions:

• don't think about work on vacation...or at home
• establish boundaries as a supervisor that work for you (e.g. not calling when off work, etc.)
• get out of the building at times when you can on breaks
• put headphones in and listen to music (or not!) to discourage distractions from others while on breaks
• do chair/desk exercises to stretch and refresh (use Google for ideas)
• how to say no to management:
• point out what you are already doing - offer compromise and other solutions
• suggest other coworkers to take on projects/tasks instead
• hide! (just kidding)
• have an honest conversation with your boss about being burnt out and break that barrier
• let your boss know what will suffer or not happen by taking on another task/project
• make it about the library and not you personally
• ask for help, even though a lot of us want control and think it'll reflect poorly on us
• go home on time and alleviate patrons staying after closing 
• turn off computers early
• make frequent announcements about closing times
• don't perform certain services that take awhile (new cards, passports, faxes, etc.) after a certain time
• don't check work email from home
• Google "satisfying videos" to find some relaxing things to zone out to
• identifying relaxing activities
• yoga
• meditation
• download the "Stop Breather Think" app
• look at the items in your collection for help (the 150s books, relaxation audiobooks, etc.)
• don't be afraid to ask for different job duties or swap some with others
• regarding job change - it might not be the wrong profession for you, but it might be the wrong organization for you

Resources:

• Librarian Burnout: https://librarianburnout.com/
• The Compassionate Librarian: http://www.compassionatelibrarian.net/self-care.html
• Pop Culture Librarians: https://popculturelibrarianwonder.com/2017/02/01/self-care/  
• 5 Min Librarian: http://www.5minlib.com/2016/04/what-you-can-do-to-combat-librarian.html  
• Read Sing Play: https://klmpeace.wordpress.com/?s=self+care  

Anything to add for alleviating burnout? Leave it in the comments!

YA Smackdown: OLC Northeast Chapter Conference - 3.30.17

Yesterday, I hosted my very first YA Smackdown session at the Ohio Library Council's Northeast Chapter Conference.

For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, YA Smackdown is an informal sharing session for teen librarians similar to Guerrilla Storytime. I put some challenges in a bucket and asked the audience for volunteers to choose one. They then read the challenge and answered it, then anyone else in the room could also contribute a response.

Although I was a little nervous at first about how talkative the group would be (I brought Hershey Kisses to bribe them with just in case), the conversation quickly got rolling and I ended up able to share all of the awesome responses here:

What horror movies are your teens currently into?

• The Visit
• Children of the Corn
• The Ring
• The Grudge
• Mama

What would you do if a teen monopolizes your time just chatting at the desk? (I'm paraphrasing these):

• I would let the teen know that I have a job to do and that they are part of the atmosphere here and they should go be part of it.
• It depends on what's going on that day. If it's not busy, I let them hang out.
• I'll ask them to help me with a task to keep them busy.
• I'll show them the new books to pore over to occupy them.

Favorite way you’ve recycled program supplies.

• Donate to Goodwill
• Put them in the recycle bin!
• Email other staff in the system to share
• Throw everything on a table and have an open-ended crafting program
• Host a Bad Art Night - Ask teens to make the worst looking art they can!
• Use them as prizes
• I used leftover glow sticks to make light saber bookmarks
• I had all of these leftover Goldfish crackers and licorice I would try to put out and no one would eat. When I hosted a program, I named these same snacks something to go with the program theme and they tore through them! Naming the food something clever enticed them to eat it.

What is your favorite teen book that deals with issues of body image?

• Eon: Dragoneye Reborn by Alison Goodman
• Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
• Butter by Erin Jade Lange
• Faceless by Alyssa Sheinmel
• Paperweight by Meg Haston
• Bruiser by Neal Shusterman
• The First Time She Drowned by Kerry Kletter
• Dumplin' by Julie Murphy

What would you do if a non-teen came to a program? Does it make a difference if they’re too young or too old?

• I would tell them that this is a time just for the teens
• If the parents want to stay, I try to encourage them to wait just outside of the room
• I tell the adult that wants to participate that we can talk to the Adult Librarian to see if we can offer a separate program on the same topic for adults
• I try to have the program in a separate blocked off area to discourage just anyone from coming in
• I have multi-age programs where it won't become an issue, like a board game night for teens and adults
• If it's someone younger, I explain about the program being developmentally inappropriate. If it's someone older, I explain that this is a space for teens to be able to be themselves with other teens.

What is your favorite readers’ advisory resource?

• Goodreads
• Novelist
• Amazon
• Barnes & Noble bestseller and other lists
• Book Riot
• Fantastic Fiction
• We Need Diverse Books
• Google
• projectalexandria.net

What board games are popular with your teens?

• Pie Face - We had a tournament to go along with March Madness
• Dungeons & Dragons
• Clue
• Sporkle
• Battleship
• Pictionary
• Apples to Apples
• Just regular playing cards
• Yahtzee
• Uno

Audience Question: Does anyone have a mobile makerspace in your library? If so, what does it look like?

• We store stuff in a cabinet and rotate the equipment out. We have basic things like Sphero and K'nex. People can sign up to use the equipment for 15 minutes at a time.

Audience Question: How do you engage teens after school with severe lack of space and a security guard that intimidates them from staying?

• Unfortunately, this question was asked at the very end of the session so we didn't have time to get responses. If any readers have a solution, please share in the comments!

If there are any needed edits to responses, or if anyone has a good response to add, please comment below!

Guerrilla Storytime Recap - OLC Children's and Teen Conference

Last week, I presented a Guerrilla Storytime session at the OLC Children's and Teen Conference. For those of you who are unfamiliar with what guerrilla storytime is, head on over to the Storytime Underground blog and read all about it!

A packed room of participants shared their best storyime tips and tricks. Below are their responses:

What's your favorite way to add SINGING into storytime?

• One participant isn't a big singer herself, so she likes to get the parents to chime in and help sing
• A song box! This is a touch and feel type box where the librarian prints out pictures on paper that correspond to the names of the songs. She randomly chooses 3 to 4 kids per storytime to choose a song to sing and the love it!
• Song cube 
• Sing the children's names at the beginning of storytime. The kids LOVE hearing their names and it helps the librarian to learn them.
• In baby time, one librarian goes around with a mirror and sings the children's names. This also helps learn more complicated names.
• Pass around a drum and kids drum out the syllables in their name.

What's your favorite storytime app?

• Sock Puppets
• Felt Board
• Starfall ABCs
• Animal Sounds/Matching apps
• Sandra Boynton books apps
• Five Little Monkeys by Eileen Christelow apps
• Tumblebooks
• Peek-A-Boo Barn
• There's a Monster at the End of This Book

What's your favorite toddler book/rhyme/song?

• The Snappy Little... books by Dugald Steer
• Head and Shoulders Baby 1, 2, 3 song
• Jumping and Counting song by Jim Gill
• Anything by Jim Gill!
• Good Morning, Mrs. Perky Bird (with a bird puppet)
• Choo Choo
• A good tip for this one if you have too many kids to be able to do each one's name is to sing it with the names of colors instead!
• One librarian loves to use puppets in toddler storytime, so she builds her themes around the puppets available.
• White Rabbit's Color Book by Alan Baker

Audience Question: How do you deal with kids getting so excited about puppet and having to take them away?

• One librarian says that when the kids get out of control/too excited about her puppet, she tells them that the puppet is getting nervous and needs to hide for a little bit or that the kids need to be quieter
• Another librarian tells the kids that they can give the puppet high fives at the end

How do you make transitions between activities manageable for kids, especially sensory storytime?

• Do the same routine so they get used to it and how it flows. For example, they know it's now time for a story, now it's time for a flannel activity, etc.
• Sing the song "If You Want to Hear a Story..." (tune: If You're Happy and You Know It)
• Do a stretching or twirling rhyme with them to get any wiggles out.
• One librarian uses a laminated flip book with a visual schedule for ages 0 to 3 so the kids know what storytime activity is coming next. This is a great idea for both sensory and non-sensory storytimes. You could also use a projector/smart board to display the schedule if you have the technology.
• Another librarian hangs laminated pictures of each activity across a magnet board.

Sing your opening song.

• Shake Your Sillies Out by Raffi
• Bread and Butter
• Baby Hop (from CD Diaper Gym)
• We Clap and Sing Hello
• All Together Now by Debbie Clement
• A New Way to Say Hello by The Learning Station
• Hello Everybody Wave Hello (tune: She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain). Add actions for subsequent verses. The librarian who suggested it makes the action for the last verse go with her storytime theme.
• Hello Friends with sign language
• Put Your Finger in the Air

How have you incorporated different languages into your storytimes?

• Use sign language based on your weekly theme.
• One librarian has taught animal sounds in different languages. Use the book Everywhere the Cow Says, "Moo!" .
• Use sign language in baby storytime.
• Ask caregivers to share a nursery rhyme in a different language.
• Have a bilingual storytime
• Sing a song in a different language and let the kids guess the name of the song/language being sung.

Audience Question: I do a preschool storytime and only have 15 to 20 minutes to get through everything. What are some quick, good activities I could add?

• A quick song with movement activities
• A magic bag- You can print off words to drop in as you say a short poem, have the kids say the magic words (I. Love. Books.) and pull a picture or small stuffed animal out.
• Lose 1 of the books you read and add in a flannel or song
• Make you 1 book participatory or interactive so the kids get the most out of it.

Audience Question: How do you feel about incorporating apps/technology into storytime?

• Check out ALSC's white paper about media mentorship for some helpful information.
• We need to roll with the changes and allow all of our patrons to be on an "even playing field".
• We need to take into consideration what's right for our community and what their needs are.
• Have a balance and figure out your philosophy on it.

For those of you who attended the session, if I missed something or something needs to be corrected, please comment below or send me an email!

3D Printing Presentation at OLC

This is my presentation on 3D printing that I presented at the OLC Children's and Teen Conference last week.

Engineering Degree Not Required: Running a 3D Printing Program from libraryladykim

And here is a handout of helpful resources.

Enjoy!

Guerrilla Storytime Recap

This afternoon, I presented a Guerrilla Storytime session at the OLC North Chapter Conference. For those of you who are unfamiliar with what guerrilla storytime is, head on over to the Storytime Underground blog and read all about it!

Twenty participants shared their best storyime tips and tricks. Below are their responses:

Challenge: One storytime child is being particularly disruptive. What do you do?

• It depends on the particular behavior of the child. You could always speak to the caregiver. But if the children are in immediate danger, it should be dealt with right then and there.
• If the disruptive child is of the vocal variety, you could involve them in your storytime and make them a helper to focus their energy.
• Be willing to be flexible - If you notice that your entire storytime group is antsy, you might need to move on to another activity.
• With younger children, you can use bubbles at the end of storytime. To focus them, a good thing to say is, "Ok, everyone. Go back and sit with the grown-up that you love very much." (Awwww.)

Audience Question: How do you handle parents/teachers that aren't participating?

• It might be good to explain to the parent/teacher what the purpose of storytime is. You could even talk to the head of the school.
• You could make an announcement to the group up front about expectations for both the kids and the parents.
• Have 30 minutes of play time after storytime to let parents visit and converse with each other.
• A good trick to do in the transition between storytime activities if need be: Very quietly say, "If you can hear my voice, clap your hands." This is a good trick to get everyone's attention.

How do you incorporate Print Motivation into storytime?

• I choose books that I enjoy reading.
• I like to use interactive books or books with animal sounds.
• Pop-up books are good.
• I read a book about different birds. I combined it with an app with different bird sound effects and the kids loved it!

Audience Question: There's a 2 year-old child from a different country that visits the library and is very disruptive and has very limited social skills. The parents aren't any help. What can I do?

• You could read out to a community service group in your area, such as Help Me Grow.
• Project Learn is another good group to contact.

What's your favorite "5 Little..." rhyme?

• Five Little Pumpkins
• Five Little Froggies (with puppets)
• Five Green and Speckled Frogs

What's your favorite way to incorporate singing into storytime?

• I love to sing. I start and end with the same song every week. I like "Can't Wait to Celebrate" by Jim Gill and the CD Toddlers on Parade.
• I like to use books that are also songs that kids love, such as "The Wheels on the Bus".
• I like to use the "There Was an Old Lady.." books.
• The ukulele is a great way to incorporate music into storytime. Learning 4 chords lets you play a plethora of storytime songs! 
• For all of you Northeast Ohio librarians, Royalton Music Center offers intensive ukulele lessons.
• If you want to teach yourself, Ukulele Mastery Simplified by Erich Andreas is a good guide. It's downloadable on Kindle for $2.99! You can also search for how-to videos on YouTube. 
• A good site with song chords is here.
• Pete the Cat books and the Mr. Eric CDs are my favorites to use!

What's your favorite baby storytime song/book/rhyme?

• "Mr. Sun"
• "Skinnamarink"
• "Finger Poppin" from Preschool Aerobic Fun
• "Baby Hokey Pokey"
• "Baby Hop" from Diaper Gym
• "Milkshake" from Songs for Wiggleworms

What's your favorite preschool storytime song/book/rhyme?

• Hi, Pizza Man!
• Here Comes the Easter Cat
• "Herman the Worm"
• Old MacDonald Had a Dragon
• The Easter Bunny's Assistant
• "Five Plump Peas"
• Oh No, George!
• "Cool Bear Hunt" from Dr. Jean Sings Silly Songs

What's your favorite way to add talking into storytime?

• Ask the kids questions throughout storytime.
• Using flannels that allow for activities such as shape sorting can encourage talking.
• Use dialogic reading skills and ask the kids to make predictions about the stories.
• Ask the kids to help you tell the story.
• Encourage the parents to have conversations with their children after storytime, such as pointing out signs outside.
• Using props such as puppets and ask the kids to identify the name of each prop - this builds vocabulary.

What's your favorite fingerplay?

• "I Have 10 Little Fingers"
• "I Put My Hands Together"
• "Two Little Blackbirds"

How do you incorporate print awareness into storytime?

• I put up four-letter words on a flannelboard and then move the letters around.
• Sing "BINGO" using different words (such as "HEART" or "APPLE")
• Point to words as you read them.

Audience Question: What do you do if you have a storytime craft for a certain age group, but there are parents who insist that the younger siblings get to do the craft as well?

• We always expect that, so we plan for it by having extra craft materials.
• Maybe offer a coloring sheet for the younger siblings?
• Set expectations ahead of time and explain to the parents that you will only have enough craft items for the age-appropriate storytime child.

What's your favorite toddler song/book/rhyme?

• Anything by Raffi!
• Elephant and Piggy
• Zen Shorts
• "Tooty-Ta" from Dr. Jean and Friends
• "Tommy Thumb" by Sharon, Lois, and Bram
• "Wave Goodbye" by Rob Reid

Challenge: One child starts hitting another. What do you do?

• If it isn't full-on hitting, maybe just poking, you could point out to the group the children who are exhibiting good behavior.
• You could try the rhyme "Criss-Cross Applesauce" to focus them.
• I had a couple of boys in preschool storytime (no parents in the room) who started wrestling. After asking them several times to stop, I made them leave storytime without doing the craft and had a conversation with their mothers. They came back later to apologize to me and the behavior was much better next time.

For those of you who attended the session, if I missed something or something needs to be corrected (I was furiously trying to take notes as fast as the great ideas were coming!), please comment below or send me an email!