Practicum Log

18 May 2014 (Sunday), 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Hours Completed: 4
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 4

I was introduced to the Sunday staff and was informed that the regular Main Library staff does
not work Sundays, though Julia, a Childrens librarian from Main, was there. I spent the first
hour familiarizing myself with the department. I helped pull holds and Search Ohio books. I
helped several patrons find books, both specific and on general subjects. I also discussed
library policies and procedures with the librarians and staff that were at the desk with me.

At 2:30, I observed Michelle Alleman (the branch manager and childrens librarian at the
Firestone branch) as she did the last Sunday storytime of the year. (The library is closing on
Sundays for the summer.) There were only a few children and it was a mixed age group. After
storytime, I helped Sophia Van DerSchyf put returned books into call number order. I continued
to help patrons find materials. At the end of the day, I helped straighten up the area.

19 May 2014 (Monday), 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Hours Completed: 8
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 12

I met with Sarah and Carrie in the teen area. I helped pull holds and Search Ohio books, and
was introduced to the teen area and how the books are organized. Sarah did 4 different
booktalk sessions with 7th graders from the nearby STEM school and I observed her booktalks.
When students had a chance to look around after the booktalks, I helped them place holds on
books they were interested in so they could pick them up at their local branches. After the
students left (around 2), I helped tidy up the area. In the short breaks between groups, I
discussed doing booktalks with Sarah and picked her brain for advice. I also had Carrie sign
my practicum contract. From 2 until 3, I sat with Sarah and we looked at example displays she
was pulling for a talk with Mary Anne Nichols. She talked about what she felt made a good or
bad display and showed me some of the most attention grabbing ones she had done in the past
year or so.

At 3 pm, I went down to the Childrens desk. I worked with Julia, where I checked in holds and
searched for Search Ohio books. A preschool teacher was in and I helped pull books on space
and inventors for her class. I also sat at the desk where I helped patrons find materials and
answered general questions. I left at 5.

28 May 2014 (Wednesday), 9:00 AM - 3:00 PM
Hours Completed: 6
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 18

I arrived at 8:55. I went to the teen area where I talked about the day with Sarah. I then was
introduced to another one of the teen librarians, Mike. I spent the first hour pulling holds and
Search Ohio books in the teen area. At 10, the first group of 5th grade STEM students came in.
Mike and one of the childrens librarians, Trish, gave booktalks and talked about the summer
reading program and other programming activities. Since they are right between the childrens
department and the teen department, it was interesting to see both librarians collaborate to pick
books from both departments for this group.I spent the rest of the morning manning the desk
with Mike. We created a passive programming display around an online game called Cheese or
Font. I made the answer sheets, created an answer sheet, and wrote out the Cheese or Font
options on the posterboard.

There were two more groups of fifth graders that came in the afternoon. While the students
were there, I helped process some new books (adding stickers to the spines and fronts) and
checked them in. I was also given a list of books in transit by Sarah. Many books made their
way onto the shelves without being checked in at Main library so I searched for the books and
double checked their barcodes to see if it was on the shelf. Once I did that, I checked the ones I
found in at the computer by typing in the barcodes to clear the in transit message. This took
more than an hour. In between the two afternoon groups, I met with Trish to discuss the graded
reading project. We discussed that I am primarily choosing more recent books (the last 5 years)
as the current lists are filled with more classics. I am tackling 4th-6th grade, and may be
splitting 3rd grade with the other practicum student. We talked about including lexile numbers
and AR level, that they want a mix of fiction and non-fiction to support the common core non-
fiction emphasis, and what kind of formatting to use. I spent the last 15 minutes I was there
talking to Patty, the other practicum student. We discussed how we would work on this project
together to make sure our final projects were in the same format. We also agreed we wanted to
add on short annotations of a sentence or two to make the list more useful.

7 June 2014 (Saturday), 7:30 AM - 11:00 AM
Hours Completed: 3.5
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 21.5

I manned the Akron-Summit County Public Library table at the Akron Childrens Hospital Kids
Are Number One Run with Sarah. We arrived at 7:30 to check in and set up the table. At our
booth we had a craft for children to complete. We had plastic medals that had paper inserts so
that children could color their own winners medals. We had around 150 children come to the
table and color medals, including many patients at the hospital. We also had library program
information and graded reading lists available.

10 June 2014 (Tuesday), 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Hours Completed: 8
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 29.5

I arrived at 9. I went to the teen department to help pull holds and Search Ohio books. At 10:30,
I went downstairs to the childrens area to observe and participate in the Touch & Play Program.
As part of an initiative to bring play to the library, this program provides children and caregivers
the chance to play with a variety of toys and engage in different activities. I spent the majority of
the time playing with children ages 3-7 with an early literacy letter matching game (you put the
toy on the letter that it begins with) and playing with playdoh. At 11:30, the storytime came to an
end and I helped Trish clean up the room. I then helped Trish and Anne Marie set up the space
for a large program later that afternoon. When we were done arranging the space, I took my 30
minute lunch.

I sat at the teen desk until 1:30 and then went downstairs to help in childrens before the
program started. In childrens, I answered reference questions and helped children find books
they were looking for. I also helped organize summer reading program sign up cards. At 2, we
opened the doors and welcomed a crowd of around 170 children and parents into the space to
watch magician Rick Smith Jr. perform. I had never seen a program this large, and the kids
loved it! The program brought in a ton of kids to register for summer reading - getting them in
the door to sign up is half the battle! The desk was buzzing with children who wanted to
participate. I took the head count and stood at the door to count people who came in after the
start of the performance. After the show was over and the crowd had dispersed, I helped clean
up the area.

When the area was rearranged and back to normal, I went to go help Sarah find preschool
books in storage. The books were for mobile services to give to the children as part of their
First Book program. We went down to one of the basements and sorted through boxes of
purchased and donated books to find preschool and toddler books. We then took the books to
mobile services where I got a tour of the area and discussed the possibility of doing a ride-along
on a bookmobile later this summer. I had never seen a mobile services area and I was blown
away by the size of the collection - as the mobile services librarian, Diane, described it, it truly is
like an underground, unseen branch. I never fully understood the scope of what mobile services
did, but it was awe-inspiring to see the resources at their disposal. This program is certainly not
an afterthought! Sarah and I also took summer reading prizes to the loading dock and had to
load the books and prizes into the correct tubs for each branch. While I have been exposed to
large and small OhioLink shipping processes at Miami and Neomed, I had never seen
something on the scale of what was going on in the loading dock. Hundreds of crates lined the
walls, filled with returns and holds for each branch. As I remarked to Sarah, its hard to believe
that more things dont get lost! For the last half-hour of the day, I sat with Sue at the teen desk
and helped process books that had been weeded out but were going to the juvenile detention
center.

After gathering my things to leave for the day, I discussed future job possibilities with Carrie
Burrier. We are going to talk further about this on Saturday during down time at the Teens Rock
event.

14 June 2014 (Saturday), 1:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Hours Completed: 8
Accumulated On-Site Hours Completed: 37.5

When I arrived, I went to the teen desk. I helped Sue cut out voting slips for that evenings
program: Teens Rock Akron. I helped Sue proofread the programs, and I also spent a chunk of
time with Mike at his desk helping him fold the programs for the event. I spent much of the
afternoon at the teen desk so that Sue and Mike could prepare for the event. My reference skills
were put to the test by a family of six preteen to teen siblings who had been given a summer
research assignment by their father. We spent quite a bit of time exploring a list of African-
American inventors, scientists, and leaders and finding books on a variety of reading levels
(from the youngest, who was in 5th grade, to the oldest, who was an older high schooler). The
father also stipulated that the biography they chose had to be entirely about one person - not
just a chapter or section. This made the search very difficult and forced me to use multiple
online and library resources.

At 5, I posted posters at the back entrance telling people coming for the Teens Rock event to
use the Main Street entrance. My task was to hand out programs and voting slips to the people
coming to see the program. The music started at 6, and from 6 until 8:30 I stayed in the bands
prep room area to keep an eye on their equipment and belongings. Carrie was also in the
room for part of the time and we discussed interviewing & job seeking skills. After the program
was over, I stayed to help clean up the area with
Sue, Mike, and Carrie.

15 June 2014 (Sunday), 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Hours Completed: 2
Accumulated Hours Completed: 39.5

I spent this time beginning my lists for each grade. I
also learned how to use the Lexile number and AR
BookFinder websites in order to further my search
and assure the books I was choosing were
appropriate. At the end of my time working on the
project, I looked up each book I had written down in
the ASCPL catalog and crossed out books that only
had too few copies in the system.



16 June 2014 (Monday), 9:30 AM - 12:00 PM
Hours Completed: 2.5
Accumulated Hours Completed: 42

I arrived at the Highland Square branch at 9:30. I was unaware of the back entrance and
doorbell, so I had to wait 10 minutes at the front door for the branch staff to let me in. If I am
going to a new branch before it opens in the future, I will make sure to call ahead the day before
to find out which entrance I should use. When I was let in, I met up with Laura McFalls, the early
childhood specialist from Main. She is filling in for KT (the HS childrens librarian) while she is on
maternity leave. I helped Laura set up the room for baby storytime, and then we covered all the
toys with blankets so that the babies wouldnt be distracted.

The age range for the baby storytime was birth to 18 months, which is quite a large
developmental age. The developmental difference between the youngest of our group (a
newborn) and an 18 month old who is barrelling along is huge, but I understand that the library
doesnt have unlimited resources to have storytimes for 6 months & under, 6 months-2 years,
years, 3 years, etc. For the most part, babies were 6-18 months, but we did have a newborn.
Laura got a chance to talk to the mom and assure her that newborns were welcome at storytime
and that she was doing all the right things. You could see palpable relief on the face of the
younger first time mom that she was doing the right things - I never realized how much some
parents worry from day one about getting their kids on the right foot! It must be comforting to
hear you are doing something right from a professional.

I observed during storytime and helped with some of the movement parts, like passing out
shakers and blowing bubbles for the babies. (Apparently, bubbles are a weekly feature KT uses
and the kids LOVED them!) After storytime, I pulled down the toys and removed the blankets. I
spent the remainder of storytime on the floor playing with kids. After storytime was done, I
helped Laura clean up the room.

18 June 2014 (Wednesday), 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Hours Completed: 4
Accumulated Hours Completed: 46

I arrived at the Fairlawn-Bath branch at 1 PM to help with the Project Runway program. There
was some confusion because the teen librarian had not been told I was coming, but a call to
Carrie cleared up the confusion and confirmed I was in the right place at the right time. I was
tasked with supervising the kids as they designed. Once hair and makeup were set up, it was
my job to make sure there was ALWAYS someone in both chairs as we were pressed for time. I
spent the rest of the time the kids were designing walking people to hair and makeup and
keeping track of who had gone.

Once it was time for the show, I announced kids as they walked down the runway. After the
show was over, I helped clean up the program room. Since photos were taken of all the
participants, each parent had to sign a photo release before their child could participate.
Children could come to the library the next week to pick up their photos as part of their
participation gift. This was such a cool program; I loved how pop culture and crafting was
combined so that the designers could create their own designs.








19 June 2014 (Thursday), 9:30 AM - 12:00 PM
Hours Completed: 2.5
Accumulated Hours Completed: 48.5

Today I helped run the toddler storytime at Highland Square with Laura McFalls. Since I was
there to help her, we were ready early. I spent part of the morning talking to her about how she
incorporates Every Child Ready to Read into library programming and outreach services,
especially with AMHA families.

After storytime, the children had free play time.

24 June 2014 (Tuesday), 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Hours Completed: 8
Accumulated Hours Completed: 56.5

I arrived at Main library and spent the first part of the morning pulling holds in the Teen area.
Mike told me he needed display ideas for a book tower, and I offered up fractured fairy tales and
books with dead characters, since I have seen many new books come in on both of these
topics. Mike said we should do both, and so I spent a couple hours in the afternoon finding and
pulling books that fit the categories. I also spent part of the morning processing new books and
helping Sue prepare for the space program she was doing at Kenmore that afternoon. I also
spoke to Carrie and Trish about tackling the multicultural reading list when I am done with
grades 4-6.







Display Pictures



At 2:20, I went and got the items for the space program at Kenmore that Sue had asked me to
bring over. After my car was packed, I drove from Main Library to the Kenmore branch.
Kenmore is an urban, depressed area and it was a very different area than what I was used to.
Sue expressed frustration that Main sends staff over to put on programs but Kenmore doesnt
advertise them and most of the staff was unaware that the program was happening. It made me
consider better ways of communication between branches, librarians, and management -
clearly, something was not communicated here and the result was lackluster attendance at a
program that Sue had spent a lot of time preparing for.

The space program centered around making stars in a jar, a craft where you poke holes in
paper or metal and place inside a jar. You then put a light in the center (we used small LED
lights) and it casts the constellations you made on the paper onto the walls of a dark room. The
kids also got to decorate cupcakes at the end. We only had 4 kids come to the program, but the
ones who came seemed to enjoy it.




1 July 2014 (Tuesday), 9:00 AM to 12:30 PM
Hours Completed: 2.5
Accumulated Hours Completed: 59

I arrived at the Highland Square branch at 9. However, there was some miscommunication and
Laura didnt get there until 9:45. I called Carrie to confirm that Laura was coming. Laura arrived
at 9:45. The storytime we were doing for preschoolers revolved around shapes. The craft was
an open ended art project where children could build out of lots of small everyday objects. After
building, the could sketch and color their creations. During the storytime, I had the opportunity to
read Mouse Shapes to the kids. Laura said I did all the right things while reading, like asking
questions, interacting, and asking them to anticipate what was going to happen.

During the craft, there was a girl who had a meltdown over not being able to draw her creation
perfectly. I tried to show her that it was okay to not draw perfectly, but she was very upset. I
talked to her dad about books on the subject of there being no such thing as right art, like The
Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse by Eric Carle. After the craft was over, I helped Laura clean up.



8 July 2014 (Tuesday), 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Hours Completed: 8
Accumulated Hours Completed: 67

After I arrived, I went to the teen desk. I was going to help pull holds, but was asked to go
downstairs and help Laura McFalls set up for the play program that morning. When we were
done setting up, I went back upstairs and pulled holds from the teen area. At 10:30, I went back
downstairs to help with the play program. It was beach themed and we had a sand craft, a pool
with water, a science station filled with beach finds, etc. At this program, there was a large
homeless family that came in. They were nervous about whether or not their children would be
allowed to participate, but Laura welcomed them in. The adults wanted the children to play but
were obviously uncomfortable with coming into the room and interacting with the other parents.
Laura understood their situation and bent policy to allow the children to play while grandma
observed through the window into the room. She opened up to Laura that the children were
starting kindergarten and preschool in the fall and had never really interacted with other children
before. She was very happy to see them playing nicely and interacting with other children. After
the playtime I helped Laura clean up and then I went back up to the teen area for a short time
before lunch.

In the afternoon, I went to teen area and helped Sarah, the new teen librarian, clean the baby
toys that are kept in the teen area. Afterwards, I was on desk in the teen area. At 2:30 I got a
cart and filled it with snacks to take to I Love the 90s program at the NW branch. I drove to the
NW branch to help Mike do the I Love the 90s program. The program, which pulled from recent
90s nostalgia, featured making t-shirts by using cassette tapes as stamps with fabric paint. Mike
had a modified Xbox that had a simulator for older video game consoles on it. The kids enjoyed
getting to play old school video games such as Super Smash Brothers and Mortal Kombat.
The program attendees were mostly tweens, and they really seemed to enjoy it. We had about
15 participants. I helped Mike clean up the room before we left.

9 July 2014 (Wednesday), 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Hours Completed: 8
Accumulated Hours Completed: 75

When I first arrived, I emptied the remains of my roller cart from yesterday in the storage room
and took the cart back to the Youth Services office. The morning was another example of what
happens when events are not communicated to individuals. I was not told that there was a large
meeting with a presentation on Common Core and InfOhio in a conference room downstairs,
and so when I arrived there was nobody in the workroom, in the Youth Services office, or in
either childrens or teens. After not being able to find anyone I decided I would pull holds until I
could find someone. However, I did not know the password to get onto the computer to print the
lists. I spent the first half-hour trying to find someone. Eventually I ran into Carrie Burrier who
apologized for not telling me about the meeting. I went down to the meeting and stayed until
11:10. It covered much of the same information that I have been learning about in Dr. Harpers
Reference course. Having worked in the Reinberger and done research for Dr. Harper, I am
familiar with the Common Core and InfOhio, but it was good to hear it discussed in a public
library setting.

After the meeting was over, I went up to teen and helped process books. Carrie then told me
that they were shortstaffed in childrens so I went downstairs where I pulled and checked in
holds. I then spent the time before I took my lunch at 1:00 checking books on the missing list. I
tackled nonfiction from 0 to 400. Right before lunch, Sarah Rosenberger talked with me about
GeekFest and asked me to man the button making station & craft room. After lunch, I returned
to the childrens desk as one of the childrens librarians was assisting with the movie showing in
the auditorium that afternoon.

10 July 2014 (Thursday), 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM
Hours Completed: 8
Accumulated Hours Completed: 83

After arriving at work, I spent the first couple hours with Sarah R. in collection development. I
had the opportunity to see how Sarah orders both physical copies of books and digital copies
through OverDrive. I also got to talk to Sue Otterson about ordering books for children. We
talked about how she orders non-fiction series and how she gets input from branches on what to
order.

In the afternoon, I was tasked with finding and creating guides for nerdy origami to use at
GeekFest. I spent the afternoon sitting at the computer in the youth services office finding
origami guides and folding them to see how difficult they would be for patrons to do. Sarah also
gave me a stack of writing contest entries that needed to be typed up. You can see the Pikachu
and Dementor origami below.



14 July 2014 (Monday), 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Hours Completed: 8
Accumulated Hours Completed: 91

I spent almost all of the day on the teen desk, where I helped patrons with reference questions. I
worked on the desk with Sarah D., the new teen librarian, until 1. I started by pulling holds in the
morning. While on desk, I helped her brainstorm an idea for the large display case at the top of
the stairs on the third floor. I suggested doing a Freedom Summer display since there have
been several YA books that have been released on the subject for the 50th anniversary. I was
inspired by my alma mater, Miami University, where the training for the students who went down
to Mississippi took place! I also spent time working on the nerdy origami project for Geek Fest.
I am creating instructions on how to make several origami creations, including Spock, a Tardis,
Pikachu, a Dementor, and a Golden Snitch. I took step-by-step pictures for pikachu today.

After lunch, I went back out on desk with Mike. We pulled more holds and I continued to answer
reference questions. When patrons call in with immediate requests, we often run books down to
the drive-through window or the circulation desk. I took down several books during the
afternoon. The afternoon was slower than normal (there were not many people in the library)
and so Mike and I discussed librarianship and the library in general. In particular, we discussed
how important it is that librarians remember they are in a customer service centered position.
We had both made observations that some older librarians were salty (Mikes phrase) that
they now were expected to be cheerful to patrons and to engage with those coming into their
departments. I had joked that I hadnt killed my retail training to say hello to everyone who walks
in and to end each interaction with a let me know if theres anything else I can help you find!
Mike said he tries to at least make eye contact and smile at everyone that walks in, and that I
should keep responding to patrons the way I do.

16 July 2014 (Wednesday), 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM
Hours Completed: 4
Total Hours Completed: 95

I spent my time at Main Library in the work room typing up mailed-in entries for the ASCPL
Creative Writing Contest.

22 July 2014 (Tuesday), 5:00 PM to 11:00 PM
Hours Completed: 6
Total Hours Completed: 101

I spent this time working on creating nerdy origami guides for the upcoming GeekFest. There
were issues with some of the pictures taken and some of the chosen origami crafts were too
difficult to offer to the general public.

24 July 2014 (Thursday), 7:00 PM to 12:00 AM
Hours Completed: 5
Total Hours Completed: 106

I spent this time redoing the Pikachu and Dementor origami guides (see attached Google Doc
links). I learned that some craft projects take a lot longer to do than you think.
Pikachu Guide
Dementor Guide

25 July 2014 (Friday), 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Hours Completed: 8
Total Hours Completed: 114

I spent the majority of the time at the library working on the graded reading lists for 4th-6th
grade (see attached). I also helped Sarah R. move some things to set up for GeekFest.
4th Grade Reading List
5th Grade Reading List
6th Grade Reading List

26 July 2014 (Saturday), 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Hours Completed: 8
Total Hours Completed: 122

Geekfest is a really cool program that ASCPL runs every summer - it functions as a family-
friendly Comic-Con and attracted around 600 people this year. There are activities ranging from
table top gaming to crafts and a costume/cosplay contest. While most of the librarians dressed
up, I chose not to. While I enjoy a good costume, I look younger than my age and have been
mistaken as a teen participant at other programs where I havent been in professional garb. I
decided to wear more professional clothes so that I would clearly stand out as a member of the
library staff and not a patron.

When I arrived, Sarah asked me to pull geeky books from Teen and Popular Culture, as well
as some more origami books to add to the geeky origami I had put together earlier that week. I
spent the majority of the morning finding and pulling these books. I then used the geeky books
to create a table display in the main lobby. However, I did not have my phone with me and I was
unable to take a photo. When I pulled the books off the table later that evening, almost half of
the books had been checked out! Sarah congratulated me on creating a display that the patrons
seemed to love.

After I created the display, I spoke to the Ellet branch teen librarian, Kerry, about how to work
the button making machine. We had stacks of old comic books and magazines for patrons to
create buttons from their favorite geeky icons. I manned the button machine for the entirety of
the event. The most difficult aspect of this was dealing with some pushy adults who wanted to
make multiple buttons (there was a one-per-person limit) and who were not being kind to the
children also participating. The highlight of the day was my interaction with two young sisters.
Their father (who placed in the cosplay contest for his awesome Voltron costume) had created
beautiful handmade Poison Ivy and Wonder Woman costumes for them to go to Cons with him.
Wonder Woman was 3 or 4 and very excited about her hero. When she wanted to make a
button we had trouble finding Wonder Womans face and she had to settle for Lego Wonder
Woman from The Lego Movie. I could tell she was disappointed she didnt get her hero on a
button, but she behaved very well. About a half hour later, I saw someone flipping through a
comic book and I saw a perfect Wonder Woman. I was able to grab the page and make a button
out of it. I found her in the auditorium with her dad and was able to give her the pin. She was
over-the-moon excited about the button! The look of surprise and happiness on her face made
the small gesture towards a little patron totally worth it. She couldnt believe Id remembered and
thought of her! Her father and older sister were so happy I had found it too.

After the event was over, I helped clean up the area for about an hour before leaving for the
night. Later that day, Sarah Rosenberger sent out this email thanking the Geekfest staff,
including me.


This was the only picture Sarah Rosenberger could find of me at the button making table -
unfortunately, it was very blurry.

28 July 2014 (Monday), 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Hours Completed: 8
Total Hours Completed: 130

I spent the first hour helping Sarah D. move furniture in the teen area back into place from
Geekfest. She had been tasked with creating a display, but I asked if I could do it instead.
Inspired by the materials I had pulled for the main lobby display for GeekFest, I created a Get
Your Geek On display. I used several of the books left over from the old display and then pulled
DVDs and audiobooks to complement them.

I spent most of the day on the teen desk doing reference work. I did go down to childrens and
discuss my reading lists with Trish. We discussed that I needed to remove a couple of books
from the 6th grade list that were catalogued in TEEN. I am also going to add on the Lexiles for
the books. She mentioned that a couple of the AR points were high for 4th grade books, but I
was able to back up my choices by showing her I had picked books with age-appropriate
characters and interest levels. I had also checked my choices on professional review journals
which suggested them for the same grade range I had picked. She agreed with my choices and
realized that the books she was concerned about were just longer books, which affects the AR
points quite a bit. Other than that, Trish said the books looked great.




29 July 2014 (Tuesday), 9:00 AM to 4:30 PM
Hours Completed: 7
Total Hours Completed: 137.5

After arriving at Main, we drove over to the zoo in Carrie Burriers van with Sarah R. Laura
McFalls met us there. The purpose of the zoo program (which can be seen in the pictures
below) was to have children go on an adventure through the zoos with backpacks in order to
collect needed school supplies. While this event is open to everyone in the Akron Public School
System, it focuses on giving needed supplies to lower income families. While we were not giving
anything out, we provided fun for the children at the craft tent. Our craft was black scratch-off
postcards. We shared the tent with Pat Catans and helped them with their craft and cleanup as
well. We functioned as the gatekeepers, handing out cards as children came in and explaining
both crafts to them.

One of the more difficult things was enforcing the rules. We had a one per child policy as
parents often end up wanting to do one as well and we wanted to make sure we had enough for
all the kids. Parents often had an attitude about not being able to do the craft, but we had to
enforce the policy. Overall, the event was great experience working with primarily lower income
and diverse populations.

30 July 2014 (Wednesday), 9:00 AM to 4:30 PM
Hours Completed: 8
Total Hours Completed: 145

After arriving at Main, Carrie, Sarah, and I departed for the zoo. Sarah and I set up the tables.
We continued the craft from the day before. Today was much busier than the day before, most
likely because the weather wasnt as cold and dreary. Over the course of both days, we served
about 2000 people. The highlight of my day was a little girl who came to our tent towards the
end of the day. She was very excited about the craft and I showed her how to do the dotting
technique I had used on my example card. While talking to her, she noticed that someone had
vandalized the Put Sticks Here sign on the bucket for sticks. She was very concerned about
the words that had been added to the sign - Dont at the front of the sentence and NO!!! at the
end - and a few minutes later she brought up a new sign she had made for the sticks. Sweet
gestures like this from children make all the work that goes into these events totally worth it!

Earlier this year, I created an informative newsletter for Dr. Brodies class about the rise of
childhood obesity. After two days of working extensively with thousands of people, I was
emotionally overcome by the prevalence of obese children. Seeing the problem in person really
impacted me, and made me think about how I could include nutritional education or physical
activity into childrens programming.









31 July 2014 (Thursday), 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Hours Completed: 8
Total Hours Completed: 153

I spent this time in the workroom working on the reading lists & finishing up some practicum
paperwork. I spent an hour in the afternoon at the circulation desk on High Street with Mike,
covering for a meeting the circulation staff was having.