A stereotypical description of a librarian is a woman with her hair in a bun, cat eye glasses, polyester dress suit, creaky orthopedic shoes, a stiff posture, a stern glance and a pointy finger armed and ready to “shush.” This is far from the truth. At the Sweetwater County Library, the staff is diverse and fun. We have a reputation for brilliant knowledge, smiles, excellent customer service, zany story times and out-of-this-world programming. The Youth Services department is no exception.
When we aren’t planning our next Toddler Time, Story Time, Super Saturday or Harry Potter Party, we are tackling the newest board books, picture books, chapter books, graphic novels and young adult books. Some of our favorite things are the inter-office courier boxes that deliver new books to us weekly. This box elicits squeals of excitement that causes us to dive into the new “gifts.” Receiving new books can be a group effort and many times we take turns reading the books out loud so we can devour their content and then make them available for check out.
As much as we love the new books, we still have our classic favorites. Librarian tastes vary wildly in the books we love and hold close to our heart and we are always willing to share these books with you. It would be easy to assume that librarians like books about books and books about the library, (well we do) but some of our favorite books are: “Chicken Cheeks,” “Fractured Fairy Tales,” “The Day the Crayons Quit,” “Ball!” and anything that gives a different, humorous or mischievous twist to a story. There are times you will catch us giggling like children at unusual or different stories.
It’s not all costumes, glitter and glue in the Youth Services Department. We get excited about visiting authors, school tours and events that celebrate books. National Picture Book month is November each year. We are already geared up to share our great collection of pictures books with you. Visit the library in November to read a new or favorite picture book and to play bingo. Special treats will be awarded for completion of picture book bingo.
You can naturally count on award-winning books, popular reads and classics at our programming and other events. The books “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie,” “If You Take a Mouse to School” and “If You Take a Mouse to the Movies” by Laura Numeroff will all be featured at our mouse party Sat., Nov. 14 from 1-3 p.m. at the Green River library location. Join us then and you can meet the life-sized mouse in person.
Why would we do all of this? Why do we cover hundreds of wands or eggs in glue and paint? Why do we wear silly costumes? Why read so many books? The books, the crafts, the planning and meetings are all part of our exciting jobs. What really makes us tick is you. There is nothing we like more than our patrons. It fills our day with joy to see our regulars and new patrons. Giving a new library card for the first time is like winning a prize for us. We take pride in learning patrons’ names and the names of the children that visit us.
We try our best to remember what you like to read, your favorite author, character and more. We enjoy the visits where you give us ideas for the young adult and middle school events. We like to see you.
Certainly we love books, but we get to do all of this for the people who visit the library.
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