Busy Saturday

Saturday 30th January 2016

I was rushed off my feet today! I had queues at the counter as well as people waiting around to use a computer. We have five public computers in Silverdale and usually they are well used with people spaced out over the day.

The boys enjoying their Putin game

However, today I had some boys in that I haven't seen in the library since back in the summer when they did the Summer Reading Challenge. I was really pleased to see them back in. All three went on the computers - after being reminded of their PINs to get back on. It was so nice to see them all playing the same game - yet being so well behaved. I'm not sure what the game was - I hadn't seen it before. It seemed to involve a grid background with coloured balls bouncing around the screen. In the middle floated pictures of Vladimir Putin or Barack Obama! It looked like fun anyway :-)


 


More good news - today Mr. C came back in! He replied to my text last night to say he'd had a bad back so hadn't been out much all week. It was lovely to see him back and choosing his horses once more.... and he brought me some chocolate biscuits too!

My Blast from the Past is a photo of one of my favourite book titles! It makes me smile every time I go past it on the shelf. I know some staff at Newcastle have a competition to try to find the most ridiculous Mills and Boons titles - but I love the ones that are lines from or titles of song.

There are quite a lot of them :-)

Want to work for nothing?

Friday 29th January 2016

Advertising for my replacements...

 Came in today to find leaflets and posters all over the counter and walls asking for volunteers to work in my library. I knew this was coming, of course, in fact they need to get a move on if they want people to be in place after I leave on 31st March. But, it is still upsetting to see it right in front of me all the time.

I don't know how many volunteers they want to cover for me - but I think it would be a few, if they only want to do a few hours each week. I guess time will tell.

I did have to put the leaflets out in the foyer and on the windowsills - so I didn't have to see them ALL the time.

Am still worried about Mr C - no sign of him today. I decided to text him to see if he was okay. I asked him if needed any emergency whisky bringing over!

Yummy individual Bakewell



I did have one thing to cheer me up today - one of the aforementioned Co-op Bakewell tarts. Delicious as ever!

The Knit and Natterers were in today - they were working on knitted toys for children. I was quite excited that I had a new book in for them - but they were not impressed! Maybe Easy Knits for Babies was insultingly basic for ladies with such experience! I won't make that mistake again :-)

My Blast from the Past today is from when my former colleague at Silverdale, Tracy and I did our first Race for Life - as part of the Book Group. We were joined by my good friend Janet and Tracy's sister - Dawn. It was back in June 2013 - after I'd recovered from my cancer treatment and was back at work. We do it every year now!

The Book Group - with medals!

Poets in full flow...

Thursday 28th January 2016



Caroline

I love Thursdays - 'cos it's poets day! The wonderful Keele Poets at Silverdale have their weekly class. They come from far and wide (mainly Cheshire - which is a whole county away!) Caroline is the tutor - and not only is she an amazing poet herself - she's also a researcher and the agent for Oxford Professor of Poetry - the wonderful Simon Armitage. If it wasn't for her - he would never have visited our little village library.

I like to get the room ready before they come - because sometimes some of them can get stuck in road works or on the motorway. They like to have the desks moved out of the way and sit in a big circle. Caroline always sets them homework - and they all get chance to read their work to the others. I can quite often hear hilarity ensuing when I'm at the counter - the other end of the library from their room!



Caroline and her poets

They are the ones who wrote all the poems that are proudly displayed in our Public Toilet - as part of their Bards in the Bog projects. Customers love them - but do tend to spend a lot longer in there than they used to!

Busy reading their work

One of the poets wrote a fab poem about Silverdaleans - turning them into Silvered Aliens! It was very funny :-)

At Christmas they wrote one about me - the are so lovely!

Very proud of my poem :-)

Library volunteer

Their term lasts until the end of March - then they have a break until the following September. I just hope that things are going well in the library then - so that they can still have their room. They all love coming to Silverdale - the room is just right, there are no stairs or steps and we even got them a hearing loop for the room - to help the few with hearing difficulties. There's also free parking in The Parade!


Today's Blast from the Past is one of my more unwelcome customers - eeek! I don't like spiders - and this one was HUGE! Also there's a kind of funnel web just behind the photocopier where a spider has been living for the last 9 years! Or maybe a succession of spiders - many generations even.

I don't think I'll miss this customer too much! Talking of missing customers - I've not seen Mr C all week. I am seriously worried. I will have to text him if he's not in tomorrow....

Remembering TOWN

Monday 25th January 2016

The calm before the storm

I love my library first thing in the morning before I even open the doors. Once I have opened al the shutters and let the sunlight in - it looks just beautiful.

My library has dual-aspect windows - from the left you can see the High St with the bus stop outside and down the entire right side you can see the car park behind and in the distance the hills of the Apedale Country Park. It looks beautiful whether they are green or white and covered in snow.

It's always a calm start to the day - until I unlock the door, people start to come in and the day begins!

Another Monday - another Coffee Tots. The group is getting so big now - the leader Trudie from the Heath Centre asked me what the room capacity was - for health and safety purposes! I checked and it is 36 if using both rooms with the partition removed. She had 28 mums - all with babies and toddlers. We had to cordon off the children's library for the parking of all the prams and buggies.

The computers were busy too - one customer hadn't been in for quite a while - but needed to print out some bank statements. I reminded her how to log on with her card and PIN - then told her to shout if she got stuck with the printing. She gave it a go herself - but needed help to get the statements to come out. I showed her once and then she was fine, we were soon churning them out. She left a happy customer.

I was worrying that I wasn't going to get any lunch when no relief staff has arrived by 1.15pm. I had a call from Newcastle though to say someone was on the way. Janet arrived rather flustered - she hadn't started until 1pm today - but no-one had told her she was meant to start at Silverdale. I got my lunch - then she had to get back to the counter at Newcastle. They are very short staffed now - so I really don't see how they are going to cover Silverdale once I have gone. I hope someone looks after my customers! I had an email to say that all libraries will be getting forms for prospective volunteers to fill in. We are meant to display them for people to pick up and we have to refer anyone who shows any interest to a new member of staff at Newcastle who has been appointed to find volunteers for my library - and four others in our district.

Joy performs TOWN

It does make me feel sad - and I'm very tempted to throw them in the bin! It is quite an insult, after going to library school and getting a diploma and a Masters degree in Library and Information Science - to be told that anyone off the street can come in and do the job I love. I know we are meant to grin and bear it - but it is very hard. I don't know ANY member of staff - whether staying in the service or leaving - who is happy. No-one can see how it is going to work!






Cakes for everyone

Today's Blast from the Past harks back to much happier days at Silverdale. It was the night the wonderful poet Joy Winkler came to the library to perform her drama TOWN. We'd not had anything like it in the village before - and everyone loved it!

 Read the full story here

Monday puzzles

Monday 18th January 2016

I'm only in work for one day this week. off to London for the rest of the week helping out Jigsaw School Apps at the huge BETT 2016 show. It was a busy day though. We had a new group starting to use our rooms this week - they are going to alternate with Coffee Tots - every other week. This is good as it means that the rooms are used every Monday now!

Mr S in the Reference section

They are called PEEPS and from what I can gather it is some kind of parenting class to support local mums and dads. They were not sure if anyone would turn up with it being the first one - although they did have nine parents signed up. They needn't have worried - as they all came! That's the good thing about Silverdale Library - right on the High Street and easy for everyone to get to.

It helps being next to the Co-op too. It's the only supermarket in the village - and very handy for getting lunch! I have to tell you - their "Co-op Bakery" Bakewell tarts are heavenly! Crisp thin pastry, loads of jam and soft sticky almond filling. I think I might lose a few stone once I stop working here!

Another Monday regular is Mr S. who comes in every week without fail, clutching his clipboard! No- he's not doing a survey - he is trying to complete his Sunday Magazine crosswords! He has them on his clipboard, pencil behind his ear so he can sketch in answers when he finds them. He can spend hours looking through our reference books on film, biography, history and many other topics trying to get the last few clues he couldn't get at home.

It's only after he has searched our stock for answers that he comes to me on the counter and asks if I know any of them. As a final resort - if I don't know them off the top of my head - he will get me to Google them. This week I knew about Guns 'n' Roses - but had to look up who the Greek goddess of magic was! It turns out it was Circe. ;-)

I love Mondays!!

The afternoon was just as busy! We had a class visit from the local primary school's Year 6. Tracy, our area's Children's Librarian came to take this session - observed by my lovely boss Terry. This is because his new job in April will mean he has to do lots of events like this and less of organising staff to work at all the branches.

Let's Do This!

 As these children were a bit older it wasn't a story time and craft session. Instead they had a talk about the Dewey Decimal system (I approve!) and how all books were arranged in the library - followed by a noisy game of Dewey Bingo! They certainly seemed to enjoy it.

My Blast from the Past today is a photo from back in 2011 when we had a Get Online day - but the tutor didn't turn up!

It was aimed at adults who hadn't dared touch a computer yet - but felt they really should take the plunge!

So, as I had some customers booked in for the session Nathan and I did it instead! We put on the oversized t-shirts and showed the attendees the basics of getting online and using the web.

It turned out pretty well!

Snowy Saturday

Saturday 16th January 2016

Another icy day - the Parade was treacherous as no-one had gritted the pavement. I nearly fell over going into the Co-op for the local paper. Once I unlocked the library and switched off the alarm I got our bag of salt and grit from the boiler room and spread it all outside the library and up and down the easy access ramp. I didn't want anyone slipping outside my library!

Mrs D - straight from the hair salon!

The first hour was pretty quiet - but after that my Saturday regulars started to come in. Mr. C was picking his horses - although he said it looked like it would be a bad day for betting. I guess a few meetings could be called off due to the hard ground. He never bets on anything else, like football or the rugby - just the horses. I ordered him a book on how to win at racing - but I didn't seem much difference in his winnings after he read it. I think he knows most of it already! He does like to read about the trainers, like Henry Cecil and also any books on horse racing scandals.

Local Author Graham Bebbington

Today's featured regular is the lovely Mrs D. who comes in every Saturday without fail. She always comes straight from the hairdresser's - so she didn't mind me taking her photo as she is looking her best!

She loves her crime books and has read most of my stock! However, today she was lucky as she found three on the New Books display.

My Blast from the Past is from back in December 2014 when I had a very busy day. Quadruple whammy at Silverdale Library: Coffee tots, class visit for stories and Christmas crafts ( Thanks Farida!), head teacher surgery for prospective parents and author book signing! All at the same time.

This is a photo of Graham Bebbington, a local author who has written quite a lot about Silverdale. His previous one  Silverdale: Five Road Ends is one of the most popular local history books to go out. This time he was launching his new book - a biography of the Cheadle-born poet Charles Masefield, who died at the age of 35, having been wounded at Lens in July 1917. It is called The Life and Times of Charles Masefield - check it out!

Bards in the Bog...

Friday 14th January

Just half a day on Fridays - we're open 1pm - 4.30pm. It was pretty quiet as it had snowed today. Only two Knit & Natter ladies made it in. None of my regular customers came in - so I couldn't take any photos. Instead I have taken one of the sunny yellow daffodils that the poets brought me in yesterday. I have them on my counter and they cheer me up!

Had printer problems today - just before closing time. I  was worried as if it didn't get sorted right away then I'd have no printing all day Saturday! Also, just before it happened someone rang to ask if they could print out an important document as their own printer had broken! I'd assured him that if he joined the library he could use the computers and print out what he needed.

When he got here I told him there was a problem, and while he filled in his form to join, I called the ICT help desk in Stafford. They told me to switch the printer (which is also my photocopier and scanner) off while they looked at the problem.

I told my new customer that by the time I'd put his details into out system and he'd logged into our public PC, then I was sure the problem would be fixed. I was a little anxious as there was literally 5 minutes left. I need not have worried though - he downloaded his document I got a phone call back from Stafford to ask me to switch back on and try it again. Lo and behold the printer was fixed and the document printed out in time. My new customer was very pleased and grateful.
Thanks ICT Help Desk Guy!!

My Blast from the Pat today is from March 2014, when the Poets group, who meet in the library every Thursday, asked if they could do a special project for the library. They called it "Bards in the Bog" and they each wrote a poem about toilets and then displayed them in the loo! In fact they are still there! They have proved very popular with my customers - many stay in there much longer than usual - as they are reading the poems. Some are very funny! Maybe I should take one home when I leave - then I can have one in my loo too!