Day 9 - March 17, 2007

SATURDAY -- My posting is late because I was tired when I got home yesterday and fell asleep after watching Borat on DVD. Today, I got busy with watching a K-movie then I had to go to the mall to pick up something for a friend.

Yesterday, as usual I overslept and was rushing out of the house at 9:54am hoping to get to the library by 10am. I was a few minutes late but it was okay. The library was not too busy when I got there. There was a chatty old lady when I got to the desk. She seemed like she was a few sandwiches short of a picnic basket. She was talking about anything and everything and then proceeded on to bad-mouthing the principal at the school where she used to work. I tried not to make eye-contact so as not to encourage her to talk some more. I felt bad because Rubina, the other reference librarian assistant got stuck with her. She finally walked over to another area of the library when her phone rang and we had to gently remind her that she cannot use her phone inside the Children's Room. We had to ask her a few times before she finally said "Okay, I'm leaving anyway, I don't see why I can't...nobody is here anyway!" She turned a bit nasty but she did leave after all. You would think that as an adult she would understand policy but she was miffed when she left the room.

At 10:30am there was Playtime and like last Saturday, there were a good number of toddlers and their parents that attended. It is so much fun watching and observing Halla do the storytelling and the kids listening in awe and joining in with the singing and dancing. I'm still a little skeptical about being able to do the storytelling and the singing and the dancing myself. The children were so cute but you can only hold their attention for so long. After the second book, there were grumbling and crying babies, older toddlers running around or rolling around the carpet. After the fifth book, we took out the toys and games and the event ended around 11:30am.

The rest of the day was quiet. I spent most of my time looking for books I want to read and I did the clearing of the computer room every half hour and handing out headphones to the computer users. I did not get very many reference questions but I was happy that whatever query was thrown my way, I was able to answer. Around 2pm we had the other Storytelling time for older kids (4-9). The theme was St. Patrick's Day so the stories were centered on Leprechauns, rainbows and the color green. After the storytelling, the children were given materials to make a leprechaun puppet. They had to color, cut and paste the leprechaun figure on a brown bag. It was a fun project. As Halla left me to watch the kids do the art project with their parents, I tried my hand with the coloring and time passed so fast that next thing I knew, it was 3pm and time for me to go.

I realized how good this library is to the community what with all the free events they do for children. I started thinking of the Philippines and how I did not have such a refuge while I was growing up. I was lucky that my parents were able to afford to buy me whatever I wanted just to aid me in my education. I'm one of the somewhat privileged few but there are many others in third world countries that could hardly afford to eat three times a day, much less get picture books or crayons and coloring books for their little ones. If such libraries with wonderful programs are available, then education will not just be a privilege for the lucky few but a right for the masses. I wish I could create such programs in the Philippines but it is quite an undertaking that I am not sure I could handle myself.