Is It Fall Yet? Or Summer Reading Is Draining Me!

I’m in week 5 of 11 official weeks of summer reading…. and I’m at the point in the summer where I don’t know if I’ll make it.  It’s been a very busy summer already with our circulation through the roof (almost 2,000 more books that last June), reference questions that seem never ending, and programming on a daily basis.  Everyone on staff looked as though they wanted to jump ship on Tuesday, so I baked muffins for Wednesday in the hopes of brightening people’s spirits.  It’s just one of those weeks where we’ve had so much going on that people are a little fried, due to a science summer camp we’ve had 38 in-house and outreach programs this week. Not to mention, they migrated our online registration system which has caused panic and new directions and a little more stress than usual.
But, it’s the little things that make me keep coming back.  Like the kids at camp who were literally chanting to have me re-read The Book With No Pictures by B.J. Novak again.  Or the little girl who came in looking for the story after I read it at camp last week.  Or the Girl Scout cookies a family dropped off for me as a “thank you for all you do!”  Or the kid who doesn’t stop reading taking home ten new books I helped her pick out.  These are the little things that make me love (absolutely) love what I do.  The repeated, “I’m sorry that book is checked out, can I put it on hold for you?” is getting a little old, but it’s always great to see so many people in the library.
So no matter how tired I am, I try to remember to smile and help everyone I can as much as possible to have a positive experience with our library, because in the end that’s what’s important!