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Dear Friends,
Thanksgiving we spent in New Mexico with my brother. He
lives in the middle of nowhere, Abiquiu to be exact of Georgia
O’Keeffe fame. This is the land of candy striped cliffs, the
white place and the black place all depicted by Miss O’Keeffe.
The landscape is spectacular but empty. Not far from my
brother’s place is the small town of El Rito noted for a hole in
the wall restaurant El Farolito. El Farolito has just four
picnic benches for tables and is great if you happen to like
green chilies.
Around the dinner table my brother Ted mentioned that he is now
a board member of the nearby library. The amazing thing is that
El Rito just celebrated the 26th anniversary of its library. The
library is not open every day; it does not receive money from
the state; it exists on donations and grants and just had a
fundraiser where 100 people gave 100 dollars to keep the library
going. People just have to have their libraries and El Rito is
an example of how important libraries are to communities, no
matter how small. We in Ponte Vedra are lucky to have a
well-funded library. Those of you who have been here for a long
time may remember that the first version of our library was not
built until 1993 and was the result of a group of hard working
people who just had to have a library. The result of their
efforts is the great library you have now.
This is my last column as president of the Friends and I would
like to thank the Board of Directors, the library staff and the
members of the FOL for all their support. It has been a pleasure
and an honor to be able to serve this community of library
enthusiasts.
Jan Bialka
Interim President of the Friends
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 Branch
Manager's Report
The last few months of 2011 were eye-opening for me. While our
Children's/Young Adult Librarian & Assistant Branch Manager,
Anne Crawford, was on maternity leave, I found myself in charge
of all youth programs in the library for three months
(September-November, 2011).
I think most patrons would be surprised to know how much
brainstorming, planning, and practicing goes into storytimes and
other children's programs. Think storytime is a piece of cake,
just grab some books on your way in and the program will be
successful? Think again! When planning storytimes you have to
consider the age range of the audience and their comprehension
levels. You must consider time (Is this book too long? Too
short? Can I easily stop half way through if the children don’t
seem to like it or if I lose their attention?). You must plan
for a variety of story formats (flannel board, white board,
board book, regular book, oversized book, etc.). You must think
up a creative craft for which you have enough supplies that will
help the children practice a skill (cutting with scissors,
matching shapes, recognizing colors/letters). You must make
examples of the craft for everyone to see because if you can’t
do it then how can you expect a 3 year old to do it? And you
must practice, practice, practice! If you think it can be a
challenge to keep one of your children or grandchildren still to
hear a story, try keeping 25-40 of them still! You had better
know the character’s voices, anticipate pauses, and get those
pages turned quickly! On top of all that, you have to be ready
for dancing, singing, and just basically letting go of any
worries about looking poised and “professional.”
Storytime isn’t just about entertainment. It’s about young
families coming together to share an experience. It’s about
instilling a love of libraries (and librarians!) in our
children. It’s about vocabulary, language, laughing, and
playing. It’s about literacy! And it is hard work!
I definitely missed Anne while she was gone. And I’m so glad to
have her back! But I will miss the little faces sitting in the
audience waiting for me to share a new story with them. And I
will miss the sticky, gluey fingers waiting to show me the new
craft they made. But Anne knows her stuff (she’s a trained
professional with tons of experience!) and she can’t wait to
share new stories with your family. Look at the Calendar on the
home page or in this issue of Check This Out for the current
schedule of storytimes and other programs for your family. Take
advantage of what our library and your Friends of the Library
offer your children!
Amy Ring
Branch Manager
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