Storytime Tale

You might think that providing storytimes for children would be all sweetness and light but you would be wrong. There are few things that upset parents and caregivers more than not being able to get into storytime because it's full, or because they're LATE and the program has already started. I know children's librarians everywhere know what I'm talking about.

But when you add preschools and day care centers into the mix, things can really get complicated. This morning we got a call from the director of a local day care center who has already made plans to visit our library on a particular date and time and wanted us to accomodate their group (50+ children) with a library tour and storytime. Here's the problem: we already have two regular storytime programs scheduled for that day and with only one children's librarian on duty at that particular time (not to mention only one storytime room), there is no way we will be able to accomodate this group on that date at the time they want.

The children's librarian offered to come to their location earlier in the morning that day - no dice. She suggested a different date - no, they already have it set IN STONE in their calendar (which amazes me - they set this date without consulting with us to see if it would work?) She suggested they try a different branch library - nope to that as well. Not satisfied with anything the children's librarian had to say, the day care director insisted on talking to me, but I could only repeat that we would love for them to come see us but not on that date at that time. She argued with me, said I was being ridiculous, said I was being unfair, said I wasn't supporting the community, said I was being contradictory (I had mentioned our scheduled storytimes but then said that we really couldn't accomodate them in the regular storytime as it wouldn't be fair to our regular attendees.) I could only keep apologizing to her (when I felt like shouting at her - I want it noted that I actually held my temper in the face of this abuse) and she finally said that maybe they could come in after the regular storytimes. So she talked with the children's librarian and made arrangements to come in at 11:30 am.

Which all sounds great, except I have a strong feeling that they are going to just show up at 10:00 and try to bully their way into the storytime, and we're going to have to prevent them from coming in. If that indeed happens it won't be pretty.

This is all in about a month so I will post an update after it's all over.

It's always something...