Wednesday, September 10, 2014
Back to school!
Chambers County
Library System – August, 2014
August started off with good news for the library
system. County Librarian Valerie Jensen,
and Assistant County Librarian Annie Vass were rewarded for their grant writing
efforts by receiving a state funded grant for 10 iPads to be used primarily for
the after school tutoring sessions at Anahuac.
The tutoring sessions are part of a partnership with United Way of
Greater Baytown and Chambers County, along with the Chambers County Sheriff’s
Department and Anahuac ISD. Tutorial
sessions began last school year and ended with great results, and we anticipate
more student involvement this year. The
Anahuac branch is always looking for volunteer tutors, so contact them
today!
Each year Commissioners’ Court sponsors the “summer helper”
program. This year, an exceptional group
of student workers were hired at each of the libraries. We hated to see them go, but their time was
well spent providing the library with assistance at programs, and performing a
wide variety of tasks that our regular staff can’t get to during the year. The salaries provided to these young people
help them a great deal as they get ready for college, or just to save money for
things they need. For many of these
young students, this is their first job and we like to think we leave a good impression
on them as they jump into the working world.
Over the last several weeks we’ve had some website problems
due to a server upgrade that left us without an online presence. We seem to be functioning again, thanks to
our local website guru, Kathy Fielding who was able to get us back up and
running.
Several staff members took advantage of the CPR training
provided by the County. It’s very
important that each staff member be properly trained since we deal so heavily
with the public. By the end of
September, all library staff will be updated in their certifications.
On the 28th, the Children’s Librarians met at
Anahuac for their yearly meeting to brainstorm ideas, talk about different storytime
strategies, and see all the resources available to them for the little
ones. Staff members, Michelle Mims,
Yolie Belt, Jennifer Kellum, Missy Parham, and newest staff member Krystine
Gonzales were all in attendance. Krystine
joins the West Chambers Branch at Mont Belvieu as the new Children’s Librarian.
Missy Parham, the current Branch
Librarian/Children’s Librarian has been over the kids program for the past
several years. She’s decided to hang up
that hat and concentrate more on the duties of running a busy branch. Of course, she’ll still be around to visit
with the little ones each week at storytime!
We welcome Krystine to the gang, and know she’ll do a great job!
In programming news, each branch held a “Back to School
Bash” during August. Anahuac had the
local dentist, Dr. Kevin King, Sheriff Hawthorne, and Deputy Dan to visit with
the kids and pose for pictures. Games
and snacks were served. Winnie held
their bash at the community building with giant games as the theme. Oversized classic games such as Chutes and
Ladders, and Perfection were on hand for kids to play. There were also donated back to school items
from local businesses raffled to those in attendance. Mont Belvieu held a Back to Homeschool Bash
for the parents to learn about the resources offered to them and their
children. A Little Chef’s Back to School
Cooking Class also took place at Mont Belvieu for the little ones under
12.
Ongoing meetings for the new Sam and Carmena Goss Memorial
Branch Library took place in August. We
met with shelving contractors, and the county’s Technology department to start
working on some very important details before construction can start.
Until next month!
Patron Bobbie Zigler enjoys one of the many public computers
Deputy Dan and Dr. Kevin King at Anahuac's Back to School Bash
Mike Kubik and his granddaughter enjoy visiting the library!
Another record year!
Chambers County
Library System – July, 2014
Summer
Reading Snapshot:
Books
read – up 87%
Children’s
enrollment – up 9%
Teen
enrollment – up 15%
Program
attendance (kids) – up 20%
Program
attendance (teens) – up 4%
Overall
circulation – up 29%
46,371
items checked out during July, a 35% increase from 2013.
Which county boasts the biggest bookworms? After this year, we would definitely have to
say Chambers County! 2014 was our
biggest Summer Reading in the library’s history, and we’ve got the tired staff
to prove it! The week of July 21st
ended the 6-week summer with science and magic shows for the little ones; dodge
ball, movies, and crafts for the teens; and wine-making and a painting class
for the adults. To say it’s been a busy
summer is an understatement. But we love
it that way.
A special thanks to our sponsors who donated their time,
money, and coupons for the Summer Reading Program. Without their
contributions we would not be able to provide the quality programs we offer
each year. A big thank you to the Friends of the Chambers County Library
System for being the major underwriters for the program, and also to NRG, LLC
for being this year’s corporate sponsor.
The Friends of the Chambers County Library System found
time to hold a book sale at Mont Belvieu during party week. With the amount of walk-in traffic we get
during the final week of summer reading, the $1,000 made in 3 days was worth
it.
Chambers County Library in Anahuac continued to have
very well attended GED and ESL classes.
This is the first year we’ve been able to continue classes during the
summer, and it’s because of the grant funding received from the Anahuac
Municipal Development District.
This year, County Librarian Valerie Jensen chose to
offer some adult programs during summer that aren’t typically considered your
“traditional” library programs. It’s
important not to lose sight of our adult population, and with more and more
libraries focusing on adult enrichment programs, summer was the perfect
opportunity to give it a shot. Three
programs were held at Anahuac this year beginning with Bayou City Paranormal
presenting their findings of the Chamber Home and Dr. Schilling’s office. Next we held a Wine-Making program with a
special guest speaker from Nederland, Jim Catalina. And finally we held a Painting with a Twist
program where participants got to paint and take home a “Neon Heron”
masterpiece. All the programs were well
attended with comments for more. I’m
hoping in the near future we continue these types of programs not only at
Anahuac, but system-wide.
Other programs ongoing were book club and movie days –
there wasn’t a day that the libraries weren’t hopping!
County Librarian, Valerie Jensen and Assistant County
Librarian, Annie Vass continue working closely with the new library working
group for the Sam and Carmena Goss Memorial Branch Library. A meeting was held on the 28th to
discuss the next stage of design and included Branch Librarian Missy Parham at
the meeting. Renderings of the outside
and inside design were shown to the group.
It’s such an exciting time seeing drawings and floor plans slowly take
shape.
And finally,
July is the time we prepare budget packets for the upcoming budget year.
Each year we make notes on items or services we would like to add for the
citizens of the county. This year we’re looking long term at capital
improvements and personnel. We’re also
asking for an increase in our materials budget to keep up with increasing costs
of books, eBooks, audio/visual materials, and other items.
Until next month!
Summer Reading is in full swing!
Chambers County
Library System – June, 2014
I love to brag about our library and the great team we
have. We all work very hard to provide
the public with the best service possible.
One of our most anticipated and fun times of the year is our annual Summer
Reading Program. We spend several months
planning and preparing for summer, and our efforts tend to pay off each
year. Over the past few weeks we have
managed to enroll over 1,000 kids and teens in the program, and right at 5,000
people attended programs during the first 3 weeks. We checked out 49,830 items last month including
print and electronic, making it the largest circulating month in the library’s
history. That’s something
Chambers County should be proud of!
Summer started off with “Kickoff Week”, designed to
encourage signups while offering different activities the first week of Summer
Reading. If you were anywhere near the
library you might have seen Sheriff Hawthorne passing out sno-cones, the
Chuck-e-Cheese mouse, Chick-fil-a Cow, Mad Scientist Librarians, Balloons and Cotton
candy, and much more! The buildings and
parking lots were filled to capacity with kids and their parents eager to get
the summer started.
The weekly programs we have for kids, teens, and adults
involves the time and talents of library staff, volunteers, and/or paid
performers. The Friends of the Chambers
County Library System are the major underwriters for our summer program, along
with county funds, and donations that the staff solicits during our planning
phase of the year. Without the help of
these people, our program could not continue to grow in size and popularity. One of our new programs this year was the Texas
A&M Chemistry Roadshow. Their goal
is to entertain and educate through science.
Their program definitely fell in line with our theme of, FIZZ, BOOM,
READ! with over an hour of non-stop science experiments. They’ll be performing in Mont Belvieu on July
8, at 2pm if you want to check them out.
The library’s eBook and audiobook service, Overdrive, held a
challenge to see if libraries could increase their highest circulating month by
25%. If so, we would receive $1500 in
content credit to purchase additional titles.
Of course we love a challenge, so I told the staff to really push the
eBook and audiobook services during the month of June with the hopes we just
might hit a peak month. We needed 755
downloads to reach that goal and we did it!
Our total checkouts for June was 765, which gives us credit to purchase popular
titles for all ages. And we welcome your
title requests!
County Librarian Valerie Jensen and Assistant County
Librarian Annie Vass attended the monthly library design meeting for the new
Sam and Carmena Goss Memorial Branch Library in Mont Belvieu. Annie and I have been working closely with
the group to narrow down floor plans and designs. We’ve also been getting feedback from the
Mont Belvieu staff about what they want for the new building. So much goes into library space planning and
design, and it’s such a fun process.
Adults at Anahuac attended a program presented by Bayou City
Paranormal. Representatives from the
group came to share their findings of investigations they did of the Chamber
Home, Library, and Dr. Schilling’s office.
The program was standing room only with the group enjoying audio and
video clips captured by members of the group.
Want to know if the library is haunted?
Or if General Chambers still looks out his window? Or if Dr. Schilling has some unfinished
business at his office? Stop by the
library and ask one of the staff to share the stories with you. The next adult programs at Anahuac will take
place July 17 at 5:30 with Jim Catalina teaching the basics of
wine-making. And on July 29th
at 5:30 for “Painting with a Twist!”
Registration required. Call
409-267-2554 to sign up and visit us at www.chambers.lib.tx.us.
Until next month!
The calm before the storm....
Chambers County
Library System – May, 2014
It’s the calm before the storm as we head into our annual
Summer Reading Program. May is the time
of year where we scramble to make sure all our months and months of preparation
have paid off. The staff has worked so
hard on this year’s summer activities and we’re looking forward to another
banner year! The branches have done a
fantastic job with their decorations this year – if you haven’t seen the walls
covered in scientists, slime, and robots, you need to stop by; it’s definitely
worth a look! The theme this year is
FIZZ, BOOM, READ! for the kids, Spark a Reaction for the teens, and Literary
Elements for the adults. There’s definitely
something for everyone this year. The
fun starts June 9th so sign up early and read often!
With storytime ending the week of the 5th, the
libraries still had time to throw in some fun programs. Each branch had their usual movie nights and
teen programs, while the adults continued with their book club meetings. One of the highlights in May was the kickoff
meeting for the new Sam and Carmena Goss Memorial Branch Library. Several representatives from the County,
City, Friends of CCLS, and Barbers Hill ISD were in attendance to get their
first glimpse at some possibilities for design and floor plans. The chosen architect is just as excited as we
are! It seems unreal to be at this point
when it’s been in the talking phases for so long. Definitely some goose bumps in that
meeting! After the initial kickoff
meeting, things will start to move fast, and we’re more than ready to keep up
with their pace. On the 16th the
County Librarian took several staff members on a “field trip” to area
libraries. It was a time for us to see
how other buildings were laid out, how they function with staffing, and get
some ideas for our new building.
Needless to say we came back with some great input from the very
accommodating librarians who shared their beautiful buildings with us. We
ended up being very partial to the Evelyn Meador library in Seabrook. It was beautiful and exactly the style we’re
aiming for.
Pride in our Young Adults at Anahuac should be felt by all
our citizens. For over 3 months, teens
at the library planned and executed “Ana-Con,” a small anime conference which
was held on Saturday, May 17th from 1pm-7pm. Around 75 youth attended from as far away as
Hamshire Fannett; they heard about it at the Winnie library and just had to see
what it was all about. The event was
very successful and special thanks to LaShebia Haskin for her guidance and
encouragement of the teens.
During the month of May the staff did quite a bit of
outreach at the local schools, day cares, and other organizations. This time of year the public is eager to hear
about upcoming activities we have planned for the summer. The schools look forward to the fun
presentations done by the staff to get kids excited about reading!
GED and ESL classes continue to be thriving at the Anahuac
branch. Thanks to the Anahuac Municipal
Development District for their funding, the program continues with students
eager to continue their education.
Teacher Katherine Wilkins is doing a fantastic job of encouraging the
students and it shows in the attendance.
Speaking of encouraging students, the ongoing after-school
tutorials at Anahuac which is supported by Anahuac ISD and United Way of
Greater Baytown and Chambers County came to an end with the last day of
school. We are happy to report that of
the students who attended tutorials, 9 of the kids met their reading and math
standard. These are kids who had never
met those standards before. Their test
scores also went up 200 points which was a great outcome considering the STAAR
test just ended. Special thanks to all
the volunteers who spared their valuable time to help the kids. It was definitely worth the time and effort
and we’re looking forward to next school year.
The Library Advisory Board met on the 17th. They had a several policies given by County
Librarian, Valerie Jensen to discuss for update and approval. The Advisory Board meets 4 times a year, and
is composed of 7 members residing across the county.
Until next month!
