ABOUT ME

Hello!
My name is Lindsey and I am the children's librarian at Eudora Public Library in Eudora, KS.
I am a third generation librarian here. My grandmother was the children's librarian for 15 years and my mother was a circulation librarian for 10 years. I started working at the library in November 2013 and started my journey into storytimeland in August 2014.
My grandmother did StoryTime the traditional way. A few books, songs, fingerplays, a simple craft and out the door. The kids loved her and so did the parents. She was an amazing librarian. When I started doing StoryTime, I knew that the traditional way, wasn't the right way for me. My approach to StoryTime is unconventional, to say the least, but it has worked for me and our community. We read at the beginning and still sing lots of songs and dance. I tend focus on the imaginative, creative and playful part of learning. We go outside, blow bubbles, do yoga, have detailed art process crafts, have snacks, go off location on "field trips" and much more. The kids often refer to it as a "party." It has really opened doors for us and brought in children from our community that haven't come in before.
I have also been working hard to revamp our children's room to meet the needs of a flourishing, YOUNG community. Our community is made up of new, young families who move here to be in the middle of two big cities in Kansas. My goal was to make the children's room easy and accessible for everyone. We dumped Dewey permanently throughout our whole library and categorized our non-fiction section. Our stats have nearly doubled since the change in November 2014.
I also overhauled a section to make a Picture Book City. PBC is a section of shelving dedicated to categorizing some of our most popular/requested picture book categories. We have: Award Winner Avenue, Bedtime Boulevard, Superhero Street, Princess Place, Pirate Pier, Things That Go Terrace, Growing Up Grove, Dinosaur Drive and Board Book Bay. This has been so EXTREMELY popular that most of the time, these shelves are empty.
When I'm not at work, you'll find me with my daughter. It is very hard to find the appropriate work/life balance, but I am slowly making it work. I care for all of the kids who come in and it's hard to shut off that switch after work.
My hope is to inspire people to think outside the box, break routines and, most importantly, have a ton of fun, as we have one of the best jobs in the world.