This year, Storytime Underground is asking anyone who wants to participate to set goals for 2015, write about them, and support one another.
At least my resolutions have nothing to do with procrastination…
Library Life
1. Stop checking my email first thing every morning. I get bogged down so fast by email and it just frustrates me. I’d rather accomplish something large every morning before the little stuff starts.
2. Start delegating more. My biggest adjustment that I’m still working on at my new (ten months in) job is learning that I am no longer a one librarian department. That we have building/maintenance staff around the clock. That I have two other coworkers that just do storytimes and early lit work.
3. Continue getting to know the patrons and the collection. I’m finally in a good ordering routine, but I need to up my readers advisory game, particularly in middle grade.
4. Actually practice and learn the ukulele. I’ve had one for two years and kept thinking “one day” and “when I have time”. I need to *make* time.
Professional Life
1. Keep up with committee work. I’m chairing Popular Paperbacks for YALSA, am on the Public Awareness Committee for ALSC, Illinois’s K-3rd state choice award (Monarch Committee), and YALSA’s Summer Reading and Learning Taskforce.
2. Answer email immediately after opening even if it’s an “I’m working on it”. I feel this is especially important as a chair.
Blog Life
1. Post a Flannel Friday submission every week. I have so many flannelboards that have never gotten their own posts simply because I have gotten around to it. I’ve been working on this for a week or so and am scheduled through April.
2. Actually write my series on favorite storytime tools. I’ve had the logo designed for over a year and no posts. Tons of ideas and I hope it will be a great resource to share outside of my storytime theme posts.
3. Get better about commenting. I read nearly 100 storytime and library blogs and I’m awful at commenting on them.
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They always say that resolutions work better with concrete goals, so here are the ones I can assign numbers to:
1. Read one middle grade book a month for fun. This will be a nice break from YA novels and picture books.
2. Learn and perform three uke songs.
3. 52 Flannel Fridays.
4. One storytime series post a month.
5. Five meaningful comments per month.
I think I’ve got this, but I’m always optimistic when setting goals…
Good luck to everyone participating!
storytime katie 
These are pretty inspiring because they seem rational and doable!!! I, too, want to master the uke and keep up with my blog. Get the mojo workin’!
I’m hoping! I bought some picks today for it!
This is great! I’m going to write mine up now. Thank you again – I lurk here a lot, but I should start commenting more, too.
Excellent — your goals sound totally manageable! I’ve been pretty heavily involved in YALSA, and have just in the past few years started volunteering for ALSC. Let me know if you need any questions answered about getting involved!
All my goals for this year are reading-related since I’m not working in the library anymore, but I love seeing all these posts. Yours is the second one I’ve seen with a ukulele resolution on it. I hope you will love playing it – it’s really a lot of fun.
It’s just getting the *time* in, honestly. I played violin for ten years in school, so I have musical ability — I just need to apply it!
These are wonderful resolutions Katie! I’ve had my ukulele for over 6 months and haven’t touched it yet. Maybe we can have Skype practice sessions 🙂
Um, YES YES YES. We’ll talk at Midwinter!
Do you have a list of storytime blogs you could send me? I’ve just started a new position in early literacy
I have a list on the blog here: https://storytimekatie.com/resources/librarian-links/ though I haven’t updated it in quite some time. I think Lindsey and Dana at Jbrary have a fabulous list that’s more current than mine: http://jbrary.com/blogroll/
I use the uke in mine baby storytimes and the kids and parents love it! So many of us are uking now, we should have a jam at the next ALA conference!
Oh, that would be fun! And give me extra incentive to practice!