The BookShelf...notes from Van Alstyne Public Library
By Judy E. Kimzey
Sep 3, 2014
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Van Alstyne -- The Director’s office seems very empty with the departure of Tracy Luscombe last week. She did so much for our library in her three years and everywhere you look her touch is seen. She is and will be missed. 

Until a permanent replacement is found the Directors duties will be handled by me, in an interim capacity.

I have been a full-time library employee for 12 years and a part-time volunteer for 2 years previous to that.  I have 6 years management experience outside the library and have managed a very energetic group of young adults, on a weekly basis, for more than 10 years.  Most of you are familiar with me through my work with Teen Council and have been aware of or even attended one of our many programs. We remain the largest and most active teen library group in North Texas. I have over 100 hours CEU training in library science and have trained under the director supervision of 2 MLS librarians of strong vision and leadership for over a decade.  

It took only a day to feel the weight of the workload this job involves. And while the burden is not light I welcome change of pace and relish the challenge it presents.  This library and I have a long relationship and my experience stands me in good stead as I learn take on these new jobs and responsibilities.  The picture becomes more complete and I am discovering a new depth to not only the library’s day to day operations but how the library fits into the bigger picture as a City Department.  The library is always an exciting place to be and with the scent of change in the air it becomes even more exciting.

Judy E. Kimzey

Teen Council will be celebrating members' birthdays for the last quarter this Saturday and we continue to work on establishing our newly created Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram accounts.  Once we have finalized our policy governing member conduct I’ll be sure to share our addresses. 

School is back in session and the library restarts our story times this week as well.  Children’s Librarian Brenda Witcher shares the following:  This week in September, second and third, marked the return of story time after a two week break. This week’s theme was oriental.  One book read to the children was Chu’s First Day of School by Neil Gaiman. For a craft the children made hanging koi fish.

Join us next week: the theme will be Going to the Circus. It’s not too late to turn in the summer reading program reading log sheets. I will still accept the sheets and hand out prize bags as long as I still have prize bags to hand out.