It is pretty surreal that I have about 2 weeks left in my program in which I did everything from circulation, reference, and outreach. I decided to put this picture here because it represents our Library, which is a special district Library that preceded the start of Beaumont. It was started and funded by Andrew Carnegie, and learning the history is quite exciting as my wife and I moved to this area. There is a sense of pride learning that many of the patrons' parents and grandparents were coming to the Library since the beginning. We have two workers that have been working for 30 years at the Library, and they used to come there as kids. I do like the small town and the sense of community it provides. We lived in a major city (Long Beach) before, and it is impossible to get to know patrons just because of the volume of people coming in. I have developed relationships already with our regulars, which is quite nice.

Today I found to be a very fulfilling day as we did our outreach event at the Glen View HighSchool continuation school. We had about 63 kids show up to our booth as we gave away little prizes and gave people info about the Library and helped kids sign up for Library cards. We were there for about 3 hours and we had our Librarian 1 (Indira) and our supervising Librarian (Julia) there which went great. Learned a lot about the services we offer that would be tailored to teens as well good practice teaching them about what we do and potential job opps. 

Today was such a good day at the library, I started my morning by joining the Reading to Tots program at Beaumont Presbyterian Church, led by Jennifer, The kids were full of energy and excitement, and it was amazing to see how engaged they were with the stories. At the end they did a little activity and everyone was well behaved. The instructors name is Jennifer and she is a veteran when it comes to this. She has a Masters in Child developement and it is really interesting to learn her tactics when it comes to helping the kids engage and the learn the material. The parents are wonderful keeping there kids behaved and helping teach them as they go along. 

This  Monday at the  Public Library began at 10 a.m. with reshelving returns in the adult non-fiction section, particularly focusing on the 300s, which cover social sciences. I started to recognize which books circulated most often, true crime and psychology were surprisingly popular. During that time, I also checked for misplaced titles and occasionally found items that had been shelved in the wrong decade of Dewey. I appreciated the quiet routine of this task—it helped me get familiar with the collection and notice trends in what our patrons were actually reading. Around noon, I moved to assist with the library’s ESL (English as a Second Language) materials. This involved checking inventory, updating labels, and reorganizing our small but well-used language learning section. I also had the chance to sit in on a weekly ESL conversation group. Though I wasn’t leading it, I helped set up the space and occasionally participated in small discussions. Talking with learners from different backgrounds was one of the most rewarding parts of the internship. It gave me a deeper sense of how the library functions not just as a book lender but as a community hub. My last two hours were spent helping prep for afternoon programs. One day it was setting up for a local author talk, another day it was folding brochures for our "Tech Help Thursdays" sessions. I also worked on updating bulletin boards with fresh event flyers and rotating book displays based on current themes, like Banned Books Week or Native American Heritage Month. There was a lot of creativity involved, and I liked that the work felt immediate, something I did that day could directly shape what a patron saw when they walked in. It was a mix of small, practical tasks that added up to something that felt meaningful.  

Mondays are my designated reference desk days which I do enjoy the most. The first hour of my shift I went through all of the books in my section which is JUV 700-900s. It has taken me about 4 shifts and about 10 hours total to get through it. 

For this shift, I got the fun opportunity to do outreach at Mickelson park in Calimesa, CA. We had the therapy dog organization come out so the kids could read to the dogs which was the most adorable thing. We had about 90 kids come out alone and they just loved being with the dogs. There was no complaints by any teachers or children. Also, we had some craft booths I help set up that consisted up a sticker and pin making machine which was super popular. 

Today was divided into three parts during my shift. The first part was the Cozy Story Time, led by Ingrid, who you can see in the picture. This was a one-hour event that included a song, a story, and a pirate-themed craft. The kids were really engaged, watching closely to see how each librarian conducts story time.

For today, I got take the opportunity to jump on a zoom for part of my shift to oversee a online manga book club. Due to Covid and the preferences of the patrons, the meeting is still going online but our Supervisor once the constuction of the Library is done wants to go back in person. One of the reasons for it is to stimulate in person connection which will help develop better relationships with the staff and patrons. 

Mondays have become my favorite day of the week at the library, as they are my assigned reference desk days. I genuinely thrive on the constant patron interactions that come with reference work—whether I'm helping someone locate an obscure resource, troubleshooting database access issues, or simply pointing a visitor toward the restroom. There's something deeply satisfying about the variety and unpredictability of reference questions, and I find that the interpersonal nature of the work keeps me energized and engaged throughout the day.