When did you become the children&8217;s librarian here at the Demopolis Library?

I&8217;ve been here since the end of January of this year.

Where did you go to school?

I&8217;m originally from Decatur. I graduated from Auburn University in August of last year.

What are your duties as the children&8217;s librarian?

I plan for and coordinate the summer reading program. I do story time and work the circulation desk. I try to find new activities for the children to do. And just try to make the children&8217;s library a more fun place for children to come to. It&8217;s not such a quiet place like it is down stairs.

What does the Demopolis Library have to offer children?

We have an entire floor where the children can come here and play with puzzles in addition to reading books. We have movies specifically for them and everything on the second floor is just for children. There are no adult books up here. Again, we try to make this a fun place. It&8217;s not a hush, hush place here. They can run and play. We also sing songs. Every other Thursday at 10 a.m. we have story time.

What has been your biggest challenge thus far as children&8217;s librarian?

I&8217;d have to say planning the summer reading program, because I&8217;ve never had to do that before. I&8217;ve planned activity programs at day cares, but never a summer reading program.

How is the planning for this summer coming along?

It&8217;s been good. I just completed the calendar for the summer.

What will the children get out of the reading program?

We have a literacy log, where we keep track on how many books each child reads. The children will also be able to enter in prize drawings, which include gift certificates from Wal-Mart and Pizza Hut. For older children, for every five books they read they get a gift certificate, and for the smaller children, when their parents read to them if they read ten books they will receive a gift certificate. All of their names go in to a grand prize drawing for a larger gift certificate from Wal-Mart, and we also offer free books for every so many books they read. It&8217;s all an incentive for children to want to read.

Are there any other programs for the summer?

The reading program takes up most of the summer. Tuesdays are fourth through sixth grades, Wednesdays are preschools and Thursdays are K through three. Mondays and Fridays are our prepare and clean-up days. We do that for six straight weeks before returning to our normal programming.

How did you choose this particular career?

I did childhood development in college and always new that I wanted to work with children. I found that the school-setting teaching wasn&8217;t the right place for me. I&8217;ve done some volunteer work at the library in the children&8217;s department in college and saw that as my calling.

Have you set any goals you&8217;d like to accomplish while here at the library?

I&8217;d like to help increase the numbers of books in circulation. Our numbers have been significantly high right after Geography Fair, which was a little more than a month ago. Then they rise again during the summer reading program. I&8217;d like to get a more consistent number through out the year.