The Giraffe Made Us Do It!!!

We have this boat. You know THIS boat....a "feature" (of one type or another) that many of us in children's library spaces struggle with. I can wait while you read our sorrow so I can catch you up with the news.

Where's the old desk?!?!

We know that the boat will never go. It's part of the wall and all. But that doesn't mean we can't create another scenario that makes more sense for a boat in a library. 

They are standing in our new desk spot!

Today begins our re-carpeting of the Youth area project. Everything has to be moved. We realized that this was our golden opportunity to re-locate our desk so we would no longer face the boat, but actually face our service area and families coming in and using our space. And we came up with a genius boat solution! It comes in two parts.

Part 1
The YS staff is taking over the front of the boat!!!! We retired our old desk. We bought a new desk unit that is more flexible. And we are enclosing the front (runway) of the boat into our workspace. The worst disciplinary-crazy-making part of the boat will now be staff-only. Kids can still read in the other reading nook of the boat so they aren't completely exiled.  Of course we expect some unhappiness and push back from the public but that's ok. We got it covered.

Interlude
Have I told you about our giraffe? We have a fifty year old, 8 foot tall Steiff giraffe, Longfellow, that was almost loved to death. Play got so rough on this big guy that we finally sent him on an extended world vacation (basement storage) three years ago, much to the dismay of kids, parents and grandparents everywhere. We knew we couldn't bring him back until we could wall his delicate self in with a fence or plexiglass or....

Part 2
Longfellow is really taking over the front of the boat!!!! We realized that the giraffe would fit nicely on the front of the boat in a totally see-able but totally untouchable spot to protect him. Since he is returning from his world cruise it makes sense that he needs to be on the boat and in a safe spot where kids can't tug, kick, push, lick and ride him (yes, parents were complicit!).  So Longfellow will help us take some of the edge off our boat take-over. He's driving this change-bus..er boat!

I'm a big believer in giving something when we take something away. We stressed over this as a team - what would we put on the front of the boat to justify taking away that space- and worked through many possibilities.  Then the magic moment a few weeks ago when a staffer said, "Hey, will Longfellow fit on the boat?" Booyah!

I'll keep you posted on the new look and what our patrons say when we re-open in a week.