The Education Library at the Houston Zoo
Here in the Education Department, we maintain a library of books for use during our education programs. These books range from animal reference books and curriculum resources to storybooks and board books, and we use them for many of our programs, from Wild Wheels to Camp Zoofari. We currently have nearly 1800 titles, with multiple copies of many of them.
One of my roles in the Education Department is to maintain the library. This includes several tasks: putting the books back in order after Camp Zoofari, conducting an annual book inventory, and keeping the inventory list up to date by adding new books when we get them.
The newest additions to the Education library
Yesterday I had the opportunity to visit the Friends of the Houston Public Library Children’s Book Sale. This is where the books that are “discarded” from all the Library branches end up for sale, with the proceeds benefitting the Library. Of course, the Zoo benefitted as well; with all the books costing $2 at most, we got 11 new storybooks for less than $15!
If you come to one of our programs, look for a book. If you find one, it has probably been on my desk or in my hands at least once!
No related posts.
As a bond fide book lover I am SO glad to see in the tech age that books are available at the zoo for kids and staff alike. How much fun to be the one to maintain it and find creative ways to keep it filled with new things all the time. Are your friends envious? I know I am!
Believe it or not, everyone thinks I am a little nuts for being so organized with the books! I became the “librarian” because I couldn’t find a storybook. I started sorting them out correctly, then moved on to the other shelves, and then the “librarian” at the time offered it to me. She was only keeping the library “because no one else wanted it.” I was glad to take over – what’s more fun than books? Although it can be a challenge sometimes. It gets so messy during camp that our interns had to reorganize the storybooks once a week!