Library Visiting at #pla2016

One of my favorite things to do when I visit a new city is to check out their libraries.  Since I was a day early for the conference, I got some behind-the-scenes looks at 2 local libraries.

Mary Kuehner was kind enough to tour me through Denver Public Library’s Children’s Library.  I also got to go down in the basement and see some of their cool stuff that they use in outreach and programming.  Check out this ice cream cart that they fill with books for community events!

Denver Public Library also has a great program where they train volunteers to conduct weekly story times at local preschools.  I think that their number was 150 preschools.  These are all books in storage that the staff put together for their volunteers.  The size of this project blew me away.

In the afternoon we went out to visit the Koebel Library, part of Arapahoe Libraries.  They also do a lot of outreach and take this neat book drop out with them to events!

Another neat thing that we saw there were early literacy cards that parents can take home.  They are stored on the shelves in the story time area, but you can take them at any time.  There is also a variety in the basket to choose from.

Many thanks to Melissa Depper for coordinating this tour with her staff.

Lisa Mulvenna                                                                                                                                        Head of Youth/YA Services                                                                                                            Clinton-Macomb Public Library