Do you work with small children and their caregivers? Then this presentation is for you! Julie Crabb from Anythink Libraries showed off her tricks to engaging caregivers and making them WANT to attend your programs.
Step 1: Make slight adjustments to what you are currently doing. Can you add in a pop song or one that caregivers will recognize? An excellent suggestion from the audience was that just about every nursery rhyme can be set to the song We Will Rock You. The Jbrary YouTube channel has a great example of All the Little Babies set to the tune of All the Single Ladies. You may ask why to do something like this. Grown-ups will leave your program with ear worms, which will lead to more grown-ups singing in their homes.
Step 2-Research your city and events. What’s hot for parents? Does your community offer a coffee story time? How about a sip and paint program? What can you come up with for both the babies and adults?
Step 3-Bring the cool stuff back to the library.
Step 4-Bring the library to the cool stuff.
Step 5-Get trendy. Julie’s great example of a trendy program is a baby wearing dance party. All of the attendees were up and moving to Justin Timberlake.
Step 6-Evaluate, update, and repeat.
The hard part is that stuff doesn’t stay trendy for long. Change it up often and get your friends who know what’s cool.
This post addresses the following ALSC Core Competencies: III. Programming Skills and VII. Professionalism and Professional Development.