An important aspect of every librarian’s job is outreach. Engaging with our neighborhood daycares, preschools, and schools is a wonderful way to share the joy of reading, engage our youth, model early literacy to teachers, and promote our libraries. My library branch reaches over 300 students a month through outreach, which ranges from the traditional story time to curriculum based programs selected by teachers. Our traditional story time outreach is similar to other libraries and includes books, songs, story boards, movements and finger plays. An additional part of our outreach that’s received positive feedback is the accompanying craft. Every story time outreach includes a craft and the materials needed to make the craft. Included with the craft materials is an activity sheet (one per child) with a picture of the completed craft and step by step instructions on how to complete the craft. The activity sheets also includes the…
Month: May 2020
Escape Rooms Virtually – Not just for teens and adults!
Escape rooms have been around for a few years now, and many library systems were quick to adapt in having escape rooms as library programs within their branches. Many of these programs are designed for the older set – adults (ages 18 +) and teens (ages 12 – 18). When I worked with my coworker, Hayley Burson, on our first escape room, we designed it specifically for teens because we had no idea that families with younger children (ages 5 – 11) would be interested as well. Little did we know that many families of younger children and preteens would ask to participate, so in the future we designed in-branch escape rooms with a common theme with clues that could be changed for specific age groups. Sometimes the younger kids could even solve the clues for young adults faster than they teens could.
TV Tips to Look Your Virtual Best
I started working at the library when I was 16 as a page (aka “shelver,” at the branch where I work now, though I worked elsewhere in between). In truth, I never left. My aim, however, was not originally to be a librarian. My first goal was to work as a writer or producer in television, which is totally NOT as dramatic as it sounds. And I did it! For 7 years…while still working as a page. (Again—TV? Also not as lucrative as it sounds). I eventually transitioned to be a librarian, and I have always seen a through line in those two professions. Both are about disseminating information, whether to entertain, educate, or inform. The medium is just different. I am, though, suddenly realizing that my background in television will help my career in children’s librarianship in a surprising way: by helping me frame my virtual programming videos. I am…
Is it Enough?
As I write this, it has been almost two and a half months since my library closed its doors due to the pandemic. My job now, like so many of you reading this, is nothing like it once was. I had been a children’s librarian in a public library, assisting parents and children alike in the library on a daily basis; now I am a virtual services children’s librarian, and all my interactions with patrons are virtual, filtered through social media and camera lenses. I used to thrive on making personal connections with each patron who visited the library, and now I subsist on Facebook comments and video views.
Difficult Decision Making: When to Allow In-Person Programming
As a Youth and Family Services Manager, I make decisions all the time. But to be honest, the most difficult decision I have ever made was deciding to cancel all of our summer in person programming. As many of you who program for families know, the summer is our busiest season. It’s truly the time for public libraries to shine, to showcase their offerings, to provide something special and hook new users, and to engage with the community. So, it’s incredibly difficult to make the decision to not offer in-person programming during that time.
Supporting At Home Storytimes
One of my favorite ways to present storytime for preschoolers is to use a theme. Sometimes I will incorporate more than one theme into a storytime to cover more ground. For example, I’ve paired counting and animals, and letters and colors. This gives the storytime some structure, and it also helps me to build strong and easy transitions from one song, story, finger play, or action rhyme to the next. While most of the country is still under stay at home orders, we can share this kind of information with parents and caregivers during virtual storytimes or virtual early literacy lessons with those who are running out of ideas for achieving adequate learning time and some entertainment at home.
Reporting Suspected Abuse or Neglect: Why We Need Policies in Place
We have all been there: witness to a parent/child interaction that gives you pause. Or having a child in a program share with you something that raises red flags for that child’s well being. As children’s librarians, how do we handle these situations? How can establishing clear policies and procedures about suspected abuse or neglect help us to navigate them?
Silver Lining
I know I had planned on providing an update on our Book Mobile (which is going great!) and our upcoming plans for the Summer, but I think given all that is going on in the world, I wanted to share a moment that made me smile.