We jumped into the morning with a panel discussing “on the ground” experiences from librarians working in communities experiencing trauma. Beth Patin from Syracuse University was a school librarian when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. It was an overwhelming experience for the community; everything in that area was utterly destroyed. Patin was able to start rebuilding her library collection (even with a little computer lab!) inside of a trailer long before the school was rebuilt. The community immediately utilized those services. Anita Montoya from Hennepin County Library works in the area where George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis this year. Their community was rocked with protests, and she said they worked hard to be there for the people. Some buildings were damaged, but she said that the community also tried hard to protect the library, too, because they knew the library was there for them. The library also provided constant…
Tag: Community Engagement
Librarians Working through Trauma
2020 brought a lot of unexpected changes and challenges to people all over the country. The session on “Children’s Librarianship in Communities Experiencing Trauma” was a great reminder of how libraries are often the hearts of their communities. Anita Montoya and Beth Patin explained how they responded to traumas in their communities that were caused by Hurricane Katrina, the Coronavirus, and the death of George Floyd. Services had to be adapted in a way that still gave their libraries a strong presence. Montoya’s public library expanded its outreach to public outdoor areas, which including bringing information about food availability and children’s books to their patrons. Patin worked with her school to find ways to still engage and educate their students, including setting up a library in a trailer, and borrowing space from another school that was still able to function. Librarians are resilient problem solvers. The stories shared during this…
StoryTown
At Simsbury Public Library, CT we’re good at collaboration. We have an excellent record of building strong partnerships with local businesses, community organizations, schools, and other town departments. In fact, one of our strategic plan goals revolves around outreach, engaging the community beyond the library’s walls and increasing our number of off site library programs. We already have regularly scheduled outreach visits to daycares, pre-schools and schools in our area, and were looking for a new way to engage our youngest patrons, out in the community. StoryTown is a fall series of storytimes around Simsbury, CT designed to do just that. It is an ideal way for patrons to meet us in different locations around town and learn a little more about our community in the process. Each of the six StoryTown programs will take place at a different location including: Peachwave (a local business, and sponsor of our Summer…
The ALSC/Candlewick Press “Light the Way: Outreach to the Underserved” Grant is now open!
Is your library reaching out to the underserved children, caregivers and families in your community? Does your library need funding for an innovative idea or expansion to provide a service or program for this population? The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) and the Library Service to Underserved Children and Their Caregivers Committee (LSUCTC) are now accepting online applications for the 2018 Light the Way: Library Outreach to the Underserved grant. This $3,000 grant, made possible by Candlewick Press in honor of Newbery Medalist and Geisel Honoree author Kate DiCamillo, will go to a library conducting exemplary outreach to underserved populations through a new program or an expansion of work already being done. The winning project should be well thought-out, appropriate to the target population, doable, and replicable by other libraries. Each applicant will be judged on the following: Project Information- The outline should include goals, measures of success,…
1000 Books and Smiles!
This weekend we held our very first 1000 Books before Kindergarten graduation! We had 10 graduates who reached this milestone. Some registered with our pilot program in October of 2016; others with our full rollout in January of this year. I am still flabbergasted at the amount of planning that went into the graduation. Try as we might, there were still last-minute details that threatened to derail us, such as a “broken” printer! Luckily, we pulled it together, thanks to my fabulous detail-oriented partner-in-crime Susan Flinspach, who has put in thousands of volunteer hours toward this program. I believe the parents, children, family members, volunteers and local officials that participated all had a great time.
A Public Library, Trained Volunteers and an Early Childhood Center Partnership – Providing One-on-One Language Support to Enhance Early Literacy Services for Special Populations
Does your library offer one-on-one early literacy outreach to special populations? Skokie Public Library aspires to creatively reach the youngest members of our diverse community. We provide storytime outreach to preschools and early childhood centers, but these visits are limited in scope and are generally performed for larger groups of children. Realizing that group dynamics limit the effectiveness of dialogic reading, we set out to create a space for regular, one-on-one, interactive reading in a child care environment. How did we achieve this goal while being mindful of staff capacity? We partnered with a like-minded and respected early childhood center to send trained volunteers to reach each child. The volunteers cultivate one-on-one relationships through their weekly visits where they read, rock, sing and play with the children. By sharing these experiences the children bond with the volunteers and develop a love of language. We initially targeted children ages 0-3, being…
Community Engagement and Early Literacy Programs
At the Fayetteville Free Library (FFL) we have embraced the idea of community engagement in a big way. We recognize that our community members are generous, talented, and have many varied and unique skill sets. Therefore, we invite them to share what they are passionate about and what they know – engaging them with the library in deeply meaningful ways. In order to capture this information, we developed a new community engagement tool that is available in our public spaces. This form has replaced our former volunteer application, which only allowed for more traditional types of volunteer activity. On the new form we ask three quick and simple questions: What do you love to do? What are you passionate about? Would you be willing to share what you know with your community members? Though the tool was originally developed in support of our makerspaces like the FFL Fab Lab (fflib.org/make),…