Every month, I partner with a local business and head to their gymnastics studio to lead a brief storytime that kicks off an hour of free play. From its inception, this program has been a smash hit, with some months reaching the capacity of the studio space! The genesis of Gymnastics Storytime? Jealousy. When trying to reschedule storytime to better align with staffing needs, I was running into a bit of a problem. Families are busy, and almost everyone was busy on the same day. As I spoke with folks about dates and times, it became clear that everyone was doing gymnastics, and they were doing it for free, in the town over, with a story-reading included. Our town has its own gymnastics studio, but I’ve never heard it mentioned in the busy schedules of younger children. Well, that seemed like a big opportunity to me! I reached out to…
Tag: outreach
Kreyòl, Community, Connection: Reimagining Outreach for Haitian Families
Migration from Haiti to the United States is driven by a complex mix of systemic “push” factors, with nearly half of the nation’s Haitian immigrant population settling in Florida (Finnegan, 2023). For many Haitian families, the transition involves navigating urgent physiological needs before shifting toward “settling in,” a process that includes mastering English, securing childcare, and accessing healthcare (Finnegan, 2023). As we honor Haitian American Heritage Month this May, the City of North Miami Public Library highlights a model that centers these families through intentional, culturally responsive service. Building Trust with the Family Unit Many Haitian families harbor a deep-seated distrust of government entities due to historical experiences in Haiti. Libraries can overcome this by acting as intermediaries, transferring trust from established community partners to the library itself (Finnegan, 2023). North Miami strengthens these bonds by: Intergenerational Support and Accessibility In the Haitian diaspora, school-aged children often acquire English quickly…
Better with Bingo: Meeting Outcomes Through Game Play
Bingo nights are a sure-fire programming hit! Highly adaptable to themes, literacy tie-ins, and intergenerational fun, these nights are popular and potent for supporting larger library outcomes. Types of Bingo If you want to keep it to the basics, you can play with a standard board with numbers. Add some fun by changing the winning outcome. You can play until players get a bingo, a blackout, borders, and more. If you have the time to dip your toes into theming and literacy connections, you can adapt the board yourself or buy premade sets.
Outreach can be tough…
Outreach and Schools- Should I contact them one more time? You ask yourself as you stare at that email nudge at the top of your screen. It’s hard! I’m sure if you ask any public children’s librarian they will have a long list of ways they tried to get in touch with and partner with the schools in their area. If you were to ask me I would tell you it’s all about baby steps. Every interaction with someone from the school system is a potential opportunity to remind them that the library exists. I think it is important to add to this post that I started my position on November 2, 2020. It was a strange time. My library was ‘by appointment only’ in the children’s room. Schools were off limits, most children were learning at home or by zoom. Navigating schools didn’t get much easier when the world…
Story Times with Medically Fragile Kids and Teens
Janine Petrovits is a Children’s Librarian Trainee at Queens Library Bay Terrace in New York City and an MLS student at the Queens College School of Information Studies. For more than a year, she has been conducting story time for residential patients at St. Mary’s Healthcare System for Children. St. Mary’s serves young people ages 0 to 24 years with medical complexity and special healthcare needs. The kids and teens who attend Janine’s story times are mostly nonverbal, with severely limited mobility and responses. Janine, a childhood cancer survivor who had already gained experience doing story times in the library, volunteered when St. Mary’s contacted the library looking for someone to do programming in the hospital. She shares, “I know very much what it’s like to spend long periods of time at a hospital. I did not ever live at a hospital like these children do. They live there But…
From Selection to Storytime: Strengthening Your World Language Collection
Libraries are a welcoming place for everyone. At the heart of that mission is a thoughtfully developed collection that is accessible, relevant, and engaging for both new visitors and lifelong patrons. Children’s collection specialists will undoubtedly purchase replacement copies of beloved series like Dog Man and Diary of a Wimpy Kid for years to come. Yet even smaller, less frequent acquisitions can have an outsized impact. Investing in a robust World Language collection sends a clear message of inclusion to bilingual families, affirms multilingual identities, and supports English language learners as well as students studying a second language.
100 Library Cards in One Hour: Meeting Families Where They Are (Literally)
It was 5:45pm on a warm August evening. Four of us from the Mountain View Public Library were seated behind long folding tables in front of our bookmobile van, a mobile billboard for the library. On this night, there was no bookmobile service planned, but we watched with anticipation as families started filtering through the main gate of Castro Elementary School. Their first stop was a backpack station, where each child chose a backpack full of school supplies donated by the local Community Services Agency. Some stopped at tables advertising other social services, and a few stopped by our library tables. Most continued on to their child’s classroom for their teacher’s Back-to-School Night presentation. I had been working with the school on this event for weeks. The new principal wanted to promote both the bookmobile service at the school and the library itself. He was a huge fan, and a…
Junior Librarians: School Field Trips to the Library!
One thing I love about being a children’s librarian is school outreach. I love getting to know new children and families, and sharing library resources with them. School outreach is critical in our line of work and I have been trying to improve the field trips to the library. This school year, I am testing out a Junior Librarian field trip experience at my library!