I live and breathe children’s books as a Children’s Librarian. I host a family book club, I coordinate our school district’s Battle of the Books, I place monthly book orders, and I read children’s books in my free time because I enjoy them. None of this literary knowledge populates in my brain when a patron asks me for help finding a book that they might enjoy reading. When I’m working on the children’s desk or walking the shelves, I wait in nail biting anticipation for this question because I’m afraid that I won’t have the perfect title to suggest and that it will make it look like I don’t know how to do my job. I care about reader’s advisory because it is an artful skill that’s essential for fostering a lifelong love of reading and promoting curiosity. Reader’s Advisory is not only about being well-read, it’s also about knowing…
Tag: public library
It’s Beginning to Look a Lot like Summer Reading!
It’s that time of year again! The displays in your library might tell you that it’s nearly winter and the clothes on your body might be wooly, but your children’s librarian brain is tuned into SUMMER!
It’s Mutual: School & Public Library Collaboration
Starting this summer, I will be teaching an online course for ALSC called It’s Mutual: School and Public Library Collaboration. As two public institutions, it’s important for us to reach out to each other, especially as budgets tighten. We already share an audience that we hope will turn into lifelong learners (and library users). With early literacy programming, public libraries are often the first place kids start learning, when they become students we supplement their learning, and hopefully, when students graduate, they will still rely on the library to aid their learning. When schools and public libraries come together they can share expertise, workers, and save money by sharing resources. Let’s say you have a database that doesn’t see a lot of use. If every student has a library card they can all get to the database. If public librarians and school teaching staff get together to teach the students…