{"id":13223,"date":"2016-06-08T00:01:10","date_gmt":"2016-06-08T04:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/?p=13223"},"modified":"2016-06-05T20:55:42","modified_gmt":"2016-06-06T00:55:42","slug":"stuffed-animals-library-poll-results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/2016\/06\/stuffed-animals-library-poll-results\/","title":{"rendered":"Stuffed animals in the library &#8211; Poll results"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Stuffed Animals in the Library: &#x1f600; or &#x1f61d;<\/h3>\n<p>Many of us have stuffed animals in our public spaces. However, no one talks about the &#8220;yuck&#8221; factor. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/?s=stuffed+animals\">If you do a quick search of the ALSC Blog archives, you will come up with 14 blog posts mentioning stuffed animals<\/a>.\u00a0 Most posts featured ways to use stuffed animals in programming. In one post,\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/2013\/05\/going-commercial-free\/\">the Intellectual Freedom Committee discussed the negative factors of commercially &#8220;branded&#8221; stuffed animals.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>So, last month, I posed the question,<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<h4><a href=\"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/2016\/05\/stuffed-animals-library\/\">Stuffed animals in the library: Love &#8217;em? or Hate &#8217;em?<\/a><\/h4>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The choices were narrow:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<ul>\n<li>Love &#8217;em! Imagination, creativity, cooperative play! They spark them all!<\/li>\n<li>Hate &#8217;em! Dust, germs, seeds of disagreement! They carry them all!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>One hundred twenty-five of you were kind enough to offer your opinion.<\/p>\n<p>And the winner was:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Love &#8217;em! (58%,\u00a0 72 votes)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/DSC05152.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"http:\/\/mrg.bz\/07ef98\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13224 alignleft\" title=\"lauramusikanski, MorgueFile\" src=\"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/DSC05152-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"DSC05152 \" width=\"270\" height=\"180\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Hate &#8217;em! (42%, 53 votes)<small>\u00a0 <\/small><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/220px-60_Jahre_Allgemeine_Erkl\u00e4rung_der_Menschenrechte_3084670759.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=37203687\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-13225 alignleft\" title=\"by Max Braun - 60 Jahre Allgemeine Erkl\u00e4rung der Menschenrechte, CC BY-SA 2.0\" src=\"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/220px-60_Jahre_Allgemeine_Erkl\u00e4rung_der_Menschenrechte_3084670759.jpg\" alt=\"220px-60_Jahre_Allgemeine_Erkl\u00e4rung_der_Menschenrechte_(3084670759)\" width=\"270\" height=\"152\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Now that the poll is over, I admit that I am in the &#8220;hate &#8217;em&#8221; column, and I was surprised by the vote turnout.\u00a0 I love imaginative play with blocks, trucks, tea sets, kitchen playthings, and other washable toys\u2014but stuffed animals? Not so much.\u00a0 They collect an enormous amount of dust and other allergens, as well as germs.\u00a0 Additionally, there is a very real possibility that they <em>could<\/em> harbor lice, bed bugs, or other living creatures. Finally, they cannot be easily cleaned.<\/p>\n<p>Several people provided thoughtful comments on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/2016\/05\/stuffed-animals-library\/\">the poll. <\/a>One respondent used a &#8220;Bug Zapper&#8221; on her animals to ensure they were bedbug-free.\u00a0 Two people mentioned washing or cleaning the animals, but I don&#8217;t know of any efficient, effective way to do this. (Suggestions welcome!)<\/p>\n<p>I thought Travis Ann&#8217;s comment of May 16, was useful and practical.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Yes to stuffed animals, but I weed them in the same way I do the books.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>That doesn&#8217;t totally take out the &#8220;yuck&#8221; factor, but it helps.\u00a0 Thanks to all who participated.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h6>Photo credits:<\/h6>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<h6>lauramusikanski MorgueFile http:\/\/mrg.bz\/07ef98<\/h6>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<h6>Max Braun &#8211; 60 Jahre Allgemeine Erkl\u00e4rung der Menschenrechte, CC BY-SA 2.0, https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=37203687<\/h6>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Stuffed Animals in the Library: &#x1f600; or &#x1f61d; Many of us have stuffed animals in our public spaces. However, no one talks about the &#8220;yuck&#8221; factor. If you do a quick search of the ALSC Blog archives, you will come up with 14 blog posts mentioning stuffed animals.\u00a0 Most posts featured ways to use stuffed animals in programming. In one post,\u00a0 the Intellectual Freedom Committee discussed the negative factors of commercially &#8220;branded&#8221; stuffed animals.\u00a0 So, last month, I posed the question, Stuffed animals in the library: Love &#8217;em? or Hate &#8217;em? The choices were narrow: Love &#8217;em! Imagination, creativity, cooperative play! They spark them all! Hate &#8217;em! Dust, germs, seeds of disagreement! They carry them all! One hundred twenty-five of you were kind enough to offer your opinion. And the winner was: Love &#8217;em! (58%,\u00a0 72 votes) &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Hate &#8217;em! (42%, 53 votes)\u00a0 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":137,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[113,64,36],"tags":[979],"class_list":["post-13223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogger-lisa-taylor","category-bloggers","category-slice-of-life","tag-play-areas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/137"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13223\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}