{"id":4393,"date":"2012-07-02T14:56:40","date_gmt":"2012-07-02T18:56:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/?p=4393"},"modified":"2013-12-05T16:18:06","modified_gmt":"2013-12-05T21:18:06","slug":"ala12-thinking-about-your-childrens-spaces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/2012\/07\/ala12-thinking-about-your-childrens-spaces\/","title":{"rendered":"Thinking About Your Children&#8217;s Spaces #ala12"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Think about the community where you live. How many spaces are there in the community for adults? I&#8217;d guess there are lots: Starbucks, shopping centers, restaurants, theaters&#8230; Now think about how many spaces there are specifically for children. Maybe the YMCA, the play place at the fast food establishment, a park or two. How awful is that, that kids don&#8217;t have more spaces in which they can really engage? Why not make the library one such destination?<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4396\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4396\" style=\"width: 150px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/MCPL-Entry1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-4396\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/MCPL-Entry1-150x150.jpg\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/MCPL-Entry1-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/MCPL-Entry1-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/MCPL-Entry1-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/MCPL-Entry1.jpg 1936w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4396\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The colorful, engaging entry to the children&#8217;s department at Monroe County Public Library in Bloomington, IN. Photo by Amy Koester.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Sunday morning at ALA started with a program titled &#8220;Where the Wild Things Are: Children&#8217;s Learning and Discovery Spaces.&#8221; The program featured some rock stars of library design, including Kimberly Bolan Cullin (who recently wrote a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.demco.com\/webprd_demco\/html\/landing_pages\/spaces\/child\/2012_ChildSpacesEarlyLitSpacePlan.pdf\">children&#8217;s space checklist for DEMCO<\/a>) and Kim van der Veen of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.burgeongroup.com\/\">Burgeon Group, LLC<\/a>. The panelists acknowledged that\u00a0not all libraries can afford to completely revamp their children&#8217;s spaces, so they pointed out some simple, cost-effective strategies for redesigning the kids area right now. Tips I&#8217;m taking to heart:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>You already have space in your library for toys, interactives, and reading areas. Can&#8217;t find it? Weed. Seriously.\u00a0<strong>WEED!<\/strong> Weed everything that doesn&#8217;t circulate, everything that&#8217;s gross, everything that doesn&#8217;t fit the collection&#8230; If you weed discriminately and deliberately, you&#8217;ll end up with space for discovery and a more customer-friendly collection.<\/li>\n<li>Make sure to include seating options for kids and adults. Without adult seating in the area, parents don&#8217;t always engage with their kids.<\/li>\n<li>If you want to add toys and interactives (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/2012\/07\/ala12-toys-in-the-library\/\">and you should!<\/a>), think simple. The simpler the toy, the more complex the learning. Bring out blocks or play food, which can be used in a myriad of ways by all ages of children. More complex toys often take up more space and only have one mode of use, limiting the potential learning outcomes.<\/li>\n<li>Observe your children&#8217;s space from a child&#8217;s perspective. Kneel or sit on the ground and see what a two- or three-year-old would see when visiting the library. Put age appropriate things at an age appropriate level. Add color and interest where children will see it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>There were so many great ideas at this session, but I want to hear from you. What works for creating engaging children&#8217;s spaces at your library, especially on a shoestring budget?<\/p>\n<p>*******<\/p>\n<p><em>I am the Children\u2019s Librarian at the Corporate Parkway Branch of the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/youranswerplace.org\/\">St. Charles City-County Library District<\/a>\u00a0in Missouri. I am active in ALSC, and I blog as the Show Me Librarian at\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/showmelibrarian.blogspot.com\/\">http:\/\/showmelibrarian.blogspot.com\/<\/a>. You can find me on Twitter as <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/#!\/amyeileenk\">@amyeileenk<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Think about the community where you live. How many spaces are there in the community for adults? I&#8217;d guess there are lots: Starbucks, shopping centers, restaurants, theaters&#8230; Now think about how many spaces there are specifically for children. Maybe the YMCA, the play place at the fast food establishment, a park or two. How awful is that, that kids don&#8217;t have more spaces in which they can really engage? Why not make the library one such destination? Sunday morning at ALA started with a program titled &#8220;Where the Wild Things Are: Children&#8217;s Learning and Discovery Spaces.&#8221; The program featured some rock stars of library design, including Kimberly Bolan Cullin (who recently wrote a children&#8217;s space checklist for DEMCO) and Kim van der Veen of Burgeon Group, LLC. The panelists acknowledged that\u00a0not all libraries can afford to completely revamp their children&#8217;s spaces, so they pointed out some simple, cost-effective strategies for&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":162,"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":[216,42,151],"tags":[261],"class_list":["post-4393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ala-annual-2012","category-library-design-and-accessibility","category-live-blogging","tag-ala12"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4393","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\/162"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4393\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}