More Display Ideas & The Very Hungry Caterpillar

News & Views March 28, 2008




Links from Today's Podcast:

• New SWILSA Displays & Events webpage
• Sue's email: sgruber@swilsa.lib.ia.us
• SWILSA Current Announcements webpage

VHC Storytelling Items:

• Activity Kit (including puppet)
  
• Apron Kit
• Early Childhood Literacy Program (Storytime) Kit

Tweens and Teens in the Library; "Storytelling Activities Kit"

News March 21, 2008 (mp3 file: 5.23 MB, 5:35 min.)
Tweens and Teens in the Library; "Storytelling Activities Kit"

Summer is approaching--even if it seems like *spring* will never come to Iowa, summer will be upon us soon. You're all planning for the summer library program, and hoping for good turnout for the programs, as well as for plenty of other visits by kids and teens throughout the summer. As I've been visiting libraries and talking with librarians this spring I'm hearing more and more about tweens and teens, and what all of you are doing to make them feel welcome in the library. One library has started a tween group, and they are enthusiastically helping design their corner in the library, planning programs, and making suggestions for books and magazines. Other libraries are sponsoring game days or evenings. Sometimes I hear librarians wondering about games in the library, saying that they're OK because they'll bring kids in and maybe then they'll check out some books. Yes, libraries are about books and reading, but they're about community and connection and communication, too, and isn't it all right if people (of any age) visit the library without checking anything out? Do we somehow think that we've failed with our services if a retired person comes to the library to read the newspaper and leaves without checking anything out? Or if they come to a program without checking anything out?

If, as like to say these days, we want the library to be the center of the community then we need to be certain that our measures of service and "success" in service encompass all the ways that libraries serve. Years ago the only way we told people the measure of our success and worth was in circulation. I don't think that ever was a complete measure--perhaps it was just an easy and convenient way to measure--but today it certainly isn't all we should be using to measure service, or express what we provide to the community. You may have noticed over the years that more and more measures are being added to the annual survey you complete each year. It means more fields to fill in on the survey, but more than that it means that you have more data about what you do, and how people are using the library--for books and reading and research, yes, but also for community and and connection and communication. You ARE doing more, providing services we wouldn't have dreamed about 10 years ago. Be proud of that, keep doing the good work that you do, and keep looking for ways to use new tools and technologies to serve Iowans. --Karen

Book Reviewed by Marcia:
Storytelling activities kig: ready-to-use techniques, lessons and listening cassettes for early childhood, by Jerilynn Changar and Annette Harrison. The Center for Applied Research in Education, 1992.

Early Childhood Literacy, Display Ideas; "Mother Goose Rhyme Time--Night"

News March 7, 2008 (mp3 file: 5 MB, 5:22 min.)

I hope you were able to attend the Saroj Ghoting workshops last week--Saroj's knowledge and energy and enthusiasm inspired us all to go back to our libraries and continue to do story hours, but with just a tweak or two to make them especially useful in young children's early literacy development. We want to remind you that the Library Service Areas have resources to help you with those story times--kits, books, and other materials--as well as materials to help you spread the word about the importance of early childhood literacy. The ECL website has posters and flyers to download and give to parents and caregivers, There are several versions of table tents, to put on tables, tops of bookshelves, tables in cafes...and any other place you can think of, both inside and outside of the library. There are bookmarks that were originally designed for library trustees but actually work very well for parents and caregivers. A colleague told me this week that a local library's Friends group is going to include the bookmark in each of their "Books for Babies" packets. The materials are in Word doc format so you can add you library's name and contact information, where that is appropriate.

Some of the kits being developed by the LSAs as part of this initiative can be downloaded from the website, as well. (Or, you can borrow them from the LSA.) In addition to the usual story time resources each kit also contains a "take home" sheet for parents with ideas for how they might continue their child's preparation for learning at home, and short "asides" for librarians to say to the parents during the story time, about the particular skill being highlighted that day. (If you aren't familiar with these "asides" and their purpose, check the book co-authored by Saroj, Early Literacy Storytimes @ Your Library: Partnering with Caregivers for Success.)

Check out the website and the resources--and check back with it frequently; we keep adding to it. --Karen

Links from today's podcast:
Early Childhood Literacy website, from Iowa LSAs
Display Ideas:
Earth Day
SWILSA Current Announcements
SWILSA Sites of the Week

Reviewed by Marcia:
Mother Goose rhyme time--night," by Kimberly K. Faurot.

WILBOR Downloadable Audiobooks Consortium; Upcoming Events

News March 7, 2008 (mp3 file: 2.52 MB, 2:41 min.)
WILBOR Downloadable Audiobooks Consortium; Upcoming Events

Southwest and Southeast LSAs are joining Central and Northwest LSAs in the new WILBOR consortium, which will make downloadable audiobooks available to the patrons of participating libraries. Patrons can download books—fiction, nonfiction, children’s and teen—from their home or office PC, and listen to them on the computer or transfer them to an mp3 player. Some titles can even be burned to a CD. It’s easy, it doesn’t cost the patron anything and it doesn’t even cost the library very much to participate. For roughly the cost of one audiobook per month your patrons can have access to this collection of audiobooks, so the library is offering another 24/7 service.

The deadline for signing up for WILBOR is approaching. If you have questions you can check the SWILSA website for links to FAQs about the consortium and for the letters of agreement. And, of course, you can also contact me if you have questions. Please join us in offering this fantastic service to your patrons.

Some reminders to mark your calendar for upcoming events:

The Iowa Library Association’s Legislative Day is Tuesday, March 11. Check the Association’s website for more information.

The topic of this month’s Computerside Chat is Meebo, an instant messaging interface that lets you manage all your IM accounts in one, web-based interface; it also lets you put a chat box on your webpage so patrons can “chat” their questions to you. The Computerside Chat is on March 17, and you can register in the statewide CE catalog.

On April 18 Jerri Heid from the Ames Public Library will be doing a workshop for us on Lapsit Programs, and you won’t want to miss that! Register in the CE catalog.

April 16, Wednesday of National Library Week, will be our ‘Day in the Life of SW Iowa Libraries,” when librarians will take photos of their library and its activities, its, well, life, and upload them to the project’s group on Flickr. We’re planning information sessions in SWILSA's Wimba classroom on April 2 and 8, so stay tuned for more information about that.

Children’s Book Discussion will be the first Friday in May. It’s not in the catalog yet, but mark your calendars—it will be in Corning.