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.