SRP Is Done! Long Live SRP!

All right! We made it!

Don't forget to pass along your feedback about Summer Reading to your SRP branch rep.

Is there anything that went especially well this year? Did your branch try anything new? Did you have any rough spots? How did your programs go? Did we meet our goals?

If you weren't directly involved with the Children's Summer Reading Program at your branch, find someone who was and ask them for their 2 cents.

As Seen at Santa's Workshop

Okay, I'm on vacation! I will be posting from time to time while I'm gone, but won't be checking in every day. Feel free to post yourselves as well! In the meantime...



...is an Information Stroller like a Roving Reference Librarian?

Read Roger

I mentioned that one of my goals was to keep up with my professional reading; from time to time I’ll point you towards some of the blogs and resources that I love.

One of my favorites is Read Roger. Roger Sutton is the editor in chief of Horn Book; his vast knowledge, wide perspective, and pointed wit always leave me with something to think about.

This recent post is a great example: he starts off with a note about a West Side Story revival, makes a connection to a new children’s title, winding up with a larger question about children’s literature as a whole, pointing us towards a thoughtful critical essay along the way.

(PS: He also comments on the Stuart Little essay from the New Yorker!)

Online Storytimes

Melissa and I have been working on putting up online storytimes on Tales' Treehouse (Melissa is much better at this than me, but I'm practicing!) to engage parents and kids in online literacy activities--for whatever reason: maybe they couldn't make it to a face-to-face storytime or maybe they're just spending some time together online and need a little guidance. Our goal is to provide some online books, song clips, photos/videos/illustrations, rhymes, games/activities, printable projects, and literacy tips around a particular theme. We hope to have two new ones to feature each month. Maybe you can direct patrons to these during your storytimes or in helping someone on the computers...Let us know if you have any great resources to share or would like to see particular themes.

ALD Training Classes

The September Training Class list is up now on the StaffNet Training & Staff Development page; check it out to see if there’s anything you can use. And it might not be too late to look at August as well—Children’s Databases and Homework Databases classes are both on that list.

One of my goals...

Something I'm interested in is how to make our collection for parenting issues and topics stronger and more accesible. I am a patron of the Lone Tree library in Douglas and am so impressed with their collection which they've named HIP (help in parenting). They have all the potty training, dealing with death, manners, new siblings, going to the doctors etc. picture books all in one place and all the parenting materials intended for adults all in one place. It is incredibly helpful and I've used that collection often.
I'm not crazy about how we currently shelve our parenting material at Smoky...some of it is in the sad, outdated parent collection we have, some in picture books and some upstairs in adult non-fiction.
How are other libraries handling this? How can we improve it?

Hello

Hi there,

My name is Elisabeth Wright and I've been with the district and Smoky Hill since 2001. I've done story times, programs, bookclubs for the little guys as well as some teen stuff. I recently came back from maternity leave and am back in the swing of things (a *little* sleep deprived) with my 2 storytimes and upcoming bookclubs and programs. I'm looking forward to some new ideas to spruce up what sometimes feels like tired old, boring (hopefully only to me) story times.

Along with my baby, I have a 5 year old son who is a great guinea pig when it comes to trying out new songs, fingerplays and books.

I think this is going to be a great group and I'm glad to be a part of it!

The Lion and the Mouse

Do children deserve a place in public libraries? And if they do, what type of literature should be made available to them? Check out this essay from this week’s New Yorker. It's long, but it's a fascinating peek at the genesis of children’s libraries and the evolution of children’s book publishing.

You'll hear EB White, Anne Carroll Moore [the first—wildly influential— Children’s Librarian of the New York Public Library], Katherine Angell [Katharine Angell White—wife of EB, fiction editor of the New Yorker, and children’s book reviewer], and Ursula Nordstrom [director of Harper children’s publishing department] as they fought “the battle that reshaped children’s literature.”

What was the battle? Whether Stuart Little was suitable for children.

Read this essay; there are so many pithy opinions in it…almost every single one still relevant to children’s publishing today.

Leave us a comment on the quote that struck you the most!

Dee says Hi!

I'm Dee Requa, a YAST at Koelbel. I have been with the district since 1984 and specialized in Children's since 1992 when Koelbel opened. I am still learning lots about kid's stuff (there are constant changes)! I have done storytimes for all ages and programming too. After doing storytimes at Koelbel for 15 years I am now filling in for storytimes at Koelbel as needed and have also filled in for storytimes at Smoky and Sheridan. I loved the train whistle at Smoky! I am a member of the new Storytellers Group for ALD and have visited Glendale to do stories for Lori's Literacy group. I think it is helpful for us to visit other storytimes to get ideas and share ideas. Everyone has their own style and I feel it is all good!

Have a great day/week-end!

Hello!

Hello, Im Amie Richter and I have beena PSS at Smoky for 2 years now. I've been focused on childrens the entire time. I do 2 pre-school storytimes and a family storytime each week, and fill in on rest when someone is gone. I also do kids book clubs and programs.
I look forward to hearing what other people do for storytimes, book clubs, etc, and getting ideas how I can make the programs I do better. It was good to meet all of you yesterday, and I look forward to getting to know you all!
Happy Friday!

Hi from Elizabeth A

I'm Elizabeth Anderson, and I've worked for ALD for two years. I was and MH at SG for a year, then worked as a PSS at KO for a year where I did mostly children's services. At the beginning of the summer I transferred back to SG where I am now doing mostly teen services. I am really missing children's stuff, and I am hoping that this interest group will put me back in touch and give me an opportunity to keep my children's services skills sharp.

Greetings from Castlewood Library

Hi Everyone,
My name is Lori McKee. It was so good to meet you all at the meeting this morning. I have recently been promoted from a Materials Handler to a PSS II here at Castlewood. I have felt overwhelmed with all there is to learn in my new position. Fortunately the staff here have been very supportive as I learn on the floor. I have two teenage boys and have really missed having the interaction with the younger ones. I look forward to training for the baby story time here at Castlewood. I think the goal for me in this group is to learn as much as possible from all of you who have been doing this for awhile. Thanks for being so willing to share. Lori M.

Hi from Jill (with ulterior motives)

Hi All!

I work at Support Services where I maintain the Children's website, Tales' Treehouse. I've been in this position for 2 years, and before that, I worked at Smoky Hill in reference/technology training for about 7 years. What I hope to get out of the IG is how I can support branch staff in using our website to help patrons (I've re-written this clunky sentence a couple of times to no avail--I want to share ideas with everyone to make the website more successful).

Here's the ulterior motive part (I okayed my solicitation with Melissa first): I will be contacting site supervisors about setting up a meeting of the minds to brainstorm on Tales' Treehouse. I'm looking for any staff interested in giving me feedback on the site--the "wouldn't it be cool ifs" and "it's really hard to finds" and "I have patrons asking me fors" and "I really like the ways"--these are all things I'd like to hear so that I can plan for upcoming "redesigns." If you're interested or know someone who would be, please let me know! Thanks in advance!

Hello

My name is Lori Romero and I'm the Outreach Services Literacy Librarian. I'm anxious to find out where ALD Youth Staff would like support and training, especially related to storytimes and early literacy. It will be nice to connect more often!

Hello from Melissa

My name is Melissa Depper & I’m a Youth AST. I’ve been a Youth Services Librarian with ALD for five years, before that, I was home with my girls for a few years, and I was a children’s librarian at various places around town for several years before that. Right now professionally I’m really interested in early literacy services and outreach to parents and families who don’t use the library. I’m currently doing the Baby Storytimes at Castlewood on Monday mornings, which is just about the best way I can think of to start my work week!

In the last couple of years I’ve been so focused on stuff here at ALD that my blogs are unclicked on, my PUBYAC emails are unopened, my RSS feeds collect dust, and my journals languish on my coffee table. So my personal goal for the Interest Group is that I jumpstart my professional reading again. I want to keep a closer eye on what’s going on in children’s library services across the country…so I can see what ideas we can adapt for our patrons here.

Posts, Comments, and Labels

What’s what?

A post is a new entry; a comment is a remark attached to an entry; a label is a subject tag attached to a post. All members of the YSIG are able to post, label those posts, and comment on other people’s posts.

As we have our conversations and explore professional issues and concerns in this Interest Group, we’ve got one tool, the blog, which is going to have to serve several different functions:
• A forum, where we can have continuing conversations on a topic
• A resource, which we can search to find specific tools and tips
• A bulletin board, on which we can share our thoughts and ideas

So to help us keep organized (this is what happens when you have a Virgo as your facilitator), when you have a resource to share, or an article you want us to read, or a best practice to tell us about, please make a new post, and add a few basic labels to it: Programming, Reader’s Advisory, Collections, Web Resource, etc.

When someone else writes a post, and has asked a question or invited comments, please add your responses as comments attached to that post, so our conversation is all in one place.

We’ll keep an eye on this system and adjust it if we need to as we go along!

Welcome

Welcome to the Youth Services Interest Group Blog!

The Youth Services Interest Group is our opportunity for professional development. We will share best practices, enhance our subject area & collections knowledge, develop ideas for programs & services, look for ways to support ALD tactics, and much more.

The better we know each other, the better we will be able to help each other, so, after our first meeting, I’d like to have us all write a post introducing ourselves. Tell us who you are, where you work, and one goal you’d like to accomplish through the Interest Group.

Thank you!