Let's Get Together, Better: Rethinking Collaboration at SXSWedu 2015

Until Thursday afternoon, my coworker Vanessa and I were in Austin, Texas, for the South by Southwest Education Conference, SXSWedu. Vanessa and my supervisor had submitted a proposal for a Core Conversation way back when, but due to my supervisor's being on maternity leave, I stepped in. Our topic was collaborations, and doing them better, so I was excited to co-facilitate the session and get to enjoy the rest of the conference besides.

So, collaborations. That's a topic we talk about all the time, right? Probably true, but especially since moving to Skokie and seeing how they do things with an entire department dedicated to community engagement, and with some of the reading I've been doing on my own, I'm recognizing that collaborations can be so much more than they typically are for public libraries and other community partners with education, literacy, etc. as an aim.

That's where Vanessa, the library's graphic designer, comes in. Vanessa has experience with design thinking; originally developed in the design world, it's a process for creating innovative ideas and for solving problems creatively. (For great info on design thinking as it pertains to libraries, check out the new Design Thinking for Libraries toolkit from IDEO.) Design thinking offers a framework of stepping back and thinking much more broadly and deeply than we might be used to doing.

How does that apply to collaborations, you ask? Well, consider a pretty typical collaboration between a public library and a school. The public library contacts the school and says, "Hey! We have this great storytime/tour/booktalk/etc. We can bring it to you!" And the school, if the timeline works, says, "Great!" Henceforth, both public library and school consider one another partners and/or collaborators.

While bringing a library service more squarely to a school audience is certainly a great thing, it's a pretty superficial partnership. Neither partner is really doing anything that they hadn't done before. Collaborations can go deeper to incur more impact.

Vanessa gave a brief introduction to design thinking, which ultimately allowed us to lay out a process for more transformative collaborations. Consider it a five-step process, if you will.

Rethinking Collaboration: A Primer Drawing from Design Thinking

Step One: Find the Right People

     I would venture to say that we've all been in a meeting at one point or another where the thought crossed our minds that "the people who really should be at this meeting aren't here." Or, conversely, you've heard about a meeting with a potential collaborator after the fact and thought, "I wish I had been there!" Having the right people at the table is integral for transformative collaborations to get started.

     What that means is that you want the people with both the passion and the capacity to act sitting at the table. That may mean you have to rethink your obvious choices for potential partners; for example, if the school principal is spread to thin, then they shouldn't probably be at the collaboration table. Their staff should absolutely fill them in on everything after the fact, but they're probably not the best in-meeting choice. The people you do want are those people who are intimately familiar with an issue or cause within the organization. They bring the background knowledge and contextual knowledge, and more than likely they agree to sit at the table because they care. A lot. Meaningful collaborations need people who have that passion and are willing to funnel it into action, even though that process will take time and work.

Step Two: Be Open

     You know everything you think you know about that organization with whom you want to partner? Forget it. Do not bring preconceptions to your meeting. This can be hard for a lot of people, especially in situations in which the parties pursuing a new collaboration have worked together before. But think of it this way: If you're a public library, do you think the school truly understands everything you're trying to do, and capable of doing? And vice versa? No. We do a whole lot that they couldn't possibly know about. But if everyone goes to the meeting with a set idea of who does what and what folks can contribute, it automatically starts to limit all the things you could come up with together. So be totally open to the fact that you just don't know, and that you're at the table, at least in part, to learn.

Step Three: Start with Questions

     Vanessa gives the best hypothetical for this step. Imagine your library or department wants a new logo, and you go to a graphic designer. The graphic designer shouldn't just say, "Great! You're a library! I know what a library is. I got this," and then send you mock-up logos in a few weeks. A great graphic designer is first going to ask you a ton of questions. About the library's history. About the people who work there. About the people who use library services. About service philosophy. Etc. etc. etc. All. The. Questions. Only then, with lots of contextual information and an idea of the vision of the library, will the designer get to the drawing board.

     The best question to include: What do you want to see in your community?

     By starting with lots of questions, you're doing two things: first, really amassing deep context for a potential partner and their goals; and second, breaking the superficial discussion barrier that can manifest in lots of meeting scenarios. Frankly, we're not always good about talking about ourselves; or, conversely, we assume that the person we're talking to already knows a lot about us. Both of these things lead to undertaking of valuable information about vision, services, mission, everything. By asking lots of question, and listening actively, we truly learn about what a fellow community organization is hoping to do.

Step Four: Share Your Plan

     After you've asked lots and lots of questions and listened thoughtfully to the answers, it's time for you and your organization to share your plan; that is, your vision, mission, goals, and services. This step is vital, because it is where all parties at the table can start to identify overlap. This overlap is the sweet spot for creating a transformative collaboration.

     If, in the course of question-asking and plan-sharing, you determine that you do not currently share any common goals for the community you and the other organization both serve, the time is probably not right for pursing a collaborative project. That's not a bad thing--in fact, it's far better to recognize that now is not the time before pouring lots of resources into a project that will have middling buy-in. Talk about how you can promote one another's services to your respective audiences, shake hands, and make sure to set up another meeting for six months down the line to see if shifts in goals have creating space for a collaboration at that point.

     And if you do find overlap? That means you two are not just driving on the same road headed for the same destination. It means you're in the same vehicle, truly moving together. That's a transformative collaboration.

Step Five: How Might We...?

     Once you've identified that, yes, there is a community need that we both have the resources and passion to aim to address, it's time to get thinking. It's time to ask, "How might we accomplish this mutually-agreed-upon thing that our community needs to be better?" Maybe this starts at the same meeting and everyone brainstorms ideas. Maybe you make plans to reconvene after everyone has had some time to think and will bring their own ideas (called "brainswarming," and arguably more productive than everyone-at-the-table-shares-ideas-live brainstorming). Either way, it's time to finally get to that stage where more traditional, yet ultimately superficial, partnerships start: the "I can bring this to the table" stage. You guys all know how to take it from here.

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So that's what Vanessa and I talked about at SXSWedu: rethinking collaborations using design thinking, or taking a couple of steps backward in our usual partnership process so that we can try to do something truly transformative. Our complete slides from the session are below, and I want to particularly point you to the resources we include at the end in case you're looking for more information on this process, etc.

Schools and Libraries Together: Rethinking Learning SXSWedu 2015 from Amy Koester

There was great audience participation and sharing at our session, too, with plenty of great ideas and collaboration troubleshooting tips flying across the room. It's our hope that, the next time you think, "Hey, we might be able to work with those folks next door," you have a toolkit to do so as productively as possible.

Make Your At-Home Storytime Kit! A Joint Kids/Caregivers Event

Before I left my job in Missouri, my adult reference colleague Michele Nolan and I were planning our second joint kids/caregivers programming event: a Make Your At-Home Storytime Kit. The premise: while kids were on one side of the partitioned program room doing storytime and open play with me, caregivers were on the other side with Michele making supplies for an at-home storytime kit. The activities were planned, supply lists were made, and... then I left.

But, oh, did I work with some amazing people in Missouri, because my colleague Erin stepped in to lead the storytime portion while Michele directed caregivers, and the event went on without a hitch. Full details, according to Michele:

My adults consisted of parents, caregivers and grandparents. So, while Erin kept the children busy, I then had the adults make their own "At-Home Storytime Kit" that consisted of materials for "Read," "Talk," "Sing," "Write," and "Play," in addition to mentioning how "Math" can be incorporated into any and all of these activities. I had 12 adults signed up with 10 that showed, plus a mom with her kids that asked if she could join in. Even though I physically had 11 at the end of the program I had a few (3) people ask if they could take an extra set to share with others.

And in case you have any doubts whether this type of event would be meaningful for the caregivers, here's the participant feedback:

• "Really enjoyed having the materials and explanation on how they work with a child's learning."
• "I wasn't sure at first how this was going to work out with bringing the kids, but it is great knowing that they have an activity for them also."
• "Have been looking for new and fresh ideas."
• "Originally came to make this for my daughter to use with her kids, but instead am going to keep it at my house so the grandchildren have something that I can interact with them."
• "Really glad I signed up for this."
• "Wasn't exactly sure what I was signing up for, but am glad I did."
• "Hope to see more of these type of programs."

Success! A resounding success, with caregivers actively engaged in creating early literacy activities to use with their children outside of the library! Woo hoo!

And lastly, the full activity breakdown.

Read - Make a Photo Book

     Caregivers used empty CD sleeves, key rings, paper cut to fit the sleeves, and writing utensils to create a blank book for them to fill in with their child. The premise was to add pictures (drawings, photos, or both) and words together at home.

     Early literacy message: “Creating a book full of images your child recognizes is a great way to build a love of books and reading. You can write words that describe the pictures, talk about the pictures, and create your own stories as you read the book together.”

Talk - Three Little Pigs Puppets
     Using cut paper towel rolls, pig and wolf templates, scissors, glue, and coloring utensils, caregivers created puppets for each character in the story of the Three Little Pigs. Also included was the text of the story for those who needed a refresher. The premise is to then tell and retell the story at home with their child.
     Early literacy message: “The more words a child hears everyday, especially when they are spoken to and with the child, the better. Telling and retelling favorite stories is a wonderful way to pack lots of talking into a fun reading experience.”

Write - Shape Drawing
     Caregivers poured white glue and a bit of food coloring into plastic zipper-top bags, which they then sealed with duct tape. The premise is to encourage children to use a finger to write/draw shapes and/or letters in the goo through the bag.
     Early literacy message: “In order to learn to recognize and write letters, children first need to be able to recognize and draw shapes. Drawing shapes on paper or in a fun substance both helps develop shape recognition and strengthens finger muscles which will be used to hold writing implements.”

Sing - Song Cube
     Empty cube-shaped tissue boxes were wrapped in colorful paper, after which caregivers added images to each of the six sides to represent six common children's songs. The station also included a lyrics sheet. The premise is to roll the cube and then sing with their child the song that goes with the image facing upwards.
     Early literacy message: “Singing songs and nursery rhymes is a great way to help your child hear all the different sounds that letters and words can make. The more sounds they hear in their youth, the easier it will be to sound out words as they learn to read.”

Play - Little Mouse, Little Mouse
     Caregivers used a house template drawn along the bottom of file folders to create lift-the-flap houses. They cut out the houses and colored them different colors, then colored and cut out a small mouse, too. The station included an instruction sheet for this activity, where the caregiver hides the mouse in one of the houses and says with their child, "Little mouse, little mouse, are you in the *color* house?" until they find where the mouse is hiding.
     Early literacy message: “Playing helps children learn and internalize facts about the world. By playing together with your child, you are helping them to work out how the world works while also having fun together.”

STEM Resources in Your Community on the ALSC Blog

I'm over on the ALSC Blog today talking about the variety of community resources that libraries can tap to offer interesting and engaging STEM events. For example, have you checked out your local museums' outreach education departments? What about contacting the local garden or astronomy club?

Find these and other resources on my ALSC Blog post, and make sure to share your own go-to STEM community resources in the comments over there.

Thinking Outside the Book: Soccer Storytime

Not too long ago, we hosted a Ballet Story Time at my library, to great success--lots of families were excited to attend a program with a real, live ballerina in attendance, ready for questions and pictures. So, of course, I wanted to figure out a way to replicate that same enthusiasm for another audience of library families. The result? Soccer Story Time.

The St. Louis Lions are a local soccer team in the Premier Development League, and our library district has worked with them on a number of occasions for special events in the past. They were happy to be able to come to my branch for a specialty program. Here's what we did.

Soccer players love to read, too!

Soccer Story Time

Welcome & Introduction
     I welcomed everyone to our event and reminded everyone about the summer reading program. Plenty of kids were already signed up for summer reading, and a handful had seen the Lions at our summer reading kickoff event earlier this month. Then it was go time.

Story: For the Love of Soccer! by Pelé, illustrated by Frank Morrison
     This story, and its illustrations, share a soccer tale that many kids can relate to. We see Pelé as both a young soccer enthusiast and as a professional player, enjoying everything about the game the entire time. The message that playing for the love of the game--as opposed to a love of winning--is a good way to conclude, too.

Soccer Time!
     We started with a chance for the kids to ask our four attending soccer players questions: about when they started playing, how much they practice, etc. After the questions had been answered, the players demonstrated a few trick moves for the crowd before breaking the children into groups for some basic soccer skills practice. The youngest in the crowd worked on kicking, older kids did dribbling and other moves. Then, we concluded soccer time with a good old-fashioned shoot-out. The professionals were the goalkeepers and the kids tried to kick goals. My, were they having fun.

Craft and Picture Time
     I had a simple soccer ball craft set out on tables at the back of the room to help keep folks interested as they waited their turns for autographs and photo ops. The craft used a hexagon template I created, which allowed kids to color in the hexes, cut them out, and glue them on a coffee filter. Ta-da! 2-D soccer ball.

Everyone had a great time at this program, with many of the attendees psyched to go see a St. Louis Lions game this summer. I think World Cup fever helped the interest level, too, as well as the general ubiquity of kids in soccer around these parts. All things considered, this was a straightforward and enjoyable way to tap another aspect of the community for a library program.

The Second Annual Summer Reading/Picture Book Walk Kickoff Event

Summer reading is in the air here in St. Charles County; despite my local school district still being in school until Friday (thanks, snow days!), we're off and running with our annual summer reading program.

For the second year in a row, my branch helped kicked things off through our partnership with St. Charles Parks & Recreation. This summer marks Year Two of our Picture Book Walk at Quail Ridge Park, a local county park with a number of paved trails, one of which boasts 17 beautiful, handmade signs displaying the entirety of a picture book, spread by spread. For details on the "hows" of the project, check out my post on the topic from last summer.

This year, the book around the lake trail at Quail Ridge Park is the immaculately illustrated Berlioz the Bear, by Jan Brett. The introductory sign encourages wandering readers to pay special attention to what's going on in the illustrations around the edges; Brett is known for fitting intricate visual storytelling in every space of the page. While this book doesn't have as explicit a connection to nature as last year's choice (The Curious Garden by Peter Brown), I chose it for the walk because it invites leisurely reading. The buildup of the story, the visual interest, the climax of the story--they all lend to a relaxing stroll along the trail while enjoying a great book.

The library and parks department team up to put on a festive kickoff event in the lodge adjacent to the Picture Book Walk trail. After some introductory remarks at sign #1, as well as the option of "guided walks" (in which a library staffer or volunteer leads a group and reads from the pages), children and families are invited into the lodge for a range of activities. This year, we offered the following slate:

• light refreshments of a cake (donated by Sam's Club) and cookies, along with plenty of water (all outdoor activities require continued hydration!)
• summer reading signups for children, teens, and adults
• a memory game involving matching overturned pictures of instruments (many corresponding to those played by Berlioz and his friends in the book)
• summer reading tattoos
• shaker instrument craft station (decorate and attach a colorful strip of paper to an empty plastic water bottle, use a funnel to add ½ cup rice, top the contents off with a pretty bead, and duct tape the whole thing shut; voila, recycled shaker!)
• tree cookie necklace craft from the Parks Department (using wood from invasive cedar that has to be removed from the parks)
• Parks Department information
• St. Louis Lions soccer team information and ball drills with real players

These eight activity stations were ongoing throughout the two-hour event, with a special performance halfway through the kickoff by one of the park rangers. He shared and passed around a huge range of animal pelts of creatures indigenous to Missouri. Kids had a great time feeling the different furs and seeing the range of sizes of these animals. Most recognizable by far: the skunk.

I had teen library volunteers to help staff the library's activity stations, as well as some assistance from my colleague Miss Melanie at the summer reading signup station. The library could not have offered so many activities at the kickoff without their help.

In the course of the two-hour kickoff event, we shared reading and recreation with just over 200 people, mostly children and their families. We got tons of folks signed up for summer reading, and we generated a ton of excitement about returning to the park to experience the Picture Book Walk again. The Berlioz the Bear installation will be up for several months, hopefully giving every interested family a chance to experience it.

If you happen to be in the Wentzville, Missouri area this summer, I do hope you'll stop by!

The Newbery Award & Mock Award Discussion Resources

Yesterday evening, I spoke to a group of school librarians at their monthly Library Media Specialist Academy meeting. My 2014 Mock Newbery school library co-facilitator arranged for me to speak on two specific points: the Newbery and my experience on the committee; and mock award programs in the library. I want to share here the variety of resources we discussed in the course of the presentation. Get mocking!

The Newbery Award

• The history of the award
• Terms and criteria for the Newbery
• Newbery medalists and honorees

Resources for a Mock Newbery

• Gather your kids. My 2014 Mock Newbery involved a group of around 3 dozen fourth- and fifth-graders, all of whom had been selected by their teachers and school librarian due to their past success at reading lots of state award nominees. You can also arrange a Mock Newbery with individual classrooms, or entire grade levels.
• Choose your books. Great sources for choosing eligible books include Betsy Bird's Newbery/Caldecott predictions; the For Those About to Mock blog; the Heavy Medal blog; the Goodreads shelf of books tagged "newbery-2015" (or whatever award year you're looking for); and starred reviews from different journals.
• Procure some books. This could be all library copies, special non-catalogued copies, copies donated by Friends of the Library groups, or a combination.
• Explain Newbery criteria to the kids. I put together a simple sheet with terms pulled from the Newbery manual.
• Create a scorecard to help participants keep track of their reading. (Mine is based off of one shared on the ALSC Blog by Sarah Abercrombie.)
• Meet regularly for discussion. My school librarian Mock Newbery partner arranged for me to visit her school library once a month from September through December. Each hour-long meeting opening with some introductory material by me--usually reminders of criteria. Then we'd discuss, with emphasis on comparing our mock titles to one another. We usually wrapped up with some time for question.
• Arrange a voting party. Our voting party took place on a Saturday afternoon in January at my library--a great way to bring new faces into the public library. We had pizza; discussed books using the CCBC's Book Discussion Guidelines; and used a balloting sheet to vote for our winner and honor books.
• Celebrate your winners AND the real winners! Share your mock medalist and honorees with the school, at the public library, etc. Then make sure to tune in for the YMA announcement and report back to your Mock Newbery group.

Additional Mock Award Resources

• Mock Caldecott with Mr. Schu
• Mock Caldecott with Travis Jonker
• Calling Caldecott - blog discussing Caldecott-eligible titles
• Someday My Printz Will Come - blog discussing Printz-eligible titles
• Mock Battle of the Kids' Books from School Library Journal, including the 2014 bracket, the BoB Pinterest board, and how-to tips to create a Mock BoB

These are the resources I discussed during the course of my talk. Do you have additional resources that you think I should add to this list? Let me know in the comments and I'll edit them in!

Recipe Swap: A Children's/Adult Programming Collaboration

My adult services colleagues and I have been brainstorming ways to work together in my branch lately. One of the ideas we came up with was offering joint children's/adult programs--that is, programs for families that involve some overlapping activities as well as distinct spaces and activities for kids and adults. We had a few goals for these sorts of programs:

1. Allow the caregivers to enjoy content geared to them.
2. Provide thematic crafts/activities for kids so that caregivers need not find childcare to attend the adult program.
3. End programs with an invitation for the family to continue the program exploration at home, whether through conversation or related activities.

With those goals in mind, my colleague Michele and I offered our first joint programming endeavor earlier this week. It wasn't heavily attended--we still need to figure out how to best advertise this new style of program--but it was fun. Here's what we did:

Recipe Swap for Kids and Caregivers

The joint activity: What's the herb/spice?

     Michele created a poster board with images of 16 herbs and spices used in different types of cooking. She also created a sort of game page, with spaces to guess all 16 herbs and spices based on their pictures. For additional clues and interest, she also set out plates with all 16 of the herbs and spices. Smelling, carefully grating, and feeling the foodstuffs were all acceptable means of exploring what the herbs and spices were. The goal was for families to work together to explore these foods, talking about what they were, what they smelled like, what they use them for in their house, etc.

     This hands-on and self-paced activity provided great ways for families to use food vocabulary and to talk about their own food traditions.

The adult activity: Recipe Swap & Cookbook Exploration

     The advertisement for the program encouraged attendees to bring a printed copy of a recipe or two that they enjoy at their own homes. At the beginning of the program, a library staffer ran off copies of each of the recipes for everyone to swap. There were pasta dishes, a breakfast sausage recipe, some baked goods, and a sweet and sour pork recipe, all with recommendations for their ease, healthfulness, and kid-friendliness.

     Michele also called in and displayed a wide variety of cookbooks in the library's collections to share with attendees. They were then able to talk about their favorite recipe sources--cookbooks, blogs--and swap personal tips for the best stores for certain ingredients, keeping meals well-balanced, etc. So many caregivers try to be cognizant of the types of foods they share with their families, and so this topic produced tons of conversation.

The kids' activity: Decorating Recipe Cards

     I created a blank, half-page recipe card template in Publisher and printed a bunch on white card stock. I had the library's washable, large-size ink pads on the craft table, ready for kids to do fingerprint art to decorate the backs of the recipe cards. I also had plenty of wipes on hand for when the artists wanted to switch to a new color of ink.

     The end result was a great variety of personalized, colorful recipe cards, ready to be used to share favorite family recipes. This craft is a pretty straightforward one for the crafters, so we were able to talk about our favorite foods and how we help cook and bake at home while working on our recipe cards.

The wrap-up: Cookies!

     Michele shared a recipe for chocolate crinkle cookies in the recipe swap, and she prepared a batch to share at the program as well. Kids and adults reconvened to try the cookies, which provided a nice end to our joint programming adventure.

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Do you partner with adult services to offer simultaneous or inter-generational programs? I'd love to hear about them!

Thinking Outside the Book: Ballet Storytime

It's probably no surprise to anyone that a ballet-themed story time is a hit with our young program-goers; after all, how many young ones are in ballet and other dance classes, and how many more love the idea of dancing? And so a ballet story time is really a no-brainer. But what if you think outside the book when planning that story time and partner with a ballet professional in your community for an extra special program experience?

That's what my library district has been doing this week. My colleague made a call to a ballerina with the Missouri Ballet Theatre, and before we knew it, a ballet dancer was scheduled to make a costumed appearance at storytimes at each of our programming branches. Since the real live ballerina is a huge draw for this program, that means restructuring the story time format a bit. Here's what we did.

Ballet Storytime

Welcome & Introduction
     I wanted to make extra sure that all our attendees had time to get into the program room, so I spent the first few minutes of the program time talking to the children (many of whom came in tutus and other fancy dress). We talked about who likes to dance, who takes dance classes, what they wear to dance, and who had been to the ballet. Lots of fans of The Nutcracker here.
     When it was time to get started, I introduced myself and Miss Rachel, our ballerina from the Missouri Ballet Theatre who was in full Sugar Plum Fairy regalia. I also explained the format for our special story time.

Story: Brontorina by James Howe, illustrated by Randy Cecil

     This is truly a dance story of grand proportions: it's got dance, dinosaurs, worries about fitting in, and strong friendship themes. I did my read-aloud of this book standing up, which allowed me a larger range in sharing the illustrations--a necessity considering we had about 60 people show up for the program. There are a few pages that show Brontorina and her dance classmates doing a few ballet steps, and Miss Rachel demonstrated those moves so that the children could get an even better idea of what they look like.

Ballerina Time!
     After the story, Miss Rachel took over for a bit. She invited all of the children (almost all girls, with one lone boy who was equally captivated by the demonstration) to stand and try some ballet steps. The learned to stand in first position, to plié, to arabesque, and to relevé. They finished up their mini lesson with a combination--a short dance, if you will. There was plenty of excited ballet dancing going on.
     After I had the children sit back down, they were able to ask Miss Rachel questions. Questions included how long she had been dancing, what are her favorite ballet roles, and questions about what moves she can do and how much she practices. Our lone male storytime attendee raised his hand last to ask if boys can be ballet dancers, and Miss Rachel happily shared how important male dancers are to ballet.

Craft and Picture Time
     Our event advertisement mentioned that there would be a photo op with the ballet dancer, and many a young friend was clamoring for just that chance. To help with crowd control and keep the line of children waiting to meet the dancer short, I also offered a simple ballet craft at the back of the room. I printed (and a volunteer cut) card stock ballerinas. I set these out with crayons and scissors, and also available were cupcake liners, which could be glued on with glue sticks to create tutus and dancing skirts (see finished craft in above photo). The children could do the craft then get in line for a picture, or vice versa, or any combination that worked for them. I made sure to have plenty of ballet fiction and nonfiction books by the photo op area, too, to encourage folks to check out a book and keep learning about ballet. Having two activities going at once definitely cut down on the waiting time for pictures with Miss Rachel, and it also helped us keep the program at the advertised 45 minutes.

All in all, our Ballet Storytime was a delightful success. I saw several attendees leap and dance out of the library afterwards; I think that's pretty indicative of a meaningful library experience, when you are literally acting out the program as you head home.

Winter Walk at the Park

This past summer, a collaboration between my library and the county parks department resulted in some rather fetching natural-wood signs being permanently placed around a local park trail. While the impetus for those signs came down with the end of summer, both the library and parks department expressed an eagerness to continue our partnership through the winter instead of just waiting for next summer.

Click the image to enlarge.

The result is using several of these lovely signposts to share information that may be useful or interesting to our community members. The signs I created on behalf of the library feature what I hope will be some bits of inspiration for folks enjoying a winter walk. Using our library databases, I put together two different signs: one inviting hikers to look for three different birds native to Missouri this time of year; and one exploring the science and poetic beauty of snowflakes.

Click the image to enlarge.

The recent snowstorms prevented me from getting pictures of these signs in place out on the trail, but hopefully these images will suffice. I am thrilled that we're using library information sources to create a sort of mini-exhibit, full of images, information, and tips for using the library for further exploration of these topics.

Do you have any winter outreach to your community?

Thoughts on School Partnership Opportunities

It's the back-to-school season right now, and the slightly emptier children's section during school hours puts my mind to thinking of the ways we reach kids when they're at school. Partnering with schools doesn't necessarily seem like the most obvious programming decision when local schools are fortunate to have terrific school media specialists, but I am a firm believer that there are many, many things, schools and public libraries can do for one another. We each have different goals and obstacles to reaching those goals, but by working together we can usually find some creative ways to make both our institutions even better.

With that motivation in mind, I wanted to share some of the ways my library has partnered with our local schools in the past, and how I'm looking forward to partnering this year:

• Library presence at local Back to School Fairs - Families in my local school district benefit from two different Back to School Fairs that take place on Saturdays at the beginning of August. The two fairs combined see over 5000 families, and it's a prime forum for community groups and organizations to share information with families. Many families attend because the fairs include distribution of free school supplies, but I love when they stop by my library table and find out what other great programs and resources are available to them for free. These back-to-school events are also great for promoting upcoming big-ticket programs, like our fall author programs with Peter Brown, Brandon Mull, and Maggie Stiefvater.
• Library presence at School Literacy Nights - I've talked about my visits to "Title I" nights previously.
• Taking library programming to the schools - I visit schools every spring to promote the public library's annual summer reading program, but I also recently started bringing some STEM programming to special education classrooms.
• Bringing students into the public library - I love when school groups come visit the library for research visits. We have a number of parochial schools in my community, and several of them don't have library collections suited to research projects of older elementary-age students. They arrange field trips to the library to fill this need, and I love interacting with these students. I usually tell a story to get them in a comfy, enjoy-the-library mood, then I explain how the books are organized and how to search for resources they need for projects. We also talk a bit about electronic resources before they head into the stacks to do research. I've also talked previously about how my branch library partners with a local elementary school to showcase students' work from art class in the library.
• Book Discussions - I'm looking forward to book discussions with groups of interested students at the local elementary schools. Both the school media specialist and I attend and facilitate discussion, and our partnership also entails the public library helping provide discussion sets of books while the school media specialist coordinates readers between monthly meetings. Our discussions can vary from a year of genre exploration to mock awards, but regardless of the books the students develop extraordinary skills for thinking and talking about books.
• Supporting Staff - My local school district has a professional development day every spring, and for the past few years they've invited folks from the library to talk to all of the school media specialists. This past spring, I was charged with introducing some readers' advisory resources that teachers can access from school with their public library cards. The public library is happy to share access to tremendous resources like NoveList, which schools often cannot justify paying for on their own. I also talk to my local school media specialists about what sorts of information I can provide to them and/or their students regarding library resources, and I am happy to provide workshops as needed.

The nature of partnerships is such that I feel sure additional projects will pop up during this current school year, and I hope that schedules allow me to do whatever I can to support our local schools. Students and teachers need resources, the public library wants more community members to know about and use the library... school partnerships allow us both to meet our goals. I may not spend much time in local school buildings, but my work absolutely connects back to schools. And that's a very good thing.

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How do you partner with schools?

If you promote it, will they come?

Many a public librarian has struggled with the topic of how to get kids from the local schools to participate in summer reading. We visit for summer reading rallies, hoping that our enthusiastic encouragements will inspire them to show up during the summer. Sometimes, however, that's not enough. Once kids are out of school, with no teacher or librarian to remind them to visit the public library, the whole premise of the public library's summer reading program can fall through the cracks.

To try to get more local students involved in summer reading, a few of the local schools are working with us this year on some new promotional strategies:

• Principals are emphasizing to caregivers that student participation in the public library's summer reading program is strongly encouraged. A few local elementary schools sent home letters with this message, and they were signed by the principal. Several schools have planned rewards for students who bring their public library SRP logs back to school in the fall. And at least one local school is using their robo-calling service (typically used for delays and snow days) to remind all families to visit the public library. In return, we collect names and schools of all children who finish our program. We report these successful students' names to their schools in the fall.
• Reminders about the public library SRP will be handed out at open school library days this summer. A handful of elementary schools in our district are open to students one day each in June and July. One of the school librarians specifically asked me to create a simple flyer (pictured above) that she can give to attendees to remind them about our program. I included the addresses for the two nearest branch libraries, as many of these families haven't visited the public library before.
• School librarians have arranged to meet their students in our public library meeting room. This promotional strategy had a few hiccups in its initial occurence; we had booked the meeting room for the school librarians, but we didn't know ahead of time to arrange to have a staff member in the room with them to help with SRP sign-ups. After a bit of shuffling, our staff set up a makeshift SRP sign-up station in the meeting room to help the 75+ families that stopped in. The school librarians had advertised that students who met them at the public library and signed up for our SRP would get bonus incentives at their school.

Those are the three new strategies we're trying this summer with our local school district to encourage their students' participation in our SRP. I'm hoping both our sign-up and completion statistics see a jump because of these efforts. At any rate, if we can bring in even just a handful of new families to the library's SRP this summer, I'll count us successful.

Do you take any intentional steps to get more students involved in your summer reading program?

Come One, Come All: Making a Summer Reading Kick-Off Party a Family Affair

The beginning of summer reading is a pretty big deal. We emphasize the start date when we visit schools, and all the library signage and promotional materials clearly display the date on which families can start getting involved. As a result, we tend to get a TON of people who visit our branches on Summer Reading Day 1 because they're excited to start at the very first chance.

What better reason to have a Summer Reading Kick-Off Party? Lots of libraries do it. The people are going to be there--why not make it as much fun and as big a deal as possible?

That's precisely what we did earlier this week. Our big Summer Reading Kick-Off Party took place at a local county park--the same site as another fun program we've got going on this summer--on Monday afternoon. We had lots for kids and families to do during their visits. Starting at 3 p.m., we had a ribbon-cutting ceremony to formally open our library/parks partnership installation. That ribbon-cutting was complete with crazy-large scissors and a young frequent library program-goer doing the honors of snipping the ribbon. Lots of families took that opportunity to make the walk around the lake trail and read Peter Brown's The Curious Garden. I love the comparison photo (below) that shows just how lush this park has become compared to when our partnership was in its earliest stages.

Many more festivities took place in the adjacent park lodge (we wanted shelter in case of inclement weather, of which there was none). Our local Sam's Club donated a cake for the event, and families enjoyed light refreshments and water. We also had an army of teen volunteers helping out at the 6 activity stations spread out in the lodge:

1. Flower Craft -- Kids made flowers out of cupcake liners and pipe cleaners.
2. Tree Cookie Necklace Craft -- Kids could decorate "tree cookies" made from slices of cedar trees and string them into necklaces. Cedar is invasive in this region, and while the park department needs to remove it from the parks, they save every bit they cut down and use it somehow.
3. Summer Reading Tattoos and Stickers -- Kids love to wear reading tattoos and stickers. We don't mind the free promotion.
4. The Curious Garden Memory Game -- The members of my library's Kids Advisory Board helped put together this big game of Memory (you may have grown up calling it Concentration). Kids had fun playing against one another and themselves.
5. Dig into Science -- A dozen specimens from the lake trail--leaves, flowers, grasses--were available for closer inspection with the help of our magnifying glasses.
6. Meet a St. Louis Lion -- This local soccer team is a summer reading prize sponsor--children and teen readers can earn free tickets to the games--so we were happy when they asked if they could be part of the Kick-Off Party. They talked to very excited kids and signed pictures.

We also had two informational booths: one from the library, where kids, teens, and adults could all sign up for their respective summer reading programs as well as pick up summer event guides; and one from the parks department, where folks could get more information about goings-on at other county parks. We saw very brisk business at the summer reading signup table, with lots of families eager to get started reading together. Everyone couldn't help but smile when we reminded them that reading the book around the lake trail would count toward their reading goals!

Jamming with WildHeart

The last formal event we had at our Kick-Off Party was a concert from children's educators and entertainers WildHeart. This Emmy-winning duo shared 45 minutes of fun, silly, informational, and interactive songs for the families in the lodge. I saw lots of kids getting into dancing like amphibians and other creatures.

After the concert, families finished up visiting the activity stations and the summer reading sign-up table. The crowd started to dissipate as we neared dinnertime, which provided a perfect opportunity for volunteers to get themselves signed up for summer reading.

The final count of attendees at the Kick-Off Party was 493--a truly incredible success considering we've never offered an off-site event like this before. Our parks department partners were really thrilled with the event as well.

The weather was gorgeous--a sunny 68 degrees, occasional clouds. The mood was bright and cheery. And the customers (all ages!) were enthusiastically enjoying themselves. I heard from many, many patrons who were very pleased with the event and expressed a hope that we'll do something similar in future years.

I'm having a hard time thinking why we wouldn't.

Thinking Outside the Book: Partnering to offer a Picture Book Walk

Picture Book Walk at Quail Ridge Park

With all the hullabaloo that is summer reading, it can be easy for youth librarians to forget about anything else that happens in the summer months. The sun is shining! The weather is warm! It's a perfect time to wander about outside!

Translation: It's a perfect time for a Picture Book Walk.

Around this time last year, Angela Reynolds shared her Nova Scotia library's StoryWalk™ on the ALSC Blog. The whole idea, I later learned, actually traces back to Anne Ferguson from Montpelier, VT, who came up with the first StoryWalk® in 2007. Since then, Anne has created a slew of resources for libraries with all sorts of funding situations to offer similar installations. The basic premise of a StoryWalk® immediately struck me as wonderfully boundary-breaking: a library/parks joint effort to give the community an opportunity to move and read outside. Brilliant! And so I started getting things in order to be able to offer a similar program in my community.

Today, June 3, is the official start date of our Picture Book Walk at Quail Ridge Park. We have opted to call our installation a Picture Book Walk because we are focusing specifically on the picture book as a visual and literary art form; we want people to engage with the entire book. All summer long, we're featuring Peter Brown's The Curious Garden--a book that seemed perfect to be read and enjoyed in a natural setting--on rustic handmade cedar signs at a county park near my branch. Brown's beautiful story and illustrations are featured in 17 signs, enough for an introductory sign in addition to the 16 full-page spreads of the book. The signs are spread along a 0.75-mile long paved trail; it's fully accessible to wheelchairs, strollers, and walkers of every age. A person who walks the trail will be able to read the entire book surrounded by bright green foliage. The whole experience, minus any extra time for contemplating the beauty of nature, takes about 20 minutes. A reasonable and restful interlude for a summer's day.

There are many reasons I love this project. Let me name a few:

A particularly picturesque view

1. It promotes literacy and wellness for families in the community. Sharing a story and a stroll can feel luxurious, but it is simply healthful for mind and body.
2. It allows the library to engage with a larger community than just those folks who already visit our branch. By offering a fun, family-friendly, and aesthetically lovely activity outside of the library, we're demonstrating that the library is truly a community treasure. We value the people we serve, whether we serve them directly or have yet to see them in a branch. We want their lives to be rich and interesting.
3. We now have a partnership with our county parks department. This Picture Book Walk has truly been a joint effort, with the library and the parks department sharing ideas and tasks. The library procured permission from Little, Brown and Peter Brown to use the book; secured funding for the purchase of the sign post materials; and prepared the book pages for mounting. The parks department provided the location for the 3-month-long event; built the sign posts; and got the word out to media outlets across the metro St. Louis area. We both put in time and resources for a big ribboncutting and kick-off event (more details on that in a future post). As a result, we now have a working partnership. We know how to work together to get things done. The potential in this new relationship is vast.
4. Summer reading has a new dimension. When reluctant readers complain about not knowing what they should read for summer reading, we can tell them about the Picture Book Walk at Quail Ridge Park. Enjoying the walk once counts as one step closer to meeting the summer reading goal for any age child. When the library is particularly busy and crammed full of people, we can offer the walk as an alternative for spending some time engaged in reading. It's an ultimate passive program.
5. It's just beautiful. Really, isn't that sometimes sufficient?

I am thrilled to be able to offer the people in our community the chance to engage in reading and nature with the first ever Picture Book Walk in Quail Ridge Park. If you find yourself anywhere near the St. Louis area between now and the end of August, please stop by.

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Curious for more details on how we got the walk up and running in the logistical sense? Here are some tidbits on what we did. Feel free to contact me if you'd like more specifics.

Laminating the picture book spreads

• I contacted Peter Brown and Little, Brown before Christmas to get initial approval to use The Curious Garden. Technically, if the library owns the book and the picture book walk is free, formal permission isn't necessary. I think it's always better to have it, though.
• The picture book pages that are mounted in the signs are physical pages from print copies of The Curious Garden. To get them walk-ready, I first took apart the binding and individual pages with the help of a colleague. Next I matched up the appropriate pages to maintain the order of the book; I attached them using book tape. I affixed the pages to matting with a walk footer on it (designed by my library district's graphic designer); this strip at the bottom of each spread includes logos for the library district, parks department, and library foundation, who funded the signs. Finally, I laminated the spreads to keep them weatherproof.
• The cedar sign posts are sturdily fixed in the ground. The display portion is painted plywood with a plexiglass cover. Weather stripping seals the top and sides of the display portion, leaving the bottom open so moisture can escape.
• The first and last signs, with the title page and final wordless two-page spread respectively, also feature some text from us, the organizers. An introductory statement explains the walk, and a closing paragraph encourages continued enjoyment of books and nature.

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Has your library offered a similar event? What stories have been most successful?

Thoughts on Collaboration #sljtt

Collaboration with organizations and populations outside of the library building was a big topic of discussion at last week's SLJ Public Library Leadership Think Tank. I've talked about my library branch's partnerships on this blog previously, but the information shared by panelists, presenters, and colleagues at the Think Tank really opened my eyes to the wider collaborative potential. My favorite sound byte (paraphrased and unattributed, because I can't remember the precise wording or speaker):

Collaboration is transformative when you serve the traditionally underserved. And in that process, you'll find new library customers.

This idea of serving the underserved was evident in all the collaboration conversations that happened. There's Rachel Payne of the Brooklyn Public Library, who in her collaboration with the Department of Education offers school preparedness program series that have proven to draw new faces beyond her regular story time crowd. There's Nick Higgins of NYPL, who takes early literacy workshops to incarcerated parents so they can foster positive relationships with their children and so they know the library is a friendly place for them upon reentry into society. Both these librarians pursued their collaborative partnerships and programs because of the immense benefits they would bring to the organizations, an untapped population, and their communities as a whole.

I think that premise--that collaboration is its most effective when it allows the collaborators to reach outside their usual demographics--is a great thought to really chew on. When do you collaborate? With whom? Why? I'll be asking myself these questions frequently as I consider potential future partnerships, and hopefully the result will be more intentional services with a broader community impact. I want to spend some time thinking about how I can work with other community groups to help the library reach people who are unaware of or are not explicitly impacted by our current range of services.

These conversations about collaboration also left me with three great tips for maintaining productive partnerships:

1. Set clear responsibilities and expectations for all collaborative partners.
2. Work, as much as possible, through face-to-face meetings to ensure clear communication.
3. Pursue partnerships with a buddy--i.e., don't be the only representative of your library who is a part of the collaboration. That way multiple library personnel have the knowledge and know-how, and in the event one collaborator moves to new responsibilities, the partnership doesn't stall or have to start from scratch.

I'm excited to share these thoughts on collaboration with colleagues within my library district--I know there are some great potential partnerships in our county waiting to be tapped. We've got a big collaborative project this summer with our county parks department, and I'm interested to see what other great services we are capable of through collaboration.

I was able to participate in the first SLJ Public Library Leadership Think Tank in New York City. The one-day event, according to SLJ's Editor-in-Chief Rebecca T. Miller, aimed to serve as a lightning strike--a meaningful influx of energy and ideas for the librarians gathered from all over the country. I'm recapping my takeaways from the conference in a series of posts; see my first post, on Pam Sandlian Smith's charge to foster a culture of optimism, here.

School Literacy Nights: The Public Library's Role

Two things happened recently: Marge at Tiny Tips for Library Fun wrote a fantastic series on school/public library partnerships, and I was asked if my library would staff a table at a local elementary school's Title I night.

Perhaps I should clarify. My branch library has longstanding relationships with several of our local schools; we make regular appearances at the beginning of the school year on back-to-school nights, during the winter at literacy events, and before school gets out in May for summer reading rallies. We definitely have an existing partnership with our school district, at least on a basic level. Basically: they ask us to attend an event, and we do.

Marge's posts got me thinking about these events a bit more deeply, though. Why was I/the library attending? What did I/the library hope to accomplish by having a presence at the event? Those were the questions I asked myself as I set up my library table (note my I Spy Board--completely Abby the Librarian's idea--it adds color and interest to the table and gets kids to stop instead of just walking past). Here are a couple of the answers I came up with:

I have a presence in local schools in order to...

• share library homework resources with current library cardholders who don't know they can access them from home
• explain how to get a library card for non-cardholders
• inform families new to the area about the library district
• engage kids in conversations about reading
• give some examples of the variety of great books available for kids
• demonstrate that reading isn't just an in-school activity
• promote library programs and resources

Feeling pretty happy with that least of motivations and intentions, I settled into my "library booth" personality for the evening.

But then.

The event was 90 minutes long, but I only really saw students and their families for around 40 minutes in the middle of that block of time. During the event, I primarily saw and talked to teachers, the school librarian, and the principal. And yet I had forgotten to include them when considering why I was at the event in the first place.

A lightbulb went off in my head during the last half hour of the event. That's when I started engaging teachers and the principal in conversations about what books their students were reading. A fourth-grade teacher mentioned sharing The One and Only Ivan with his class in January, and we got to talking about the Newbery Award and what previous winners he has shared with his students. I chatted with the principal about his goals for reading across the student body. These conversations got the wheels spinning in my head regarding how I might partner with specific teachers, classrooms, and schools.

Now I've got plans for how to pursue more meaningful partnerships with interested area schools, from getting kids more involved in the lead-up to summer reading to visiting classrooms to talk about the history of the Newbery Award, which committee members are encouraged to do. I've got ideas about working with principals to create school-wide--perhaps even district-wide--reading initiatives that don't place all of the burden of providing resources on school libraries and school budgets.

I am, in short, excited about the prospect of partnering more meaningfully with local schools. Sure, I'll still show up when they request a library presence at a school event. But in the future, I hope our work together will be so much more than that.

Reading with some Furry Friends

My library district has a successful and longstanding partnership with a local chapter of Love On a Leash, an organization of therapy pets and their owners. Our partnership supports a program we call Tale Waggers, where children have the opportunity to read to therapy dogs. The rationale behind the program is twofold: 1) reading aloud can be stressful for many children, yet reading to a dog is comforting and judgment-free; and 2) most kids love dogs. Thus we attract children and their caregivers with an enticing program.

Our program is scheduled to last one hour (although we occasionally run a bit over because a child really wants to finish reading a story to a dog). In the past, we've operated the program in two different ways. One option is to have a list of the dogs with time slots next to their names; on a first come, first served basis, children sign up for a ten-minute time slot with a dog. Another option is to allow multiple children to gather around a single dog at a time, at which point they take turns reading. Option #2 tends to work best with the crowd at my library; there's always a rush to sit near and read to a dog at the top of the hour, and allowing multiple kiddos at each dog "station" helps with the flow of things. By the last fifteen minutes, our crowd has dissipated to just a handful of children; these readers get the full benefit of a one-on-one reading session. Knowing that's the format our program usually takes leads me to recommend that caregivers of struggling or shy readers come toward the second half of the program, when the child will be able to read to a dog without an audience.

Many children bring books they've selected on their own to read to the dogs--things they're reading for school and things they just grabbed off the children's stacks. I also like to have a table of great reads available in the program for quick selection. I aim to provide books for a variety of interests and abilities, and I also consider whether the book (or its chapters) are short enough to a) not frustrate a struggling reader and b) take up too much time while other readers are waiting. This month I included selections from recent #SharpSchu Book Club discussions. When in doubt of books to suggest to kids, look to Mr. Sharp and Mr. Schu!

We've got a core group of program-attendees who are always looking forward to the next Tale Waggers program. Have you ever sought out a local therapy pets group to volunteer at your library? I highly encourage you to see what's available in your area.

Halloween Safety Story Time Partnership

For the past few years, my library district has partnered with the county ambulance district to put on a series of Halloween safety programs for our customers. My branch's program this year, aimed at preschoolers and their caregivers, was a lot of fun. The program opened with an ambulance tour; two EMTs demonstrated the stretcher, heartbeat monitor, and lights on the ambulance, much to the delight of the kiddos.

Then we moved inside for a brief presentation about being safe on Halloween. Grownups, here are a few of the tips:

1. Make sure costumes are not too long; long capes, pants, skirts, etc., can cause children to trip and hurt themselves.

2. Always accompany children while trick-or-treating, regardless of their age.

3. Be visible. The ambulance district handed out reflective candy bags and glow stick bracelets for kids to use on Halloween, but additional reflective clothing is great.

After reviewing our safety tips, we moved into the story time portion of our program. I read one of my new favorites for the spooky season, Creepy Carrots. Have you read it yet? Illustrator extraordinaire Peter Brown made a great video about its creation, too.

Then it was time for crafts. I opted for one structured craft and one that was more open-ended. We made paper plate ghosts (thanks, Pinterest!), then I handed out blank sheets of paper for kids to draw themselves in their Halloween getups. I loved seeing the pictures they drew--they are so proud of their costumes!

Have a fun and safe Halloween, everyone!