A Day in the Life of a Children's Librarian

I have long loved Abby the Librarian's "Day in the Life" posts, which share the details of what she does on a random day in her job. I loved reading them back when I was still in library school--they helped me to get a sense of the crazy awesomeness I was getting myself into. I know that it can be helpful for current and future librarians to see what their colleagues do, so I am shamelessly copying Abby and writing about a day in my life as children's librarian at my branch. The following events took place on Monday of this week.

10:30 a.m. - Visit a local daycare for an outreach story time visit. Since the outreach visit started my day, I had packed my Story Time bag before leaving the branch on Friday afternoon. I grabbed a few extra books by some favorite authors, as this particular daycare can be a rough crowd as far as attention spans are concerned. I also brought my ukulele for some song time. That instrument is quickly becoming one of my favorite librarian accessories.

11:15 a.m. - Return to the branch and check in with staff who have been working since the library opened. Chat includes library news as well as details of everyone's weekends.

11:30 a.m. - Walk around the children's area of the library. I'm always a fan of doing a walk-through to see how things are going in the children's area, but I've been making more frequent visits since we implemented our new neighborhoods organization scheme. Customers have nothing but positive things to say about the change--it looks like we've really helped make their browsing easier.

11:45 a.m. - Do some work from my desk, including catching up on e-mails. I e-mailed some documents from my Preschool Science program series to a librarian who saw last week's ALSC Blog post; gave our district-wide volunteer head some feedback on our volunteer process; and finalized the event listings for our December-February children's programs at the branch.

12:45 p.m. - Put together a new shelving unit for our big books, which we have plans to catalog and make available for circulation in the coming months.

1:00 p.m. - On the reference desk. Our reference shifts are usually four hours long. In addition to responding to customers' reference requests during my shift, I also supervised a volunteer as she worked on display and withdrawal tasks; confirmed our November program visits from a group with therapy dogs; and put in some work on my I Spy board (another brilliant idea of Abby's).

5:00 p.m. - Dinner. I usually spend my breaks looking through Twitter and library blogs on my Google Reader. (Is anyone surprised?)

5:30 p.m. - Set up for our monthly Lego Club program. Our branch pages help get the room set up for the program, with two long tables, chairs, and a table for displaying our final creations. I make sure Legos are evenly distributed in the buckets, cut some paper for name placards, and set out markers. The pages also set out all the theme-related books a volunteer had pulled for the program.

6:00 p.m. - Lego Club! This is my first return to Lego Club after a hiatus of a few months, during which time a coworker ran the program. I chose the theme of Robots. (Full post, with photos, to come later this week...)

7:00 p.m. - Clean up after Lego Club. A colleague brought his sons to the program, and we chat about some outreach and early literacy things while I straighten up.

7:15 p.m. - Finish up my day back in my office. I enter program attendance statistics from the day, double check what is going on the rest of the week, and read the e-mails that had come in since dinner. I also check out a stack of books for my Cybils reading.

7:30 p.m. - Go home.

Annual Fall Festival for the School-Age Crowd

In the lead-up to Halloween, my branch celebrates all things autumn with an annual Fall Festival. While it's not technically a Halloween program--we don't want to cause any non-Halloween celebrators to feel excluded--there is plenty of candy and traditional autumn fun. Think sweets, black and orange, and not-too-scary things that go bump in the night. Our school-age program crowd has come to look forward to our annual Fall Festival, where they know they will encounter a few program elements that are always at hit. The general program elements at each fall festival are in bold; the details of the specific thing I did this year follow.

Treats -- Really, what is a festival without yummy things to eat? One of my staffers always buys a ton of candy to have for her preschool fall festival and to pass out in the branch on Halloween, and the school-age fall festivities benefit from her generous candy purchasing. I have yet to find a kid who is not a fan of Double Stuf Oreos.

Storytelling -- I like to tell a story whenever I have a group of school-age kids in a program; sometimes it's the only opportunity they have to hear oral storytelling. This year I opted to go with a cut and tell story: "The Little Orange House". I love cut and tell stories for two reasons. Reason number one is that it gives the more fidgety listeners something to focus on while they are listening; reason number two is that young listeners always seem fascinated at how a few simple cuts in paper could result in something story-related. Try it out.

Craft -- This year we made sack-o-lanterns, or carved pumpkin luminaria. I had paper sacks, black construction paper, scissors, glue sticks, and markers out on our tables, and the children were able to cut out whatever shapes they wanted to create their sack-o-lanterns' faces. Several children insisted that mine needed a mustache, so I obliged.

Team Game -- School-age program attendees are split pretty well in half into two categories: those who attend alone, and those who attend with a sibling or friend. I like to have a mingling, camaraderie-building aspect to the program so kids meet new people, so I try to always include a team game. For this fall festival, I had a ring relay race. The kid were split into two even teams, and each team had a set of 10 rings (either orange spiders or black bats). One team member at a time had to put on all ten rings, run to the other side of the room to tap a chair, run back, remove the rings, and then pass them on to the next team member. The first team whose members all completed the challenge first won. It was a close race, and we witnessed some very creative definitions of what it meant to "put on" the rings.

Candy Corn Bingo -- I am pretty sure that veteran Fall Festival attendees would mutiny if we didn't play Candy Corn Bingo. Using pieces of candy corn, kids mark custom bingo cards from DLTK that are decorated with fall-themed images as each image is called by the program leader. Whenever a child got a Bingo, he or she got to claim a fun-size candy bar or Blow Pop, clear his/her card, and start anew. We kept playing until everyone had won twice. These kids get really into Candy Corn Bingo, and ending our Fall Festival with the game is always a hit.

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!

Preschool Science on the ALSC Blog

I'm on the ALSC Blog today talking about a recent STEM Preschool Science success. During the program, we explored the concepts of strength and materials with the help of the three little pigs and some fun hands-on activities. Don't underestimate how much preschoolers will enjoy STEM programming--they are so engaged in stories and hands-on learning. Head over to the ALSC Blog to see how you can offer this program at your library!

Stories, Songs, and Dancing: A Program Plan for Twos

Please complete the following statement: Two-year-olds love _________.

     a) stories

     b) songs

     c) dancing

     d) all of the above

Did you select d) all of the above? Because it's true! Libraries traditionally focus on sharing stories in preschool programming, and while most program plans will involve some songs and maybe some dance, stories are definitely the main event. Have you ever considered a program where stories, songs, and dancing all have equal parts? Such a program can be lots of fun for kids and caregivers. Here's just such a program that was recently a total hit with two-year-olds at my library.

Opening Song: "If You're Happy and You Know It" + ukulele

     As each two-year-old came into the program, he or she got a name tag. I opened the program by welcoming each child individually by name and asking if he or she had a favorite animal. I wrote the favorite animals on our dry erase board. Writing down what children say helps them make the connection that written marks have meaning.

     After the first "clap your hands" verse of our song, we repeated it by going through our list of favorite animals. We had some repeats, so in the end we were giraffes (stretching our necks), elephants (making trunks with an arm), dogs (barking), and cats (meowing). This opening song got everyone loosened up and set the stage for a really energetic program.

Story: Is Everyone Ready for Fun? by Jan Thomas

     The cows in this story keep doing silly things on Chicken's sofa, like jumping and wiggling. Reading this story aloud invites lots of action, and it's a funny read, too.

Song and Dance: "Mahna Mahna" by The Muppets

     I passed out rhythm sticks for this song (as I saw done at the ALSC Institute), and we grooved to the silly song for a few minutes. We worked on tapping a rhythm on our sticks, then we moved on to tapping fast, slow, up high, down low, and (most difficult) behind our backs. There was lots of movement during this number!

Story: King Bidgood's in the Bathtub by Audrey Wood

     I love this story. It has great rhythm, is an easy-to-follow story with a repetitive pattern, and cracks kids up with its hilarity every time. Plus it's always fun to make the "glub glub glub" noises when the page lets all the bath water go down the drain.

Song and Dance: "Splish Splash" by Bobby Darin

     Go ahead, try to play this song and then not dance. It's simply a tune to be danced to! Our dance moves came from miming like we were taking a bath: washing our arms, legs, and hair. We also did some silly things like swimming in the bathtub and holding our noses.

Story: Dancing Feet by Lindsey Craig

     While we were still standing from our "Splish Splash" dance, I pulled out this great rhythmic story that includes lots of fun animals. We danced on our tippity feet, our stompity feet, and our very own feet.

Story: Go Away, Big Green Monster by Ed Emberley

     Whew! We needed a bit of a break at this point, so all the kiddos sat down while I read Go Away, Big Green Monster--a perennial October favorite. My two-year-olds were really getting into the groove of a participatory story time, as they chimed in to say "Go away!" toward the end of the story.

Song and Dance: "Monster Boogie" by the Laurie Berkner Band

     I love songs whose lyrics narrate their dance moves; Laurie Berkner is great for just such tunes. For this song, we stomped around the room pretending to be monsters, and we intermittently bared our teeth, wiggled, danced, and roared.

Craft: Make-your-own ribbon dancer

     Our craft involved three supplies: the cardboard tube from a dry cleaners' pants hanger; a length of fabric ribbon; and some duct tape. With some assistance from their caregivers, the children taped their ribbons to their cardboard tubes to create a ribbon dancer, perfect for dancing. We even danced in some bubbles after the craft was finished! We had a great time popping those bubbles and shimmying to some surf songs from Jan and Dean.

~~~

There you have it, a simple program that matches stories, songs, and dancing perfectly. I'm confident this sort of program plan would work really well for, shall we say, energetic outreach classrooms as well.

Welcome to the Neighborhood(s)

This is what it used to
look like, jumbled and
hard to browse.

For this, my 100th blog post here at the Show Me Librarian, I want to share with you my branch's new picture book setup.

Let's start back in June in Anaheim. I was at the 2012 ALA Annual Conference, and I was sitting in a program called "I WANT A TRUCK BOOK! Reorganizing Your Picture Book Collection to Meet the Needs of Young Patrons and their Caregivers." Gretchen Caserotti, she of Darien Library and LJ 2010 Mover and Shaker fame, was the first speaker, and she talked about her library's wildly successful reorganization of its "kidlit" collection--picture books for the under-5 crowd. It's safe to say that I was greatly intrigued by what Gretchen said. Organizing picture books in a manner that empowers both kids (i.e., pre-readers) and caregivers to really use the collection? YES! Where do I sign up?

Here's a look at some of our shelves in
Picture Book City following the reorganization.

I came back from Anaheim completely invigorated and full of excitement at the potential of reorganizing the picture books in my branch. I took a few days to work out the details of how I would proceed, and then I explained the concept and project plan to my branch manager. She agreed to let me shake things up after only three minutes of conversation--I never even had to break out my persuasive statistics. The next few months in the branch were spent a) confirming the categories we'd break our picture books into, and b) giving picture books a colored sticker to correspond with their category. Volunteers were a huge help in getting some of the straightforward stickering underway with the help of subject lists; I did the more time-intensive work of opening a picture book, reading enough of it to determine its category, then stickering it.

In progress--so many piles!

That's how we proceeded until last week, however. My branch was closed Monday through Thursday for some painting and electrical work, but staff were still assigned shifts to work while the public was not in the building. In those four days, thanks to a number of extremely helpful and hardworking staff, we finished our project. Monday and Tuesday consisted of stickering every remaining picture book in one of our eight categories, or neighborhoods as we now call them. Wednesday consisted of putting the books in each neighborhood in alphabetical order (some on shelves, some in piles), and on Thursday we scanned and shelved. Yes, we scanned every single picture book, then shelved them alphabetically within their new neighborhood locations. That's approximately 8000 books. In one day. With a team of five. I owe them treats.

Ta-da!

When we opened again at 9 a.m. on Friday morning, our picture books were converted into what is now called Picture Book City (fun wooden sign to come, as soon as I make it). One of my staffers took pictures of our C-shaped picture book area and stitched them together for a sort of 180 effect; can you see the lovely rainbow? Each neighborhood begins with a sign explaining both the types of books in the neighborhood and the purpose of the Picture Book City neighborhood system. I also made handouts to explain our neighborhood categories.

One of my favorite parts of Friday--our first day with the new system, when people could have been really confused or upset by the change--was hearing so many caregivers express how simple and navigable our picture books now are. When I was in the children's section explaining the system to a mom and her son, I asked the young boy what types of stories he likes; he said "trucks," and literally within moments he was able to find all of the truck books. He and his mom were thrilled. These are the reactions I'm getting pretty much across the board. I cannot wait until our story times start again next week to see how our program-goers like it. I'm also looking forward to watching our picture book circulation statistics over the coming months. I'll report back.

Now that the ever-popular
transportation books are in
one place, I can tell I need
to buy more. Lots more.

I could not have reorganized the picture books at my branch without the support and physical labor of so many branch staff and volunteers. I am likewise indebted to Gretchen and the awesome team of children's librarians at the Darien Library; they planted the idea in my head, let me bounce my ideas for modifying their system off of them, and provided me with much-needed encouragement in the more stressful stages of the process.

Because, yes, it was stressful. And yes, it took a while. I shudder to think how chaotic it would have been to finish the reorganization had the branch not been closed. But all things considered, it's worth it. Kids finding books more easily?

Oh, it is so worth it.

Art in the Library

Over the summer, the art teacher at a local elementary school called me to chat. She said always displays students' artwork in the hallways at school, but would we consider displaying student artwork in the library? Her idea was that she'd take care of selecting students' artwork, preparing it for display, and bringing it to me at the library. My job would be to display it where it would be visible to library visitors. Each batch of artwork would stay up in the library for 5-6 weeks, at which point she'd bring me some new student pieces. She hoped more families from the elementary school would visit the library with the added "art gallery" incentive. It sounded like a great idea to me--a fun way to build a relationship with a local school, display the talents of kids in the community, and possibly draw in families of non-library users.

Our first batch of artwork has been up in our children's area for a little over a month at this point. When it came time to decide how to display the artwork, I opted for a simple setup: colored clothespins on string hold up the artwork, and a bent paper clip suspends the string from our ceiling tiles. Artwork is only displayed against a wall, minimizing the likelihood that it will turn and become unviewable. We have already learned that standard printer paper-size pieces display best, with larger projects working most of the time if they are portrait-oriented. Anything much bigger starts to curl at the corners. I haven't noticed too many kids coming to the library specifically to look at the artwork, but plenty of folks have commented on how it livens up the children's space. I'm excited to see what sort of pieces we'll get next!

Do you display children's artwork in the library? Are displayed pieces created in the library, or do you show children's creations from school or other places? How do you partner with schools in non-traditional ways?