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This month I am thinking about the trend of public libraries offering museum passes for check out. The idea is to partner with local museums and other fun, family-friendly, educational and/or cultural places and create an agreement that allows the library to circulate day passes to the partnering institutions. From the small amount of research I’ve done, I see there are many ways to go about doing this. Some libraries are high-tech and have web portals that allow patrons to print off museum passes from any computer. Some libraries have actual tickets that circulate like any other physical materials in the collection. Does your library have circulating museum passes? Do the tickets allow an entire family in to a facility for free? Do the tickets cover any kind of additional fees (like parking)?

Here are some examples of this kind of service – this is just a few, there are many more out there:

• Seattle Public Library
• Museum Adventure Pass
• Boston Public Library
• Public Library of Brookline
• Discover & Go (developed by Contra Costa County Library)

Please share your knowledge about how this program works. If you offer at your library, is it a popular service? How is this service funded – through donations or grants? Any words of wisdom to share? How many days is the ticket valid or how long can each patron keep it? Have you used this unique kind of circulating material as a patron? Tell me all about it in the comments.

The post Museum passes appeared first on ALSC Blog.

ALA Student-to-Staffers: Where are you now?

Way back in June of 2007, I had the honor of representing TWU’s School of Library and Information Science at ALA Annual in Washington, DC.  I was a member of ALA’s Student-to-Staff (S2S) Program, with assignment to the ALSC Division.  If you’ve never heard of the S2S program, you can read about it here.  There are 56 active ALA Student Chapter Groups at accredited graduate schools.  Each is entitled to submit one name for consideration for the program.  Schools have varying criteria. My school chose the student – me  based on an essay contest.  Others have different criteria, but the end result is that 40 promising students receive a free trip to ALA Annual in exchange for working with  ALA staff during the week.  I was able to choose with whom I wanted to work. An aspiring children’s librarian, naturally, I chose ALSC.

It was my first connection with the national community of librarians.  It was during my week as an ALA S2S er, that I first met ALSC’s own Aimee Strittmatter, Laura Schulte-Cooper, and Marsha Burgess, and I began my continuing association with the division. I wrote a piece about my experience for  ALSConnect, now called ALSC Matters. (I am no less bright-eyed and bushy-tailed now.)

If you know someone in grad school right now, do them a favor and let them know about the S2S program.  If you participated in the S2S program, give a shout out!  Did you work for ALSC at the conference?  When or where did you attend?  How wonderful was it?

(The Student-to-Staff Program was established in 1973. There should be a lot of us out there!)

The post Student-to-Staffers: Where are you now? appeared first on ALSC Blog.

A still life with easy readers. Photo courtesy of the author.

Let’s talk best practices for organizing easy or beginning readers. I mean the books used by new readers to facilitate print word recognition. The easy reader collection is difficult to browse. Not easy! There are as many leveling systems as there are publishers that use different letters, numbers, or colors depending on the series; sometimes a level 1 is harder than something marked as a level 2 or 3. This makes parents and new librarians confused when browsing the collection. How can we simplify things?

I am looking to you for help! Give me some ideas of how your library treats the not-so-easy-to-browse easy reader collection. Help me (and maybe others) in future decision making by answering the following questions in the comments:

• Does your library separate materials in the easy reader section using a leveling system?
• How easy is it to browse the easy reader collection in your library?
• Are fiction and nonfiction easy readers interfiled, or where are your leveled non-fiction books?

Every public library I’ve worked in (that would be four) has a different way of treating this collection. In the library where I work now, the easy reader fiction books are in near the picture books, organized by author’s last name (or popular character if there are multiple authors working in the same character series.). The easy readers that have the easiest-to-read content have a green dot on the spine label to help with browsing. The leveled non-fiction books are interfiled in the children’s nonfiction collection.

Now for more questions – Should we devise our own leveling system or use the A.R (or lexile or whatever) number to create levels for the titles in our easy reader collection, and shelve the books by those levels? Should the leveled non-fiction instead be interfiled with the easy reader fiction, or should we have a separate easy reader nonfiction collection? Is there another system that libraries have used successfully that you’d love to share here?

Please share your thoughts and best (or even pretty good) practices. I would love to learn how other libraries (public, school or otherwise) treat the easy reader collection.

The post Organizing Easy Readers appeared first on ALSC Blog.

It’s grant writing time, and for many public libraries, grants are the main driver of funding for new and existing programs. It’s a stressful time, both for those writing the grants, and those awarding them.
The best advice I can give is to be selective! Research what grants are available to you, and make sure what you’re asking for fits the selection criteria of the grant being awarded. Once you’ve identified a grant that matches your needs, review previous grant winners to see if you can identify what made that winning program stand out from the rest of the applicants. Also, work with your program staff to be sure your information is up to date and relevant. Avoid rhetoric and hyperbole. Try to provide anecdotes and testimonies that demonstrate need or previous success. Be specific about outputs and outcomes. The proposal should explicitly state expected practical, tangible outputs. Don’t be afraid to be realistic about your expectations! Make sure to adhere to the formatting and content requirements laid out in the grant application instructions. Proposals not meeting these requirements will often not be considered.

We are looking forward to reading your submissions! The ALSC Library Service to Special Population Children and Their Caregivers Committee will select the winner of  our “Light the Way” award based on the application process. Special population children may include but isn’t limited to: those who have learning or physical differences, those who speak English as a second language, those who are in a non-traditional school environment, those who live in foster care settings, those who are in the juvenile justice system, those who live in non-traditional families, and those who need accommodation services. The winner of this award will be announced at ALA’s Midwinter Meeting. The award consists of a $3,000 grant to assist in conducting exemplary outreach to under-served populations through a new program or an expansion of work already being done.

Not sure if this is the right grant for you? Review these other amazing opportunities!

The “Autism Welcome Here: Library Programs, Services and More” grant.

Looking to expand your collection? The Libri Foundation can help, so can The Lisa Libraries.

Do you need a wide variety of books for your collection? Ask the Library of Congress.

Are you working on a program that needs audio books or videos?

Best of luck to you during the grant writing season!

Lesley Mason is the Youth Services Manager at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, the DC Public Library’s central branch. She is currently the chair of the ALCS’s Library Service to Special Population Children and Their Caregivers Committee. She earned her Master’s Degree in Library Science from Clarion University. She specializes in Early Literacy and can be reached at [email protected].

The post The ALSC/Candlewick Press “Light the Way: Outreach to the Underserved” Grant is now live! appeared first on ALSC Blog.

I was recently able to represent ALSC at the Public Libraries & STEM Conference in Denver, CO. The conference was kept very small–around 160 people total–and thus was very concentrated, with plenty to learn from and discuss with colleagues from libraries, STEM organizations, and other institutions with missions for informal learning. And while the small size necessary means that the participant pool was limited, the takeaways weren’t. I particularly want to share with you one of my major takeaways: the library as a single element in a larger learning ecosystem.

Note: I tried visual note taking at this conference. Since my handwriting isn’t always great, I’m transcribing text in the captions of images.

Here’s what I learned and have been itching to share:

Public Libraries & STEM Conference; Denver, CO, Aug. 20-22, 2015 (Image by Amy Koester)

Help define a new 21st Century vision of STEM in public libraries. (Image by Amy Koester)

There were several goals of the Public Libraries & STEM Conference, but one in particular resonated with me immediately: to figure out what STEM/STEAM in public libraries could/should look like in our age of technology and innovation. What is the library’s role now, and what should it be? It’s within our collective power to create a framework for STEM in public libraries.

Collaboration as a System of Collective Impact (FSG) From individual orgs with individual goals & pathways to collaboration of goals and pathways (Image by Amy Koester)

That said, while we, libraries, can certainly make some decisions and create some practices around this (or any other) topic, it’s imperative that we recognize that we are NOT the only institutions with a vested interest in STEM learning and experiences. Yet if we think of ourselves as wholly separate from other organizations even when  they possess similar goals to our own, we’re muddying the waters. Or, rather, as Marsha Semmel (formerly at IMLS) shared from an organization called FSG, each individual organization is moving in its own direction. It’s a little bit of chaos, no matter how well intentioned. But when we collaborate, however–and this is meaningful collaboration, in which we set a common goal and common pathways to achieve it–we can actually accomplish meaningful progress and change.

“Progress moves at the speed of trust.” Collectively see, learn, do. (Image by Amy Koester)

An integral part of meaningful collaboration: trust, said Marsha Semmel. If we observe together, learn together, and act together out of a trust that we truly are working toward a shared goal, we can accomplish transformative change much more quickly than independently, or even working parallel to one another.

STEM Learning Ecosystem: P-12 Education, Family, Out-of-School Programs, Higher Education Institutions, Business Community, and STEM-rich Institutions as spokes around the Learner – Ellen Lettvin (Image by Amy Koester)

Part of developing that trust is recognizing that we as libraries are a single aspect of a larger learning ecosystem. When it comes to STEM learning for youth, we fit into a larger puzzle of groups and individuals supporting students. Ellen Lettvin, of the U.S. Department of Education, emphasized some of those other players in this ecosystem, including students’ families; their schools; their out-of-school programs and activities; community businesses; institutions of higher education; and STEM-rich institutions, of which libraries may be one.

Out of school experiences are increasingly central to the public’s STEM learning. (Image by Amy Koester)

Why do we need to recognize that we’re part of a larger learning ecosystem? John Falk, from Oregon State University, has researched this very topic, and has oodles of evidence supporting the fact that all of those experiences that youth–any age person, really–have out of formal school contexts are more and more important to overall STEM learning. Schooling isn’t sufficient in and of itself.

Learning is continuous and cumulative. (Image by Amy Koester)

That’s because, says Falk, learning is continuous and cumulative. It happens all the time, and it constantly builds on what a learner already knows. There is no place or situation that is not ripe for learning. As such, if the library is a place people spend time, the library is necessarily a learning place.

Libraries as hubs & hosts of STEM. (Image by Amy Koester)

Now, we know this. We know that libraries are institutions of learning. But in what capacity? Are we mostly places of individual discovery? Of information support? What if we really embraced that concept of library as learning place to its fullest extent and intentionally and proactively support the public who use us? We could be intentional hubs and hosts of STEM learning–or, truly, any type of learning that our communities need.

R. David Lankes: “The power of libraries is not in being a space for X, it is in being a space to facilitate connections between community members and local organizations that are experts in X.” (Image by Amy Koester)

David Lankes, from Syracuse University, was careful to emphasize, however, that our being hubs and hosts of STEM learning does NOT necessitate that we ourselves be the be-all, end-all experts. Should you tap staff expertise and interests in creating STEM programs and services? Absolutely. But remember that whole bit about collaboration for collective impact? Here’s where it really comes in. There’s a very legitimate school of thought that says that libraries’ best role in supporting STEM learning, across the board, is to meaningfully collaborate with organizations who are unequivocal experts in STEM so that we can connect our patrons directly to the experts. We are mediators, introducers. That makes our capacity so much greater than it could ever be on our own.

“Partnerships help us develop more and more programs and to bring those programs to the people we are targeting.” -Sharon Cox, Queens Library Discovery Center (Image by Amy Koester)

This sentiment was echoed by Sharon Cox, from the Queens Library Discovery Center. It’s an entire library dedicated to children’s STEM learning and exploration, and even with that mission, focus, and staff expertise, they add huge value to what they are able to bring to their community through partnership with organizations who are expert in STEM and whose goals align with the library’s. As libraries, we’ve always thought of ourselves as the people who connect our public to the resources they need. This type of collaboration means that the definition of “resources” our public requires may very well include organizations other than our own.

“Do what you do best, and link to the rest.” -L. Rainie; Libraries should NOT be trying to do everything. (Image by Amy Koester)

Or, in other words, we continue to do what we do best and then connect our patrons to the rest of what they way. That was the overarching sentiment from Lee Rainie from Pew Research Center–that libraries are strongest not because they can do everything, but because they can connect you to people and organizations who can.

Cultivate collaboration. Ask: What are our shared interests and goals? -Dale McCreedy, The Franklin Institute, LEAP into Science (Image by Amy Koester)

So if we’re deliberately not doing everything, and we’re also going to best support our patrons’ STEM learning through collaborating with expert STEM learning organizations, how do we collaborate? Dale Creedy, who works at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia and is a collaborator with the Free Library of Philadelphia to offer a LEAP into Science program, says that the first step in cultivating collaboration is to reach out to other organizations and straight up have a conversation. Your intent: to identify what, if any, are your shared interests and goals. If you determine that you don’t have sufficient shared interests/goals to merit the time and resources that would go into a formal collaboration, it’s no real loss–you now know more about the organization and can better identify when to direct your patrons to them. But if you do have sufficient overlaps in your interests and goals, the foundation is primed for you to work together. Now you can shift your conversation to what, specifically, your shared goal is, and how you might reach it together.

Collective Impact: How do we serve as part of a solution, as opposed to the solver? -M. Figueroa (Image by Amy Koester)

This type of conversation can actually be a little clumsy for libraries. We tend to think in terms of the library being the sole solver of a problem, rather than just one player in a larger solution–that’s according to Miguel Figueroa from the Center for the Future of Libraries at ALA. Collective impact necessitates that libraries be part of a collective solution, which may require a bit of a mindset shift.

Collaborations: Actively participate in a robust learning ecosystem; Re-envision the library with community input; Bring people to museums, and vice versa -Dr. S. Sampson (Image by Amy Koester)

So what to do to enact that mindset shift, to form those meaningful collaborations? Dr. Scott Sampson, Vice President of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science (and also Dr. Scott the Paleontologist from Dinosaur Train), gave some suggestions in the form of a few progressively-more-involved strategies. Starting small, figure out how to bring people to libraries, and vice versa–that is, how to bring libraries to people. Where are the people in your community who do not come to the library? What spaces do they tend to use? Figure out collaborations with those places to bring the library to them.

Next in the spectrum is re-envisioning the library with the input of the community. We tend to get into a library echo chamber and create new programs and services based on what other libraries are doing or what we think would be appealing to the community. But that’s not the same thing as asking the community what they need the library to be. It could be through surveys, focus groups, inviting a cultural organization to the space… the possibilities are endless, and the results fruitful.

Last on that spectrum is actively participate in a robust learning ecosystem. Sound familiar? It should, and the concept is repeated here because it is so important. When we work on our own, we are limited to reaching the people we personally serve. But when we are part of a larger ecosystem, however, we not only draw on the strengths of fellow elements in the ecosystem but we draw from the people they reach as well. Maybe a person child will just never come to the library; that’s just the reality of their life. But they do go to school and out-of-school activities. So if the library is part of a learning ecosystem that includes that school and those activities–if we collaborate with them–we do reach that child in a fundamental way.

A Collaboration Workbook: 1) Install a collaboration team; 2) Find a common goal; 3) Listen to the community; 4) Generate ideas for collaborative programs; 5) Prioritize and implement programs -Heart of Brooklyn (Image by Amy Koester)

Dr. Sampson’s best suggestion for a model for collaboration comes from the Heart of Brooklyn, a cultural partnership involving the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Brooklyn Children’s Museum, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Public Library, Prospect Park, and Prospect Park Zoo. Their method: Install a collaboration team whose first task is to find a common goal that al of the partners can get behind. Then listen to the community; is your goal their goal, too? From there, the partners and the community can generate ideas for collaborative programs and services–these should be in play with one another, building off one another, not simply a list of isolated programs that take place at isolated institutions. With those ideas in mind, it’s time for the collaboration team to prioritize and implement select programs. Obviously there will also need to be some evaluative piece after this implementation, but that’s a bit beyond the main takeaway of this post: collaboration.

“What is holding us back is not money. The currency in short supply is collaboration and vision.” -Dr. S. Sampson (Image by Amy Koester)

And collaboration is vital for transformative, dynamic support of STEM learning by libraries. Yet many of the smart people at this conference indicated that, right now, collaboration–and the vision of collective impact that can inspire and support it–is in short supply. We need to recognize that libraries need not go it alone when it comes to supporting STEM. That is not to say that we shouldn’t invest in doing some STEM programing and providing relevant services ourselves; it is just to say that we can do so much more when we collaborate with others who also aim to support the STEM learning of our communities.

That vision of what we can do together is huge.

The collective impact we can have when we collaborate meaningfully is massive.

And what, after all, is our overall goal as libraries if not to support our communities in transforming their lives?

The post Collaboration for Learning: Notes from the Public Libraries & STEM Conference appeared first on ALSC Blog.

Creative Commons search – maker supplies

Sometimes, school life and library life overlap.  Sometimes they don’t. Often I read the posts of my public library friends and find myself nodding my head and then I read the posts of many school librarians and my experience doesn’t mesh with theirs.  There are two hot topics that are happening right now in both the arenas of education and libraries and we should definitely be expanding our thinking and reading outside of the library and the school publications proper.

Makerspaces.  Unless you’ve been under a rock for the past 3-5 years, you’ve been reading about, learning about, or implementing some aspect of making whether you are in a school, a school library or a public library. I know that as children’s librarians we have been participating in maker culture for years, but the new focus really is more than a rebranding.  The blending of digital and analog, the open ended and problem solving nature of presenting students and patrons with possibilities instead of directions are both different from some of the making that we were doing early in my career as a youth services librarian.

Design Thinking. I recently participated in my own school’s Innovation Institute which brought together members of the faculty to use design thinking to solve a problem or create something new to share with our faculty and students.  The Gates Foundation and IDEO have created a Design Thinking Toolkit for Libraries.  While this way of thinking and problem solving is definitely taxing on the brain, it does tend to lead to innovation. We are always telling our students to take risks in their learning, and as librarians we should be willing to take some risks in ours as well.

The following are some links from the education world that easily lend themselves to library environments.

Edutopia – Design Thinking

Maker Ed – Projects and Learning Approaches

Teacher Librarian – The Philosophy of  Educational Makerspacea

Knowledge without Borders – Design Thinking for Kids

I’d love to hear back from librarians who have successfully used design thinking either with colleagues or kids. Also, feel free to drop your favorite maker link into the comments!

The post Ideas with Crossover Possibilities appeared first on ALSC Blog.

Friends and colleagues, it is time to get organized! Spring is here — even though the nearly half a foot of snow Chicago just received might indicate otherwise — and summer is on the horizon. Now is the time to prepare for the chaos awaiting us come June.

So here are my tips and tricks for getting some simple office supplies and storage solutions working to keep us in tip-top shape.

Closet Storage Bins + Library Hanging Bags = Felt Flannelboard Solutions
and
Hanging File Folders + Sandwich Bags = Clip Art Flannelboard Solutions

Storage bins (left), hanging bags (upper right), hanging files (lower right). [Photo courtesy of the author.]

I store my flannelboards in two different ways. For the felt sets, I use six closet storage bins and library hanging bags to organize. Each bag contains all of my flannel pieces and a sheet of paper explaining the rhyme, story, song, or game to be used with the pieces. These are in alphabetical order and I allow all of my co-workers to borrow any set as long as they let me know. It takes up two shelves in my cube, but I feel it is well-used space since I have an estimated 150 flannelboards.

The second way I store flannelboards are for my clip art laminated flannelboards. I use a simpler system. I put all the pieces in a sandwich bag and write the name of the flannelboard on the outside of the bag. Afterwards, I toss them in these alphabetical hanging files. I don’t include the rhymes in these since most of these sets are my Letter Puzzles and different versions of the “If You Have…” song I use often.

Desktop Organizers + More Bins + Clipboards = Storytime Solutions

Desktop organizers (upper left), cloth bins (lower left), and clipboards (right). [Photo courtesy of the author.]

I use a simple trick to get my books organized for storytime. Desktop organizers are absolutely perfect; the ones in this picture are typical called vertical file organizers. [A very similar one to mine looks like this example from Staples.] Each slot holds a week of storytime books, flannels, and CDs. I can grab a whole slot with ease on my way to step up!

The cloth bins are where all of my personal finger puppets (in the little ones) and hand puppets (in the bottom ones) go. I got both of these sets on clearance once college organizers hit the sales rack. The little ones I’ve had for quite a few years, but the tubs at the bottom are new for this year. All of these were fairly inexpensive since I waited for sales. I like using cloth bins because it doesn’t smash the puppets down like other storage solutions might.

Clipboards! At this point, you might have figured out that I never grew out of shopping for back-to-school supplies. But clipboards make my life so much easier! I keep a clipboard for each of my three weekly storytime programs. Before the sessions starts, I print out each week’s activities and attendance sheets. I put them all on the clipboard. I’m able to have this nearby in storytime in case I blank on an activity and can immediately circle the activities that we used that week. Keeping the papers on the clipboard allows me to write anywhere and also makes sure the papers don’t get crinkled in my storytime bag.

Plastic Bins + Old Kit Bags + Small Bins = Drawer Solutions
and
Managing the In-box Solutions

Inside of my drawer (left), the in-box solution (right). [Photo courtesy of the author.]

Manage the little minutia by hiding it in a drawer! In here you can see I try to compartmentalize my mess. All of my little office supplies (tape, post-its, expo markers, tacky glue) lives in a small cloth bin, with easy access. The plastic bin underneath the batteries, HDMI cord and cleaning cloths contains my felt supply at work in case I need to make a back-up felt piece. The green kit bag has all the extra charging cords and cables associated with our circulating LeapFrog kits. (That’s what the batteries and cleaning cloths are for as well — part of my job maintaining that collection means cleaning and battery checking once a kit comes back.)

Now for the paper in-box. Get three bins. The top is for weekly to-do items, the middle is for items to be filed, and the bottom is for on-going projects. Right now the top bin has a muffin tin to remind me to make felt cinnamon rolls. The middle bin has some strategic planning documents and ILS training sheets. The bottom bin it contains a replacement order I have to wait to order until after our ILS change in April, an audio order catalog to go through, and my clipboards that have programs that need to be written up from this week. The hardest thing to remember about the in-box is when your week ends, it should be empty except for on-going projects. I’ve used this system for years, including when I was a manager. It is GOLD for me.

I hope you feel confident and full of new ideas about tackling organization now! If you want specific product information, please email me [simplykatie(at)gmail(dot)com] and I will send you more information. If you want to trade tips and tricks, please feel free to do so in the comments! Do you have a favorite organization technique? Or a great idea to share? Let us know!

– Katie Salo
Early Literacy Librarian
Indian Prairie Public Library
http://storytimekatie.com

The post Spring Cleaning: Storytime Style appeared first on ALSC Blog.

What’s a librarian to do when a patron adores certain genres, but his or her parent wants to restrict the child from reading them? There have been several such families in our community—all zealous library users and participants in our book discussion groups. As we’ve worked with them over the years, we’ve tried to maintain the trust of the parents while respecting the rights of their children. It’s often a delicate balancing act!

When L. was younger, his mom could bend him to her will fairly easily, but by the time he was ten he was more resistant to her wishes and more adamant about what he chose to read for pleasure. This was certainly appropriate to his growing maturity, but since his mother asked us to guide his selections we struggled to keep L. engaged as we kept the peace between them. Their conflict hinged on his attraction to graphic novels. L.’s mom didn’t regard graphic novels as “real” or “challenging” reading and the two were at a stalemate. I was able to change her mind by showing her Don Brown’s THE GREAT AMERICAN DUST BOWL. “I learned so much from this book, myself!” I exclaimed, turning to pages illustrating the devastating extent of a dust storm in May of 1934. The high quality of Brown’s artwork and his source notes and bibliography convinced her that this was a serious work of nonfiction. Then I introduced them to Matt Phelan’s AROUND THE WORLD, a fascinating triple-biography about people who circumnavigated the globe. Though that was a bit more whimsical than Brown’s book, it still seemed worth reading to L.’s mother (and, more importantly, to L.) and after that, he encountered much less resistance when he selected other books from our graphic novel collection.

M. loves fantasies and action-filled novels. She’s a fan of Riordan, Rowling and Paolini. Her father prefers her to read “The Classics” and “educational books”. One of our librarians has pointed out that many of the ideals M.’s dad wants espoused in his daughter’s reading are also advocated in the very books she enjoys: courage and cooperation as well as self-knowledge and directedness. He was briefly mollified by such assurances, but then the conflicts reemerged. One happy afternoon I was able to find two works of non-fiction that satisfied them both (Deborah Kops’ THE GREAT MOLASSES FLOOD and Sally Walkers’ BLIZZARD OF GLASS) by showing M. the sensational photographs of the disasters while loudly extolling the primary source material the authors had consulted so that her father, who was lurking behind a pillar, could hear.

The differences between our philosophies of book selection were readily apparent when N. registered for our 4^th-6^th grade book discussions. Unlike two of our other book discussions, this group is for kids only. N.’s mother had to be dissuaded from forcing her way into the room to lecture the group about their reading choices! Though that tested our diplomacy skills, we were able to keep the peace by pointing out that the choices of books for that group’s discussion is at the discretion of the librarian. Though that resulted in several further discussions between N.’s mom and the librarian, at least the rest of the kids were spared the harangue.

It’s different for the group for 5^th-7^th graders and their parents, who vote on the next month’s book from three titles the librarian introduces. Even before the first meeting, O.’s mother was trying to influence the process. She wrote, “We hope this…discussion group will read from the finest authors and titles carefully chosen by ALA and other trusted organizations.” Later she suggested, “For next month’s select titles, realistic fiction or non-fiction that reinforces values, particularly respect for others and self-introspection (sic) would be ideal.” The librarian who leads this group has pointed out that the democratic process at work with this group is, in itself, a valuable learning experience. She stressed that each group member’s voice and vote was equally important.

Lately, P. has been able to negotiate a compromise with her parents without our intervention. Her mother once told us that P. had “exceeded her quota of fantasy fiction titles over the past three years.” (!) She’s now allowed to take one book she chooses if she also borrows the ones her parents approve. It’s been interesting to witness P.’s increasing skill at justifying her opinions and sticking to her guns. Maybe it’s reading about spunky kids that has given her courage…

We hope that, by encouraging their participation in our book discussions, we are helping children to be able to defend their own tastes in reading. We are pleased to see them gaining confidence in expression and developing effective bargaining skills. And the end is always in sight: in a few more years, they will be grown.

Miriam Lang Budin, ALSC Intellectual Freedom Committee

Photo by Stacy Dillon. Cossayuna Lake NY

In our lives as busy and distracted librarians, it’s easy to get sucked into always keeping that running list in our minds.  You know the one.  It has all of those “to-do” tasks on it that have to get done in the next 2 hours, shift, day, week and month.  I know that I always have several balls in the air and am trying to stay ahead of the game.  It often leads to worrying about what’s next rather than being present in the task at hand.

I was speaking with a teacher about this not so long ago, and she told me about a mindfulness workshop she had attended.  She told me that it had not only helped her practice as an educator, but she was using the techniques with her students and it was making a difference in their lives at school as well.

I started looking around the web for some articles not only just on mindfulness, but on mindfulness in the practice of librarianship as well.  Here are some links have proven helpful to me as I begin to slow down, take a breath and be present in my practice.

Mindfulness for Librarians, by Devin Zimmerman

Insights and Practical Tips on Practicing Mindful Librarianship to Manage Stress, by Kristen Mastel and Genvieve  Innes

Mindfulness 101, posted by The Nocturanal Librarian

The Resource Page from The Mindfulness in Education Network

Of course this takes time. And our connected lives give us some hard habits to break.  I am typing this up while at the breakfast table, with several tabs open at once! I hope that you will consider adding some mindful practice to your days.

Photo from pixabay

This is more of a question, than it is a post.

I work in a school that embraces technology. Many of our students have devices, either as part of our one to one program, or they have their own personal devices.  The library in the morning has shifted as a result of the omnipresent tech.

Don’t get me wrong…we do not expect a quiet library, especially in the morning. But now the groups of students are huddled around, eyes on screens, raucously commenting and enjoying their selfies/videos/games/instagrams/apps etc etc etc.

So. How to harness this? How to direct it? I have a couple of ideas brewing, but I thought I would put it out to the great brain. Any and all ideas appreciated.

On a recent solo road trip, I grabbed a random book on CD from the 658s and ended up with “The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working: The Four Forgotten Needs That Energize Great Performance” by Tony Schwartz. This book was recently re-published under the title “Be Excellent at Anything: The Four Keys to Transforming the Way We Work and Live”. This was one of the best ways that I could have spent my 10 hours on the road. I’m an exempt employee who loves my job, so I tend to struggle with my work life balance, often leaning towards more work and less life.

The basic idea of the book is that we have four core needs that help us perform at our best: security, self-expression, significance & sustainability. We need to make sure that these needs are met so that we can be more efficient and focused when we are at work.

Significance: This is the “why” of your work. Why do you get up in the morning?

Security: Feeling accepted and appreciated for who you are.

Self-Expression: The ability to use your unique talents and skills.

Sustainability: Taking care of yourself so that you can take care of your work.

Sustainability is definitely my trouble area. Schwartz argues, with research to back him up, that powering through a 12 hour day is less productive than an 8 hour day with plenty of “renewal” breaks. Examples of renewal breaks include reading, taking a nap, going on a run or just getting outside for a walk.

Schwartz also argues that we run through a daytime cycle, similar to the 90 minute sleep cycle and we can only give 90 minutes of focused energy before we have to take a break. After 90 minutes, one becomes less productive. He recommends scheduling meetings for a maximum of 90 minutes and some for only 30 minutes. He said that in a 30 minute meeting, you tend to get more done because you don’t have the luxury of time.

He also talked about the myth of multi-tasking and the idea that we are always distracted, giving only a portion of our attention to any one thing; that we don’t fully engage in anything and definitely don’t spend enough time thinking about long term planning or big picture stuff.

Most importantly he mentions that it is important to turn off work and not check email constantly from home, but to fully engage in other activities in order to be better at work.

After I returned home I shared this book with my colleagues and I picked up a print copy for myself. After skimming through the material again I compiled a thirty-one item list of things to do to improve my work life balance. Change doesn’t happen overnight, so although I have only made half of these improvements, I feel good about my progress.

Right now I am looking very much forward to my second to last vacation of the year. I plan to leave work behind and enjoy my family and the last bit of summer.

If you are struggling to leave work at work, I highly recommend this read (or listen). If you are not sure if you could benefit from the book, take this Energy Audit quiz.

Image from creative commons reuse search “post its” – source Hyper Island FB

As summer winds down some public librarians are feeling thankful and school librarians are gearing up.  I have spent a considerable amount of time planning my year (and realizing that some of those plans will get sidelined).  Each year for the past several school years, I have tried some new organizational methods, but have yet to find something with staying power that smooths transitions and helps me in my day to day life.

I was excited when earlier in the summer #readadv had a chat on this very subject. How do librarians get and stay organized?  What is working for other people?  The storify for this chat can be found here.

It was interesting because folks definitely seemed to use a variety of tools – demonstrating that no one method works for “all the things”.  Being of a certain age myself, I have to say that there is an appeal to some of the analog methods and I am more likely to remember something if I write it down on a post-it than if I type it into my google calendar.  Now, don’t get me wrong – I live off my google calendar for the majority of my in the moment time, but when in comes to actual planning, I need something more visual.

Enter bullet journal.  Some folks have been talking about this on twitter and in blog posts for a while, and this is the method I have decided to experiment with for my overall planning of the school year.  The beauty of this system for me is that it seems infinitely tweakable to allow for my own idiosyncrasies.  I can color code, add post-its (and stickers!), dog ear pages, and blend as much of my outside of school life as my teaching life as I see fit.

I will check back in with you all later to see if I can make this one stick!

How do you all keep your library lives organized?

As librarians we know that April is ‘National Poetry Month’ but did you know that it’s ‘Stress Awareness Month’ or ‘National Donate Life Month’? With so many monthly designations it’s hard to keep up. We become saturated with “awareness” and can overlook educational opportunities that are important in our profession.

April is ‘National Child Abuse Prevention Month’, a time to be aware that we all play a part in the emotional and physical well-being of the children around us. As librarians many of us are considered employed in “positions of trust” and are subjected to background checks and periodic drug screenings. But as our relationships with our communities expand we should always be aware of our expanded responsibilities. Do you meet regularly with your law enforcement agencies? Do you have a clear process for incident reporting and follow up? Can you recognize the signs of abuse in children and families? Do your local health departments offer training in this area? Are you a mandated reporter? These are things that you should be asking yourself and your administration.

Mandatory reporting efforts began as early as the 1960’s when the U.S. Children’s Bureau sponsored a conference aimed at the growing concerns around the effects of child abuse. Between 1963 and 1967 every state and the District of Columbia passed a child abuse reporting law. But as awareness and conditions expanded so did policies and statutes and by 1987 almost every state included sexual assault as part of the abuse, as well as mental and emotional abuse as well as neglect. (1)

Mandatory Reporting is becoming a hot topic in light of recent high profile abuse cases. Here in the District of Columbia, where I am a librarian, city council legislation passed in 2012 requires any adult who knows – or has reason to believe – that a child age 16 or younger is being abused is required to report the incident to the police or the city’s Child and Family Services Agency. This is a change from mandatory reporters being strictly “positions of trust”. In the wake of the Penn State scandal, More than 100 bills on the process of reporting of child abuse or neglect were introduced in 30 states and the District, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, with 18 states instituting a universal reporting law. (2)

Take time this month to be proactive, make yourself aware of the laws and statutes of your state. Below are some valuable resources that can help inform you and your staff, as well as spark conversation between your library and other service agencies.

Resources to consider:

The Child Welfare Information Gateway promotes the safety, permanency, and well-being of children, youth, and families by connecting child welfare, adoption, and related professionals as well as the general public to information, resources, and tools covering topics on child welfare, child abuse and neglect, out-of-home care, adoption, and more. Make sure to click on their “state specific resource” link. They also produce valuable fact sheets and handouts.

Founded in 1959 by Sara O’Meara and Yvonne Fedderson, Childhelp® is a leading national non-profit organization dedicated to helping victims of child abuse and neglect.

The Child Abuse Prevention Center is a national and international training, education, research and resource center dedicated to protecting children and building healthy families.

Family Resource Information, Education and Network Development Services (FRIENDS), the National Resource Center for Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention (CBCAP), provides training and technical assistance to Federally funded CBCAP Programs. This site serves as a resource to those programs and to the rest of the Child Abuse Prevention community.

Don’t forget to reach out to your local Health Department and Child Services Agencies, they will have the most recent and local information for your community.

(1) Hutchison, E. D. (1993). Mandatory reporting laws: child protective case finding gone awry?. Social Work, 38 56-63

(2) Craig, T. (2012, Nov 16). Council advances bill expanding rules for reporting child sex abuse. The Washington Post. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1152062603?accountid=46320

Lesley Mason, ALA ALSC Committee Member, Library Services to Special Populations and Their Caregivers and Children’s Librarian at DC Public Library

This weekend I had at least 50 errands to run. I visited a variety of stores (home improvement, grocery, pet, clothing, furniture, you name it, I was there) and there was one recurring theme throughout. Can you guess what that would be? Yep, you bet, Christmas. At one store, as I waited in line, I listened to the cashier talk to everyone about their Christmas plans and I began to dread my turn in the hot seat.

You see, I don’t celebrate Christmas and I would bet that I am not the only one in my community who abstains. Christmas is everywhere right now. Decorations, music, scents, advertisements, and conversations abound. For me and my family, it can be a difficult time of year to go out and do things in the world. For the most part, we can ignore the Christmas trappings or enjoy some, like all the lights. But sometimes when people put my family, including the kids (all under 10) on the spot by asking questions about Santa, etc., it is impossible to ignore. At best these conversations are annoying and at worst they are alienating.

As the Christmas season nears, I implore you to please remember the impression that your library decorations, displays, programs and even chit-chat or salutations make on your community members. Libraries should be welcoming to the entire community, no one who walks through the door should be made to feel uncomfortable.

Be tasteful, be discreet, and be respectful. Your community is diverse and many people will appreciate an absence of Christmas or Christmas-lite, I promise.

Photo by the author.

The concept of Banned Books has always been a funny one to me.  I grew up and thrived in a household where I was encouraged to dress how I wanted, be who I wanted, think how I wanted, and read what I wanted.  No thoughts, ideas, or beliefs were ever off limits; as I long as I practiced the Golden Rule (do unto others as you would have them do unto you), I was free to live my life how I chose

I moved around a lot as child and called many school districts and library branches home.  Some more conservative than others, but I was never told what I could or could not read.

I encountered the concept of Banned Books for the first time in fourth grade, when I came across a book that explained on the cover it was a compilation of writers who all had had books banned at some point in their career. At that time in my life, we lived in Ithaca, New York, and a wonderful children’s librarian named June Gilligan briefly explained the concept to me, but told me that I should never let anyone tell me what I could or could not read.

Now years later, I am in my second year of a three year graduate school program at Indiana University.  I’m grateful to be receiving a dual degree in Library Science and Information Science from an institution that allows me to develop my own focus on multicultural children’s literature, but I am disappointed that there is little to no discussion about banned books in our classrooms.

As future librarians, it is our duty to share knowledge and information, thoughts and beliefs, stories and tales with our patrons, regardless of whether or not they are widely accepted or on the best-seller list.  As librarians we cannot educate children about Banned Books, their history and the important role they play in our culture, if we do not know it ourselves.

Yes, you may know why Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian was challenged, or why Bill Martin Jr.’s Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?  was banned, but can you tell me what effect this had on our culture, library policies and other authors?

Without this information, we are allowing a teachable moment to pass us by, hurting ourselves and our patrons.   A Mahatma Gandhi quote is often paraphrased to “be the change you wish to see in the world”.   This holds true when it comes to Banned Books education.

The chances of my wish for at the very least a workshop on Banned Books will probably not happen in my Indiana University lifetime, but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t take the opportunity to educate myself and others; and neither should you.

Take time to learn more about Banned Books- www.bannedbooksweek.org  is a great place to start.   Take this week to incorporate Banned Books into your programming too, maybe read Sendak’s In the Night Kitchen at story time, have kids write a postcard saying why their favorite Banned Books shouldn’t be challenged, or start small, and make your staff pick’s collection all Banned and Challenged Books.

Most importantly, don’t let the education stop here.  While we honor Banned Books with one week in September, it is important to remember that they are challenged 365 days a year.  Therefore, it’s crucial that we continue to educate ourselves, our patrons, and fight for everyone’s right to read throughout the year.

Alyson Feldman-Piltch is a graduate student at Indiana University.  When she isn’t reading or working, she can be found cheering for the Red Sox or at the Bonobo exhibit at the Cincinnati Zoo.  You can follow her on twitter at @aly_fp.

 Although she has many favorite Banned Books,  she will be posing with Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson for her “Read Banned Books” poster this year.

If you thought ALSC only did online courses, you’d be wrong. I mean, we’d appreciate that you knew about our fantastic online courses, but there’s just more to it. We currently find ourselves in heady times for ALSC online learning options. There are online courses, which start July 9, there are webinars, including archived versions which are available for viewing at any time and there is a new brand of online education developed especially for students, called student sessions.

Online Education

The Caldecott Medal: Understanding Distinguished Art in Picture Books
6 weeks, July 9 – August 17, 2012
Instructor: Kathleen T. Horning, Director, Cooperative Children’s Book Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Connecting with ‘Tween Readers
4 weeks, July 9 – August 3, 2012
Instructor: Edward T. Sullivan, Rogue Librarian/Writer

Introduction to Graphic Novels for Children
6 weeks, July 9 – August 17, 2012
Instructor: Janet Weber, Youth Services Librarian, Tigard Public Library

Reading Instruction and Children’s Books
5 weeks, July 9 – August 10, 2012
Instructor: Katherine (Kate) Todd, Adjunct Instructor, Manhattanville College

Out of this World Youth Programming
6 weeks, July 9 – August 17, 2012
Instructor: Angela Young, MSLS, Youth Services Librarian, Lorain Public Library System

Webinars

Give Me Something to Read! When Social Networking Meets Readers Advisory
Instructor: Joella Peterson, Youth Serivces Librarian, Tumwater (Wash.) Timberland Regional Library
Wed., May 16 @ 12 PM ET
Tues., July 10 @ 7 PM ET
Thurs., Aug 9 @ 11 AM ET

Archived Webinars

For those who can’t attend webinars at a specific time, there are archived webinars. Archived webinars can be viewed at any time and as often as the view would like. For a full list of archived webinars, please visit the ALSC Webinar page.

Student Sessions

Join ALSC members across the country for our free, one-hour virtual workshops. Held quarterly, these are free webinars are hosted by the ALSC Membership Committee and directed specifically at students, but open to all members and non-members with an interest in children’s library services.

Getting Your First Library Job: Showcasing Skills and Packaging Passion
Wednesday, June 13, 2012 @ 6 pm Central
Instructors: Thom

by Susan Baier

In 1990, I was Vice President of my high school’s chapter of Future Homemakers of America. Despite that impressive qualification, my homemaking skills are limited. I don’t particularly like to cook, and the rare occasions when I try often lead to a mishap. (Case in point – last week’s attempt at frying pork chops for my husband resulted in loud beeping from the smoke detector.) My sewing projects in home economics class were truly pitiful. I buy my flannel board sets from talented crafters on Etsy versus making my own. It’s a little sad, because I come from a long line of Midwestern farm women with impressive skills in the homemaking arts like quilting, canning, and baking. They could whip up a noontime meal for 20 farmhands, bake a cake for the church social, and mend their children’s clothes – and that was just the morning chores.

No one is clamoring for my cakes, but here’s the one area in domesticity where I redeem myself – cleaning. I actually find cleaning enjoyable, and that trait has come in handy in the youth department. Because with kids and teens, mess equals success – right? (Try telling that to the poor soul scraping glitter glue off the tables.)

Certain products make cleaning much easier. At every library where I’ve worked, I’ve kept a bucket of supplies in my desk or office. I’ve gotten good-natured teasing about that from co-workers – that is, until they’ve come upon an “accident” over in picture books and need to raid my stash. Many libraries have wonderful custodial staffs – but personally I’ve never worked somewhere where the custodians were present every hour the library is open. Sometimes it’s just good customer service to have supplies on hand to quickly clean up the exploding soda bottle on the teen study table so others can continue using the space.

Here are the products that make up my youth department cleaning arsenal. When I’ve mentioned specific brand names, it’ s because I’ve had success with their use and not due to any compensation from the company.

• An all purpose counter top spray, like 409
• Disinfecting wipes, such as the ones made by Clorox
• Mr. Clean Magic Erasers – truly, a miracle product. Do a color patch test first, but I’ve used these to remove crayon and scuffs on painted walls with great success. I’ve also used it to eradicate years of grime on vinyl cushions on youth department furniture with dramatic results. This is a harsh cleanser, so I’d recommend wearing plastic gloves if you plan on doing any real scrubbing with it. (When cleaning the aforementioned furniture, I took my nail polish off with the eraser along with the grime.)
• Clorox Anywhere Hard Surface Spray – do you have toys in your library? Do you hand out things like shaker eggs in storytime? This spray is what I use to sanitize those items. It’s designed to be safe around kids and pets, and I know many daycares use it for sanitizing high chairs and play areas.
• Spot Shot Instant Carpet Stain Remover – look for the distinctive blue can with the orange cap, and prepare to be amazed when you use it. How many of you have colorful rugs in your picture book or storytime areas? Most of these rugs come with instructions that recommend spot cleaning only. I’ve removed dirt, food stains, and yes – bodily fluids from rugs with this.
• Pledge Multisurface Clean and Dust Spray – this works beautifully cleaning sticky residue from wood surfaces
• Goo Gone Stain Remover – great for removing stickers, gum, and fossilized glitter glue
• Oust Air Sanitizer – I’m going
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Outreach is one of my favorite aspects of my job, and I eagerly accept most invitations to staff a library information table at community events. Taking the library message outside the walls of your building and into the community is critical in these lean budget years where we need all the advocates we can get! You’ll introduce nonusers to your services and entice them to visit, and you’ll connect in new ways with your current patrons. Over the years, I’ve learned (often the hard way) about the best approaches to these outreach opportunities. These are my standard items to bring to any event:

• Bookmarks with library information
• Library giveaways like pencils, magnets, reusable bags, etc.
• Stickers for the kids (a surefire way to draw families to your table!)
• Library calendar of events/flyers for upcoming programs
• Baskets and literature holders for giveaways
• Tablecloth and banner with library name
• Scissors and tape (these always come in handy, and inevitably another exhibitor sees I have them and asks to borrow them)
• Bottled water and no-mess snacks for myself and anyone working the table with me
• Cell phone with contact numbers for event organizers and staff working the event

That’s my basic packing list, but I tailor it to the particular event. If I’m outside, I’ll make sure to have sunglasses, sunscreen, and a lightweight jacket. Wind can wreak havoc on your beautifully displayed table, so bring a paperweight to anchor down flyers. Don’t be the panicked librarian abandoning your table to retrieve summer reading program calendars soaring around the park. (Yes, I’ve been there – done that.)

If you bring a craft for the kids, think simple preassembled projects with minimal components. You’re already schlepping a ton of stuff – do you want to add glue, glitter, markers, and construction paper to the list? I made the mistake once of bringing a craft to a farmers’ market that took too long to finish. I witnessed many parents, loaded down with fresh produce, get impatient and frustrated as their kids refused to leave until the project was complete. Lesson learned. Save your cutest craft ideas for your regular library programs. Often I find a basic coloring sheet with a booklist on the flip side serves as a perfectly adequate craft for these events. Just bring a small container of crayons, and you’re good to go.

Sometimes I’ll bring candy to lure people to the library table, but again – learn from my mistakes. Chocolate + hot weather + hours outdoors = FAIL.  Hard candy is the superior choice, and it’s often cheaper.

Once you have gathered everything, how are you going to transport it? One world – wheels. I invested in a rolling suitcase designed for scrapbookers who take supplies to parties. With all of its little compartments and pockets, it’s perfect for outreach events. I also see many librarians use rolling crates that fold for easy, compact storage.

The vast majority of the people you encounter will be thrilled to see their library out in the community, and will shower you with praise. But just like working a public service desk, you might hear some not-so-positive feedback as well. You are attending the event as a representative of the library, and people will stop to share their opinions. If there is a current hot-button issue regarding your library (like a tax levy), consult your supervisor prior to the event and get some talking points. Your supervisor may advise you to refer any concerns or questions to library administration, and that’s fine – just make sure to have their business cards on hand to distribute if needed.

With a little preparation, community outreach events can generate a ton of good will and good press for your library. Don’t forget your water, your sunscreen, and most importantly – to have fun!

 Susan Baier, Division Manager of Youth and Extension Services

Santa Clara City Library

My advice for new children’s librarians would be to only wear “machine wash” clothing to work at the public library.  I discovered this the day the kindergartner locked herself into the bathroom stall in the public bathroom during their class visit to the library.  Since her teacher was a man, he wasn’t comfortable going into the woman’s room to rescue her.  So guess who got to wriggle under the stall to calm the crying girl and unlock the door?  Nothing like contact with the floor of a public bathroom and your dry-clean-only blouse to change your shopping patterns…

Jennifer Duffy

I am one of the least mushy, least sentimental people I know, so you can imagine my horror when a coworker planned a Hugs and Kisses Storytime for our outreach program.   Allow me to clarify so that you can better understand my position:  I would have to perform this program approximately twenty times in the span of a month, including the song “Skidamarinka.”  If you are unfamiliar with this song, then you should keep it that way. 

Since I disliked the theme so much, I convinced myself that the children would hate it as well.  I was so wrong.  They loved all the books–even the sweet ones that inspired the preschool teachers to tilt their heads and say “awww.”  They loved blowing kisses and giving hugs to the puppets and to each other.  

As I watched the kids have such positive interactions with the stories and songs, I came to love them as much as the children did.  Now, I actually consider including “Skidamarinka” in programs and have since planned a very successful in-house Hugs and Kisses Storytime.  This experience has made me more open to trying books and songs that are outside the realm of my personal taste and comfort zone, especially if they prove popular with the kids.    I will never stop choosing back-up books (just in case), but now I know better that cool and comfortable is not always the way to go with Storytime.

Here are some Hugs and Kisses books that have been successful in my programs:

Full, Full, Full of Love by Trish Cooke 

The Pout Pout Fish by Deborah Diesen

The Cuddle Book by Guido van Genechten

Where’s My Hug? by James Mayhew

I Lost my Kisses by Trudie Trewin

Daddy Hug by Tim Warnes

Kiss Kiss by Margaret Wild

The story of what I wasn’t taught in library school is particularly embarrassing. Because it’s something I probably should have known long before that—and should probably never admit that I didn’t know. But in fact I started my first job as a children’s librarian without knowing how to do the Hokey-Pokey. I didn’t even know the song. Luckily a kind group of regular library visitors for whom the Hokey-Pokey was the traditional opener taught it to me and managed not to laugh as I tried to figure out which one was my left hand (always a challenge).

Although this may seem utterly ridiculous (and I’m sure I looked that way at the time) for me it’s a reminder that practical observation and/or experience in a library is an incredibly valuable part of library school education. As with any job, the nuts and bolts of what you do all day doesn’t always reflect the education needed to qualify for a position. And along with making information available and suggesting wonderful books to eager readers, most children’s librarians will also be asked to be entertainers and having the basic skills down before you walk in the door is a very good idea. So go ahead—put your right hand in…

Lisa Dennis
Coordinator of Children’s Collections
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh

Last year, I had a 6th grade student return a book to me that had been damaged.  His explanation was that he had spilled iced tea on it.  I took the book from him, placed it on my desk, and sent a letter to his parents requesting payment for the damaged item.  Since I like to make sure I follow up on the payment for damaged items, I usually leave the item on my desk as a visual reminder to collect the funds.  The library clerk and I picked the book up many times over the course of the next few weeks while moving stacks of things around on my desk, etc.  After the item had been paid for, I proceeded to thank the student for taking care of his responsibilities.  His response?  “No problem, Ms. Bell.  It’s the least I could do since my dog peed on your book.”  My response?  ICK!  I ate my LUNCH at my desk every day for five weeks with a PEED-ON book sitting next to me!  I’m still grateful that both the library clerk and I are fanatical about hand-washing… so many germs in the library!

And my life lesson?  I now put damaged books in a drawer (tied in a plastic bag if it looks like it’s been spilled on) and place a post-it note on my desk!

Kimberly Bell
Library Media Specialist
Summit Pointe Elementary
Lee’s Summit, Missouri

It seems obvious: if you are a librarian, particularly in a public or school setting, you better love people.  As librarians, we handle, read, review, and spend a good deal of time with books (and DVDs, CDs, websites, video cameras, construction paper, puppets, and a myriad of other inanimate objects).  But our profession is more people-centered than book-centered.

Librarianship is about connection.  It’s about that one-on-one interaction with a patron: showing a student how to research their first major term paper; helping a senior citizen download pictures of the grandkids; finding the best potty-training video for a new dad; hearing, “hey, there’s the storytime lady!” in line at Dunkin’ Donuts.

Librarianship is also about diplomacy: keeping a smile on your face while Conspiracy Theory Dude explains to you for the 11th time how the aliens stole his favorite loafers; learning the best (and most kind) way to deal with the patron whose overwhelming odor is clearing out your reading room; showing an enthusiastic toddler the gentle way we play with keyboards and mice; resolving a patron complaint without either alienating your fellow staff members or disregarding the patron’s concerns.

The connections we make and the relationships we build with the people in our communities are far more important than our knowledge of the latest edition of AACR2.  While my core classes in library school introduced me to the history of librarianship and libraries, the issues of censorship and freedom of information, the finer points of conducting a reference interview, and cataloging basics (shiver), there was no course dedicated solely to customer service.  I think this is a mistake.  Certainly, I learned a lot about customer service on the job.  Partly by having great mentors and wonderful role models, partly by making mistakes, falling on my face, eating humble pie, and getting better with time.

If new library students must take a full semester of cataloging, it seems only fair (and practical) that at least a semester should be spent on developing an excellent set of customer service tools and strategies.  Short of that, employers should invest in their new employees- offering workshops on everything from conflict resolution to classes on how to find your inner Zen.

I wish I had gone into my school librarian position knowing how to mend those popular and cheaply-made books!  Sure, I could build wikis, create student podcasts and collaborate to meet curriculum standards… but I didn’t know a thing about how to deal with loose pages, let along broken bindings.  In my current job, my first school library position, I replaced a librarian who had been there for decades.  Along with a fully-updated paper card catalogue, I inherited a mysterious drawer full of stitched, Army-green binding tape, that strange heavy-duty colored tape, and razor blades.  It wasn’t until the very end of my fist year that I attended a professional development training with a DEMCO rep who taught us to deal with cuts, tears, falling-out pages, and demolished spines.  By that time, my book hospital had taken over half a book case, and I’d scotch-taped my most popular “patients” in desperation to get them back out to kids.  It would have been smart for my MLIS program to offer a one-day class about mending for folks on the school library track, since so many of us deal with budgets that need to stretch and stretch!

Claire Scott
Librarian, Emerson Elementary
Berkeley Unified School District
Berkeley, CA

What wonderful things come out of the mouths of babes!  All the storytime training the world cannot prepare you for that precious moment when, responding to a discussion of favorite pajamas during a Bedtime Story Program, young Susie volunteers “my daddy sleeps naked!”  Daddy, all the while, sits in flaming, mortified silence at the back of the room.  Finding myself in this uncomfortable situation I simply smiled and said, “Sometimes daddies do,” and moved smoothly along with the story.  Thinking it over, this phrase can be adjusted to suit any embarrassing outburst; farts, explanations of body parts on mermaids (I’ve had that one, too) and many more.  “Sometimes people do” validates the child’s comments without inviting any additional information, much to the relief of librarians and parents alike.

Sara Saxton
Youth Services Librarian
Tuzzy Consortium Library