Libraries and Literacy

One thing they do not teach you in library school is that a career in children’s services in the library means you will be exposed to every single germ that goes around. Not only do kids come into the library when they are sick, but they read the books, don’t wash their hands, and generally act as adorable little typhoid marys.

Case in point, I currently have a terrible cold, and feel like all the adorable children beat me with sticks and stuffed cotton balls up my nose. So I might not be posting as regularly, since even sitting up on the couch to type this is draining what little energy is left.

This summer I will be reading Mon-Thursday for an hour to any kids in the library around 1pm. It promises to be enormously entertaining, and hopefully will give me the opportunity to read more picture books. Plus, picture books are fun and the smaller groups will allow more interaction.

To keep what books I’ve read straight, I plan on compiling lists of books for each day. Though I’m scheduled to read for an hour, most likely I will not be reading the whole time, so my goal is 10 books on each topic, for different age levels. A couple for toddlers, a couple for pre-schoolars, some for k-2 grades, and at least one for older kids.

Some of the themes I have lists for already–others I will be compiling as I go along based on what we have at the branch. I don’t want to track down too many books at other branches, so hopefully I’ll be able to find enough for each week.

Here are some of the topics I’ve brainstormed, any suggestions would be great–as well as recommendations of good books on these topics!
-Camping -Farm -Family
-Sports -Clothing -Fruit and Veggies
-Folktales -Colors -Ponds
-Birthday -Creativity -Transportation
-Bedtime -Beach -Alphabet
-Dinosaurs -Jungle -Friends
-Dogs -Emotions -America
-Cats -Ocean -School
-Zoo -Weather -Diversity/multi-cultural
-Bugs -Picnic -Vacation

Some of these I have a lot for, but lots of these I don’t have more then one or two–so I could use suggestions for any read-alouds!

Since the system I work for is enormous, with over 20 branches, the programs that are presented are shared with all locations and are developed centrally. This is a great time and money saver, since it allows smaller branches to experience more programing then their time and budgets would normally allow. The Youth Services team proposed programs and each location selected a list of them and added them to the schedule of activities. Since I am stepping into the position working on the summer reading club, I am just glad that such excellent programs were selected for my new location.

Though, I’m super excited about the activities and programs we have planned (I can’t believe Haddix is coming, I’ve never been to an author visit!!), I do want to add some things of my own to the SRC. The one area that I think can carry between the two aspects of this job is some passive programing. I can bring these out if there are kids sitting around looking for something to do, before a program, or on weekends when we don’t have any programs. These are also something that volunteens can assist in creating and processing.

Aimed at younger children, I’d like to have a variety of soft easy puzzles–using the die cut I’ve already made some using old flannel backgrounds. Building on the theme of Game On, I’d like to have lacing of some sports related images–primarily balls for different sports. I’ll also have some simple word searches and other word puzzles.

For older kids, I’ll have number, word games, logic games, and mazes. In order to encourage kids to participate and to enjoy it, I will have a contest–giving out stickers for each puzzle completed, with a special foam book mark for those who complete 10 over the course of the summer.

Groups of school age kids and teens might also enjoy some mad-libs, which can also be brought out for groups to enjoy when things get slow. There are also some drawing books that might provide some entertainment–particularly those sports and gaming related ones.

I’ll definitely be posting more as these ideas develop.

Part of my new job will be to coordinate the summer reading activities for the new branch–our theme this summer is Game On. Read. and we have reading clubs for infants-pre k, children, teens, and adults, though most of our programing is aimed towards the first three groups. This summer we are also trying some new things with our registration of participants–which will be entirely electronic and progress can be tracked via bar code on the activity sheet and their library card. Our volunteens will be entering the registration, but all staff will have to be trained on the new computer system–so everyone can help.

The official kick off will be a week after I start work, so a lot of information to catch up on before we dive into the fun. Even though I have not started yet, I have a lot of ideas about fun activities. Though the calendar suggests that there wont be much time for any more activities, especially with a four day a week reading corner, where I and volunteens and others will read to any children.

Some of our planned activities:
**Tall Tales of North America
**Mad Science, Up, Up, and Away
**Author Visit: Margaret Peterson Haddix
**Manga & Cartooning
**Lunch Bunch (Every Thursday)
**Kitchen Concoctions: Extreme Cuisine
**Turtle Lady
**Color in Action
**Teen Gaming (Every Thursday)
**Library Bingo
**Jim Gill, Music and Fun
**Irish Dance
**Race on!
And that is just June!!

Right now I feel like I need to get more information on what they are planning before I can see how any ideas I might have would fit into the program. The only part I know for sure that I am responsible for is supervising volunteens and the reading corner.

In two weeks, I will be starting a new job, which I am super excited and nervous about. It is an amazing position, with the potential to do a huge amount of good in the community, as well as giving me TONS of good experience. I will be coordinating the new center to assist students k-12 with their homework. The job is one that combines advocacy, programing, and hands on, one-on-one interaction with youth. Plus, it is the sort of position that responds to the needs of the community and the season, meaning that I will have a ton of freedom to design new programs and visit new locations to market the center to students and recruit potential volunteers.

Another advantage of this position, is that I will be full time working out of one location. This will make it so much easier to arrange my schedule and plan ahead. Even though I wont begin for a couple of weeks, I’m bursting with ideas for the upcoming Summer Reading Season and the build up to the new school year at the end. It will be adventure to get to know a new branch, new customers, and a new job!

For the next two weeks, I’ll be getting the R2R activities set up to continue after I go, and wrapping up all the other details of my two jobs. I’m sure that I will have lots to post as it gets closer to the time for me to start my new job.

I’ve never been much of a non-fiction reader, at least not for enjoyment, though I’ve read more then my fair share for school. But since I begun working in youth services I have discovered some really enjoyable non-fiction, particularly aimed at younger readers. Many have stunning illustrations, interesting information, and quite a few are suitable for reading out loud to a group or together at home. Since I love picture books, it is not surprising that I would enjoy these so much. Today’s new book cart was chock full of delightful non-fiction, which I thought I would share!

The first is a hilarious book for pre-k and up that is PERFECT for reading aloud because it invites participation. It is Where Does Pepper Come From And Other Fun Facts and it includes a wide range of facts, from why flamingos are pink to the difference between whales and fish. First a silly statement is made explaining why these things are so, such as “Flamingos are pink because they are embarrassed!” Then a child says “No! Silly” and then the facts are explained. Children will love to say “No!” to the silly stories and pictures, and will not be confused by the facts explained.

Another fun book that came in today is Ape , the illustrations are stunning and the text is simple. The book presents the five great apes and provides a bit of information about each and where they live. It might not be for every family, as the ending presents the fifth ape as humans, and there is definite preservation angle. However, the images and lyrical simple text make this a book that is definitely worth recommending as a read aloud.

Continuing the theme of animals, this is an interesting story for a bedtime theme: Water Beds: Sleeping in the Ocean It pairs simple words with peaceful text that provides information about the sleeping habits of aquatic mammals. Another good themed storytime bookPumpkins –this time for a fall/harvest/pumpkin theme, this non-fiction book has incredible pictures, simple text, and good proportions for sharing with a group.

Oddly, one of the hardest categories for non-fiction read alouds is folk tales, which are particularly hard to find for younger readers. Most of the time a storyteller can modify them to keep attention using dramatics, props, or just voice modulation, but simple folk tales are excellent for sharing aloud. Today, I found The Ghost Catcher with the new books. It is a simple tale of trickery and humor, involving ghosts and generosity that will not frighten children. This is suitable for k-2 grades.

What I have really discovered is that there is a lot of non-fiction that can be incorporated into our story telling in the library, and that rather then just focusing on fiction picture books, we can introduce our children to the world around them from an early age. I hope to find even more amazing non-fiction books–so any suggestions would be appreciated!

There is just something cool about new books, just arrived at the library, and never circulated. A sense of discovery of something fresh–both the content and the actual physical book. I find this particularly the case with board books, pop-ups, and touch and feel books. Once they’ve circulated a few times they are missing parts, things are broken, and the corners of the board books are chewed. To me that is cool, because it means kids are enjoying the books, but at the same time I don’t feel like really spending a lot of time looking at them. Opening a pop-up book that has all its pieces still connected and seeing them the way they are meant to be seen adds something. The other day I was looking at an animal touch and feel and pull the tab book–it was very elaborate, but because it was on the new cart all the bits were there, and the sticky touch and feel part was still sticky and not completely germy.

When I used to work in circulation, I loved to help check in the new books when they arrived. Most of them were reserved to patrons, but it was great to see all the different titles that were coming out. It made it SO much easier to perform reader’s advisory, because I know what the latest books have just come out. Lots of times I have seen books that I want come in with the new books, and even more often books that I can recommend to someone else.

At one of my libraries, we have a cart that we keep new books on for the staff to look through, which is pretty much the most awesome thing ever. Recently I’ve been given the task to create a list of the top 25 new books that we’ve received each month–an even better excuse to spend time perusing the cart. There are so many books that I don’t normally think of browsing through–such as non-fiction, but this provides an awesome opportunity.

Though I have been working in education for a long time, ugh, I haven’t been an actual student alone for some time, and never before in a distance education type of setting (unless you count my adviser being AWOL). Last semester and during the next couple of weeks, I will be trying out two different types of distance education. Since Kent State’s MLIS program is the only one in the state, it offers programs for the entire area, which means that it provides various ways for students to attend classes. Last semester I was in an on-line management class and this intersession, I am in a video conference class.

Years ago, I graded classes for an on-line class and helped with running it, so I thought an on-line class would be easy peesy. However, it was not so. Neither the work nor the readings were particularly onerous, but the direction of the class made it incredibly difficult to complete the assignments. The professor’s expectations were never fully explained, and when questioned he provided little feedback and even less personal assistance. My thoughts on this, is that it is partially due to the format of the class that makes it difficult for some people to pick up the implications of questions. In an in-person class, the teacher can see and hear the ways the students are asking and responding to directions.

Despite this, I am signed up for a video class, where the teacher is teaching a full class in Kent and a full class in Columbus. Today is only the second class, but I’m hoping that the communication will improve between the students and the teacher. In the first class, it was very difficult for the Columbus students to respond to the teacher and the Kent students. As the two classes have students at very different levels of experience in libraries, and distance in the program, it should be interesting to see how the materials are presented.

So for the rest of this week, and all of next week, I will have a practicum student to supervise and assist. While she is under the direct supervision of our teen librarian, she is all mine for these two weeks to learn about the ready-to-read after-storytime program. In addition, she will be observing storytimes. This week she is shadowing me and assisting with the activity, and is developing an activity for next week.

Lots of the time on Tuesday was spent explaining the program, its purposes, and where things were. Armed with a stack of books, she has been brainstorming ideas to do after storytime. It is a fascinating experience to work with someone else on a project that is so near and dear to me. She has a lot of great ideas, and it isn’t my position to shoot down any ideas, rather to help her see how they will fit into the program. Since I developed it, and have a sort of rudimentary set of guidelines on what doesn’t work, I some times have to say “That is a great idea–how will we encourage children to complete the whole project in the time frame?” or “Will we have time to get that all ready for next week?” Perhaps I should just let her learn this on her own, but that seems kind of mean to allow her to embark on a project that will suck every waking moment of her time and still not complete it.

Anyway, she brainstormed a lot of good ideas–and the one she settled on will be a great deal of fun. It marks an enthusiasm for the program as well as an understanding of the ways that parents use the resource. In watching parents make sets of alphabet cards to take home, she thought it would be great to provide something else they could make that they could work with. Building off of an old childhood favorite Memory, she will cut out shapes and cards and allow children to make cards with one on each to play a matching game with another card.

Tomorrow, she will work on preparing materials and pulling together books for the display–and I may have to leave her in charge for the set up of the program.

As I was perusing the new book cart on Friday, I noticed a theme running through a lot of the teen books. Some part in the back of my mind had already seen this, but it was the presence of four distinct works on this small cart that really brought home the prevalence of dystopia and post-apocalyptic societies in novels. One of my favorite recent teen novels, Life As We Knew It revolves around an environmental catastrophe and the moral and social decisions that arise as a result. Many, many more have come out over the past two years, perhaps drawing on growing concerns over the dangers society faces over consumerism, environmental degradation, technology, biological warfare, and the role of the government in our lives.
These works draw on older traditions, such as The Giver , 1984 , Alas, Babylon , Fahrenheit 451 These books reflect their societies’ concerns over nuclear holocausts, totalitarianism, social Darwinism, and the future of academia. Looking back at what precipitated these dark views of the future made me reflect on what aspects of society worry us today.

I had planned on taking home at least a couple of the new teen novels about dystopian communities, but all of them were given to customers who expressed an interest in novels like these. Even some of the older books were checked out from my pile of prospective reads. I thought I’d share some of those I did get to read, as well as the titles of some I’m hoping to read.

The four books on the new book cart were: Little Brother , The Sky Inside , GemX , The Compound . This one was on the shelf a couple of weeks ago–it also went out fast! Exodus

Since all the new books were snatched up right away, I will have to wait to review them. But I did get three older books in the genre. All deal with post-apocalyptic worlds, two with dystopian societies, and one with a world still in chaos.

The first was “Hole in the Sky” The premise was very interesting, as was the setting. The world has been devastated by a flu virus, the majority of people died. A few hid away from the virus and a few survived. Those who did contract the virus and didn’t die were left changed in different ways. Set around the Grand Canyon, the scenery is a crucial part of the story and plot, weaving contemporary concern with the environment and the damming of the Colorado with Hopi beliefs about the sacred world. While it held a lot of promise, it didn’t really flesh out the characters or fully engage the possibilities.

The second was “The Secret Under my Skin.” This book wasn’t what I expected–it was more. The premise is that the world underwent an environmental cataclysm because of the technology and greed of many people, who had to be destroyed so that anyone would survive. Thus this is a world where technology must be controlled rigidly and people must be protected from the degraded environment. I assumed this would be a book warning about the way society is headed, and it is in part, but it is a hopeful book about humanity’s ability to survive. Well written, and well plotted, this book brings together many topics that concern today’s youth.

The third book has been very popular over the past couple of years, so much so that I had to swipe this copy right when it came in, and almost ended up giving it out to a customer before I could check it out. The City of Ember is on the Middle School reading list, though it really could be read by quite young children. This book certainly lived up to its hype. At first I thought it was a lot like The Giver, but slowly it unfolded as a unique and complicated book. Ember is a planned city where everything is falling apart, but where no one has any idea or hope about what to do to fix it. Two tweens full of hope and optimism set out to discover what they can about their city and come up with surprising and intriguing information about what their city is. There are two other books in the series with another on the way.

To find out more about the dystopian teen and tween novels out there, check out my goodreads!