Flip the Children’s Space: A Face Lift for Kids?

In the recent WAPL session, Flip the Children’s Space: A Face Lift for Kids?, Patricia S. Becker and Susan Queiser from Barron Public Library shared how they transformed a 103-year-old Carnegie library into a space that would welcome children and families to stay and read. Before their transformation, families would stay at the library only for approximately 15 minutes. Now, they regularly have families in the library for an hour visit.

Their project included transforming their picture book collection into a hybrid system of both subject bins (using freezer crates), and alphabetized shelves. For non-fiction, they used a version of Dewey Light that was driven by the question, “Why are we using decimals in our non-fiction collections when students do not learn decimals until 4^th grade?” Wanting to make the space more intuitive for kids, they did away with the numbers altogether and instead organized their non-fiction books into subjects.

They also bravely added new shelf tops in a fun style, a new desk, weeded a substantial part of their collections to showcase their best books (and to reveal holes in their collection) and also created a tween area. No additional staff time was used for this 13-month project, and all the weeding and re-cataloging happened during regular staff hours. To make the project more interesting, they began the project the same day as their summer reading program opened. The results have been substantial, for both patrons and staff. Now, families are staying in the library longer because they have places to sit and read, thanks to new furniture purchased through Wayfair. Also, the children’s librarian can how shelf-read the non-fiction books in 25 minutes. Before this transformation, that project took two days.

Throughout the process, the history of the Carnegie building was preserved, with the original shelving, colors, and layout still represented. This respect to the library’s heritage, while having the courage to re-learn everything we have been taught about how to shelve books, has allowed their library to thrive as a destination in their community. Both speakers welcomed questions for any librarian considering a similar project.

Check out other WAPL youth program reports from the April 27-28 conference (links will be highlighted when published):

• This is a Not a Hit Zone: Promoting Healthy Kids and Safer Communities at Your Library - Dawn Wacek, Dana Johnson
• It's Not Just the Facts, Ma'am!": Creating and Marketing a Dynamic Youth NF Collection - Marge Loch-Wouters
• Teach and Be Taught- Teens in the Library - Emily Sanders
• STEAM Programming on a Budget: Planning High Interest Programs to Engage Families and Youth - Emily Zorea
• YSS Leadership Meeting
• Return of the Notable Books Report - Leah Langby etal
• Sound Learning: Read-Alongs Enhancing Literacy Development - Sharon Grover, Jamie Swenson
• All Play Literature Engagement for Public Libraries - Ashlee Kunkel, Valerie Edwards

Stop here at the WAPL conference website for all the session handouts and slidedecks.

Easy Early Literacy Spaces, Part 2

This post brought to you by Holly Storck-Post, Youth Services Coordinator for Monroe Public Library. 

Desk Display

We used the front of our desk as display space when we were raising butterflies this summer, and I realized it was a great way to get kids and families looking at a display.

The first day that we had the alphabet up, and a toddler was walking up to the desk with his mother and exclaimed, “Mama, sing my abc’s!”

The READ posters were fun because the kids would look from us, to the poster, and back, and try to figure out what they were seeing!

The emotions idea came from here, and it has had a good response. One kid only wanted to name the “positive” emotions (happy, excited, sleepy) and wouldn’t mention the “bad” once (sad, angry, scared). Luckily, he was joined by a parent who picked up on that and talked about it with him.

More Spaces!

These footprints grew out of a desire to fill and empty spot and having something for the slightly older kids to do while a parent was busy with a younger sibling. We are on our second set of footprints, since even laminated footprints get pretty worn out after being stepped on that many times! I was also surprised to find that they get rearranged quite often. One day I came in to find they had turned a corner!

My staff member got the ideas for both our stairs and bathroom from Hennepin County. Again, I added Spanish to the stairs, and we hear the kids coming up and counting on a daily basis. This is one of the additions that I have gotten the most compliments on from community members.

The library I worked at as a page in library school had a growth chart in front of the circ desk, and it was incredibly popular. Kids measured themselves and their families constantly, and I thought it would be a neat addition to our children’s room. We have a library wide mural on one of our walls, painted by a local artist, and I asked her to do the growth chart.

As I was putting up my five practices tips the other day, I realized the singing is something that we do a TON of in programming and less so in the children’s room. Thus was born our “song of the week” station. I put it up on a day I worked alone, and then asked my staff to pretty please play along and sing if anyone asked them. So far I’ve definitely seen parents reading the sign, and the images match my song cube that I take to daycare storytimes, so some kids might start to recognize that!

Check out Easy Early Literacy Spaces, Part 1 for more ideas!

Easy Early Literacy Spaces, Part 1

This post brought to you by Holly Storck-Post, Youth Services Coordinator at Monroe Public Library.

I started at my current position as Youth Services Coordinator in June, and since then I’ve been adding little early literacy activities and awareness to our children’s section. Some of the things I came up with, a lot of them were suggestions from my amazing staff, and many were inspired by other libraries!

Here is some of what we’re doing. Anything not mine includes a link to the original idea whenever possible!

Early Literacy Tips

This grew out of the idea of posting early literacy tips during storytime. I don’t do our regular in-house storytimes, and I wanted the opportunity to explain why we offer so many different activities. I typed up a TON of tips, some taken straight from ECRR, some adapted from The Early Literacy Kit, and a few more that I specifically wanted to address. I put them in speech bubbles, laminated them, and now I have a backlog that I can pull from every time I change a display or put out a new activity.

Activity Board

The inspiration for this idea originally came from Brooke. I copied her idea, adding in the Spanish language since we have a growing Spanish speaking population and I am working on ways to increase our services to these patrons. At first I just taped it up to the pillar, which quickly failed, so then we added a magnet board in order to have more options.

The next activity at this station was something I came up with for a simple matching game. When I used this game in bilingual storytime, a kid quickly corrected me from “diamond” to “rhombus!”

Play Table

One of my staff who specializes in early literacy saw a post on this blog about a felt table, and suggested that we try it. I covered our table in felt (you need a LOT of tape), and pulled out some of basic felt pieces and wooden props to set out. The kids and families have LOVED this one. One child made us additional props for the animals scene using paper and crayons, and the flowers are getting sorted by color almost daily (on the other days they end up in a big pile on the floor. Those are the days I eat a lot of chocolate).

More ideas for Easy Early Literacy Spaces coming soon!  

WAPL 2011 is Almost Here

Have you signed up for WAPL yet? If not you can do so here. The Youth Services Section has been working hard to put together some great programs for the children's librarians in the state.

• THURSDAY (May 5, 2011)
  
  10:30 - 11:30am: Children's Spaces, Family Places; Developing Interactive Early Literacy Environments in Your Library
  
  Join Marge Loch-Wouters, Lynn Montague, and Kathy Kadar as they shareinformation and ideas about how public libraries are creating environments rich in learning and discovery for nurturing pre-literacy skills in children. Library and Child Care professionals will present information and ideas of how public library administrators, staff, and community can create "play and learn" spots in places both large and small and for any size budget.
  
  2:45 - 3:45 pm: Story Time Swap
  Storytime isn't just for preschoolers anymore. Bring your programming ideas for all the ages you serve. This year we'll be focusing on preschool and elementary students but all ideas from a favorite storytime rhyme or craft to the layout of your last big event are welcome! Presenters Svetha Hetzler, Kelly Allen, Betsy Bromley and Shirley Creager will share their kid-tested ideas and then we will open the floor to hear yours. Please bring about 50 copies of your ideas to "swap" with others and come prepared to take home fun things to try at your library.

• FRIDAY (May 6, 2011)
  
  9:00 - 10:15 am: What If: Questions and Answers on Intellectual Freedom
  
  From book challenges and self-censorship to privacy issues and internet use, questions can arise when putting the principles of intellectual freedom into practice. Come together with colleagues to share your questions and concerns. You'll get the perspective of several intellectual freedom advocates such as presenters Megan Schliesman and Michael Tyree, as well as your peers attending the session. This session is cosponsored by the Intellectual Freedom Round Table
  
  10:30 - 11:45 am: Young at Heart – Great Teen Books Even Grown-ups Will Love
  
  Some of the best and hottest books available right now may have been written for teens, but that doesn’t mean your adult patrons won’t love them! Hear librarians Sue Abrahamson, Kristine Millard, and Julie Harrison booktalk some of the best titles YA literature has to offer. You’ll leave with a list you’ll want to share with patrons – and read yourself! Plus, learn about how some libraries are using teen books in popular adult programs. This program is co-sponsored by READ