Idea Diving

Being of a curious, creative, and information-seeking bent, I naturally look for new ideas, projects, and inspiration in a variety of places. Here I have gathered links to a few of the places I've been idea diving lately. What is idea diving you may say? It's a term I just coined for the process of diving into ideas and exploring them - just like scuba diving there are recreational dives and professional dives. The depth and range of a dive will vary based on the interests and purpose of the diver or mission. So join me in idea-diving and please share some of your favorite diving locations in the comments.

Pop Goes the Page blog and Pinterest page by "Dana Sheridan (a.k.a. Dr. Dana), creator of Pop Goes the Page. I’m also the Education & Outreach Coordinator of the Cotsen Children’s Library at Princeton University. My library offers a number of story times, programs, and workshops, many of which you will find described on this blog. They’ve all been “field tested,” so feel free to replicate them in your own library, classroom, or home!" (About page)

Flannel Friday blog and Pinterest page which "celebrates and supports the art and skill of storytime by: sharing ideas; fostering community; and supporting professional development." (Mission page)

Laughing Kids Learn blog and Pinterest page where it's all about "sharing activities and ideas that make learning fun for kids!" (Pinterest tagline)

As I See It blog where Vivian the Librarian blogs about "observations on library services to children and young adults from experiences in smaller and larger public libraries in Idaho," including storytime and baby storytime plans. (Blog tagline)

Flannel Friday Gets Even Better

For those of  us who may not have a million blogs on our RSS feeds and may have missed the news this week, the intrepid Flannel Fridays crew has created a webpage to make accessing  - and contributing your own content to - the adventure even easier. For those of us doing storytimes, the flannel story sharing is amazing and so varied. It is the best kind of librarianship in that the sharing is done so generously by so many and is so helpful for librarians on the front line of storytimes.

One of the people who has been moviong and shaking with others around the country as the FF has grown is Wisconsin's own Anna Krueger, a YSS board member and Youth Librarian and Assistant Director at Antigo Library.  She wrote about this spot a few months ago for us. Now with the website, the fun is easier than ever. And the fact that so many people work together and come together online to create FF is really pioneering work. It would be great if we could do this kind of gestalt-librarianship for other services and initiatives in youth librarianship. It makes me love the future! How about you?