YSS Regional Meet Up: Virtual Library Tours & YSS Annual Meeting!

Join the fun on Zoom!  https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7502399842

YSS Regional Meet Up - April 19

YSS Regional Meet Up - North West Area

Friday, April 19 | 12:30-4:00 PM

Cost: $0

Starts at:    Grantsburg Public Library, 415 S Robert St, Grantsburg, WI 54840

Ends at:     Spooner Memorial Library, 421 High St, Spooner, WI 54801

(The drive between libraries is approximately 45 minutes.)

Agenda:

12:30 pm     Welcome and Introductions at Grantsburg Public Library

12:45 pm     Collection Management Discussion and Tour

2:00 pm       Drive to Spooner Memorial Public Library

3:00 pm       Spooner Memorial Library tour and Letting Go of Programming discussion

Need help advocating for a new collection? Have one that’s a hot mess? At Grantsburg Public Library we will be engaging in conversations about success, failures, and all other things collection management related. 

We will then make the beautiful drive to the Spooner Memorial Public Library. After a tour, we will be chatting about when and how to let go of programs, just in time for summer reading!  Snacks will provided to help with the challenging feelings (or not!) of discontinuing a program.

Bring a friend or colleague that isn't a YSS member yet and let them see the benefits YSS membership has to offer.

Please RSVP here:https://goo.gl/forms/JP2pcPMLEGdZX3qh1

Questions? Email Claire Parrish at claireparrish@ricelakegov.org

YSS Regional Meet-up: Program Swap

YSS survey respondents said that they wanted more ideas for programs they could use at their libraries large and small, rural and urban, and at minimal cost. Well, YSS Leadership listened. 

At the first regional meet-up of 2019 held at the Portage County Library in Stevens Point, WI on January 14, one of the professional development activities was a program swap. Programs had to cost $25 or less, but other than that there were no caveats. So here are the programs for kids, teens, and families that attendees shared. For more details, view the GoogleDoc version.

Ugly Sweater Party
Spy Games
Party Like a Jedi
Maker Monday After School Group: Solar Cookies (from NASA website)
Oh My Gourd! Improvised Jack-o-lanterns
Pictionary with Pudding
Chocolate Olympics
Graffiti Corner
Family Read Aloud Challenge (follow up to 1000 Books Program)
Perler Bead Program
Who’s Your Gnomie (Stuffed Sock Gnomes)
Weekly Dewey Challenge
 Cookie Clicker
Stroop Effect
Pageturners
Pine Cone Bird Feeder
Great Back Yard Bird Count
Collage Cityscapes
Vote for Book Purchases
Three Billy Goats Gruff - STEM Activity
Debate Club
Silent Library Program

 
Regional meet-ups are open to both members and non-members. They are an excellent way to gather new ideas; learn about best practices in libraries; see other spaces, collections, and displays; and grow your connections to other library staff serving youth in Wisconsin. The next meet-up is scheduled for
 the afternoon of February 22 at the Hales Corners and Muskego Public Libraries. Watch your email and this blog for a link to sign up.

Join the YSS Meet-up Friday April 13 Rice Lake!

YSS Regional Meet Up - North West Area

Friday, April 13 | 12:30-4:00 PM

Cost: $0

Starts at:     Rice Lake Public Library, 2 E Marshall St, Rice Lake, WI 54868

Ends at:     GE Bleskacek Family Memorial Bloomer Public Library,

      1519 17th Ave, Bloomer, WI 54724

(The drive between libraries is approximately 35 minutes.)

Agenda:

12:30 pm     Welcome and Introductions at Rice Lake Public Library

12:30 pm     Program Swap, Space Issues and Solutions Discussion, and RLPL Tour

2:15pm        Drive to Bloomer Public Library

3:00 pm       Bloomer Library Tour, wrap-up discussion, and snacks

At Rice Lake Public Library, we'll start with a brief welcome activity before the program swap and library space discussion commences. Then YSS Member Claire Parrish will give a brief tour of the library's children's area.

Afterwards, we'll head over to the Bloomer Public Library where YSS member Florence LaBeau will give us a library tour, provide snacks, and allow time for a short wrap-up discussion.

Please join us with a successful or future summer program to share. Bring a friend or colleague that isn't a YSS member yet and let them see the benefits YSS membership has to offer.

Please RSVP here:https://goo.gl/forms/WU56ViUuyAevaQe63

Questions? Email Claire Parrish at claireparrish@ricelakegov.org

Shining Moments from the YSS Regional Meet-up in Waupaca

So many wonderful things came out of our afternoon in Waupaca: networking, engaging in discussion, and even a favorite cheese list that I'm working on for another blog post. These meetups are intended to be fun, professionally invigorating, sparking engagement and ideas, as well as connecting us and our work with our colleagues serving youth.

Katie Kiekhafer, Chair-elect, came prepared with our second activity of the day called "Shining Moments." This small group activity asked participants to reflect on shining moments that motivate us in our work, such as an accomplishment or achievement that we are proud of, and then asks us to share this moment. As the small groups listened to each other, we recorded our moments and then identified common themes. Next we reported back to the larger group and Katie recorded our responses and themes. This was an incredibly powerful exercise that affirmed the great work we are doing and the underlying themes common to every library staffer in the room.

After reading through this list of common themes and identities elicited from our responses see if they resonate with you, inspire you, or reflect your ideals and self:

• Innovative thinkers
• Change embracers
• Empowerment - of the people we serve which then returns to us in a circle of empowerment
• Validation - that the work, even the unsung work, we do is meaningful and effective
• Connection - with our communities, their needs, and discovering unmet needs through this engagement
• Becoming visible in the community
• Collaborators
• Boundary stretchers
• Seizing opportunity
• Following and setting trends
• Inclusiveness
• Embracing technology

Learn how to implement this activity with your staff or library system by reading the full activity directions HERE.

YSS Regional Meetup: Waupaca January 2018: Booklist

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When you invite library staff to bring a book to talk about, you are sure to wind up with a list of outstanding titles. Here is the list recorded at the first regional YSS meetup of 2018 on January 26 at the Waupaca Area Library. Some titles are adult reads, some are YA, some are juvenile fiction and picture books. Descriptions were captured from the booktalks as they were being given and I was writing as fast as I could:

If the Creek Don’t Rise (adult) - fiction pairing with Hillbilly Elegy

In Other Lands (YA) - creative, LGBTQ, unique writing style, flipped gender

York (juvenile) - Alt history, steampunk elements, twins, apartment building as character

Origin - race against time, adventurous

Beautiful Blue World - moral character and compassion shown as strengths

Temeraire series (adult/YA crossover) - dragons ridden by crews, good for readers who liked John Flannigan’s Ranger Apprentice series

Year One by Nora Roberts - dystopic fantasy, steamy scenes but not graphic

America’s First Daughter (adult)- historical fiction about Jefferson’s daughter from 10 years old to old age, strong on moral dilemmas, good book club choice, cross-curriular

Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman - readalike for Coraline

Librarian of Auschwitz (YA) - historical fiction based on a 14 year old girl who became the caretaker of the 8 books at Auschwitz

They Both Die at the End (YA) - two boys living in a world where you know the day you’ll die, empowering, magnificent, and given thumbs up by three librarians

Song of the Lionness Quartet by Tamara Pierce (YA, juvenile)- “badass” female character, fantasy, knights, protaganist is 9 years old at series start, author has a new series coming out

Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu (YA)- set in Texas where football is king, has a Friday Nights Lights twist but with a feminist flavor, Amy Pohler liked it

Epic Crush of Genie Lo (YA)- journey of discovery in a comic book meets real life type of way with Chinese mythology

Sound of Gravel (adult) - nonfiction memoir of a child in a polygamist family with 38 brothers and sisters

Land of Stories (juvenile) - audiobook is a great family listen engaging all ages

Mosquito Land (YA) - audiobook that tackles hard topics like mental illness, blended families, and sexuality

Rot, the Cutest in the World (picture book) - must read funny book for kids and storytime where a rotten potato wants to compete in the cutest in the world contest

Wrinkle in Time (graphic novel) - movie coming out soon, good for teens

Grand Canyon by Jason Chin (nonfiction picture book) - Sue Abrahamson’s pick for the Sibert Award, written at a high level, great art, jam packed with information, Jan Brett-like borders with animals in them, multilevel read, end pages contain extra information

Most People (picture book) - universal themes that are a good answer to all the divisiveness in the world, message is that most people are good and kind

Martin Rising - newest from Andrea Davis Pinckney, great for diversity and civil rights displays

Cry Heart But Never Break (picture book) - translated from the Danish, a book about death who is personified to take Grandma, gives a soft message about grief

One Last Word by Nikki Grimes (nonfiction/poetry) - golden shovel style of poems from Harlem Renaissance poets, art is by different African-American illustrators

Wishtree (juvenile) - predicted to be a Newbery Award or honor book, slow moving but then punches you with emotion

Nowhere Girls by Amy Reed (YA) - Teenage girls have had enough, get ready to be mad, alternates perspectives with masculine rights movement, represents no girl but every girl

No More Reading for Junk: Best Practices for Motivating Readers (Professional Development) - timely regarding summer reading and prizes, a quick read about research from the educators’ point of view about intrinsic and extrinsic motivations to read

Lunar Chronicles series by Marissa Meyer (YA) - excellent as an audiobook

Claymates (picture book) - unique and fresh because the illustrations are take son clay models

Sparrow (juvenile) - a girl who likes birds is accused of attempting suicide for being up on a roof

Roll (juvenile) - a curl up and read it all the way through story by first time WI author Darcy Miller about pigeon competitions, featured on public TV

Price Guide to the Occult - From the author of The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender

On the Spot (picture book) - interactive with reusable stickers, good for preschool storytimes

They All Saw A Cat (picture book) - illustrations are colored by the viewers perspective of the cat, great for 1st grade audiences, use to talk about differences and how one sees things, good for a kindness unit

City of Ember (juvenile/YA) - an older but engaging audiobook with a positive portrayal of parents, dystopian fiction

Fortunately the Milk by Neil Gaiman - fantastical story about what happens to a dad who goes out for milk while the mom was out of town, used in a juvenile book club “Cookies & Milk” book club with small cup of milk and a cup of Cookie Crunch cereal, another programming idea is Book! Cook! Where older kids listen to a read-aloud while something is baked

A Hundred Billion Trillion Stars by Seth Fishman - diverse, about big numbers, great endnotes with extensive information, written numbers provided on pages as an aid to the reader, talks about extrapolation, takes the big picture and makes it personal

Refugee by Alan Gratz - a pick for an award or honor book, takes three children in different times and locations and connects them through the refugee experience, personalizes tragedy but sparks hope through a fictionalized account of real things that happened to real children