Just Wondering - Engaging Our Communities

This month's column by Manitowoc (WI) Public Library Youth Librarian Susie Menk is thinking about how we stay engaged with our community. And she's wondering....what do you think?

Image by Gordon Johnson from Pixabay 

What are you doing to engage your community this summer?  

Community engagement is one of the newest buzzwords in the library world.  Summer reading is probably one of the best ways to get out into the community. In response to the pandemic many libraries added Storywalks to engage patrons while closed or having limited program offerings for the last few summers.  Now that summer is upon us again, our programs are getting back on track.  

Our library has made it a point to focus on community engagement this summer. Our recent effort has been summer reading sign up.  A co-worker and I worked on developing outreach and engagement opportunities to bring summer reading sign up to our patrons at different venues besides the library.  We went to our local Farmer’s Market, a local brewery, and this week we will be at a local ice cream parlor.  We contacted the brewery and the ice cream parlor ahead of our visits and they agreed to give out free items if patrons signed up for the program.  The brewery gave out 5 ounces of free beer and the ice cream parlor is giving out a free vanilla ice cream cone. 

Our summer storytime is also hitting the road again this year.  Over the past few summers we’ve changed up how we do our storytimes. We’ve left the storytime room behind instead having it outside as well as in other places around our community–the zoo, the parks, and the aquatic center, to name a few.  Our storytime families have really enjoyed getting outside and listening to stories on the grass.  We find that families even stick around longer at the venues to enjoy more quality time with other families and friends.

Another big event we have been doing the last few years is Touch the Trucks.  We have trucks attend from many city and county agencies but also from local businesses.  Last year we had about 12 different groups bring trucks or tractors or large equipment of some sort.  These groups love this event and I even had someone call recently and wonder why we had not previously reached out to them.  Each year we get more people participating and since it’s an outside event it’s simple to run. Kids and adults alike look forward to this event every year.  

So…what are you doing in your community?  How are you engaging your patrons outside of the library building?  Are you excited to be out and about in your community?  Share your stories!!

Literacy Promotion in Laundromats: Reaching Families in Everyday Spaces

The post Literacy Promotion in Laundromats: Reaching Families in Everyday Spaces appeared first on ALSC Blog.

"For years children’s librarians have capitalized on the potential of reaching families in everyday spaces, like local laundromats. Families spend an average of 2.5 hours during each visit to the laundromat—a place where they routinely visit about once a week. Over the past five years, Too Small to Fail, the early childhood initiative of the Clinton Foundation, has been leading a partnership with the LaundryCares Foundation to transform laundromats across the country into playful, literacy-rich environments for children and families. These “Family Read, Play & Learn” spaces are designed to meet families where they are and encourage parents to engage in language-rich activities like talking, reading, and singing during laundry time. Each space provides a set of high-quality tools and resources, including a book shelf, an assortment of bilingual children’s books, furniture, engaging laundry-themed posters with parent-child conversation prompts, and a variety of other early literacy toys and materials. These kits have been purchased by laundromat owners and early literacy groups nationwide who are committed to helping children learn and believe in the power of their space to make a positive impact on the families they serve.


Dr. Susan Neuman, Professor of Childhood and Literacy Education at New York University conducted a pilot evaluation of the “Family Read, Play & Learn” spaces throughout laundromats in low-income communities in New York City. In the first phase, researchers compared three “treatment” laundromats—which included the “Family Read, Play & Learn” spaces—to three “control” laundromats that did not include the spaces. The research revealed that children engaged in 30 times more literacy-rich activities in laundromats with our literacy play spaces compared to the control sites. In the second phase, librarians from New York, Queens, and Brooklyn Public Libraries were brought in to conduct weekly story times at the laundromat. By adding librarians to the space, there was a significant value added to these spaces. Researchers found that during story times led by librarians, the average stay per child increased to 47 minutes, representing a substantial amount of sustained engagement in early literacy activities.

As evident in the research, an integral part of this initiative involves bringing community supports and literacy programming to these laundromat spaces, inviting local libraries and librarians to conduct family story times at these spaces. Our goal is to install these spaces into thousands of laundromats across the country.. and our hope is to partner with libraries across the country to promote children’s literacy development—one laundry load at a time.

Libraries, please join our national movement! Too Small to Fail and the LaundryCares Foundation are seeking to partner with librarians to lead story times in laundromats within their local communities. This is an incredible opportunity for librarians to form new community partnerships and reach children in some of the most underserved communities in our country. If you are interested in joining our national movement, please contact Kari Kurjiaka at kkurjiaka@clintonfoundation.org. To learn more about Too Small to Fail, please visit www.toosmall.org or www.laundrycares.org/kits for information about the “Family, Read, Play & Learn” spaces.

Today’s guest blogger is Kari Kurjiaka. Kara is a Program Associate at Too Small to Fail.

If you’d like to write a guest post for the ALSC Blog, please contact Mary Voors, ALSC Blog manager, at alscblog@gmail.com."

Pop-Up Story Times

Recently, mentalfloss.com shared an article about how Chicago Public Library is holding weekly story times in various laundromats throughout some of the more underserved areas of the city.  How brilliant is that?!

We all know the importance of stories and early literacy skills--preaching to the choir, aimirite?--and we all know that, for some families, making it to the physical library for scheduled storytimes and programs just isn't a feasible option.

If staff and resources allow, why not meet families where they are, increasing both the convenience and accessibility of your program?

Similar "Wash and Learn" programs have appeared in a number of other cities around the nation, including St. Paul, New York City, and Detroit, all thanks to the collaborative efforts of Libraries Without Borders and the LaundryCares Foundation.

Read the article HERE.

What other locations have you used for out-of-the-box/out-of-the-library storytimes?  Perhaps you've read at a local farmer's market?  Maybe you've collaborated with your local parks district to hold storytimes in the park?  Tell us in the comments below!                                                                         
                               

Upcoming Webinar - YSS Powerhouse Presents: Transforming Collections

Pixabay image

Ever heard of Picture Book City? Thinking about how a tween collection might work at your library? Join us for a webinar on April 1, 2016 at 10:00 AM CDT hosted by the Indianhead Federated Library System (IFLS), and will be archived and made available in early April.

Reprising their popular 2015 WLA Conference session, YSS members Kelsey Johnson-Kaiser (LaCrosse) and Katherine Elchert (Rice Lake) will discuss their experiences with the process of creating nontraditional collections, how the changes affect circulation and patrons, and how you can start defining your community’s needs and build creative collections of your own.  


Registration link:  https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/6210462060122888962

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.