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| Image by Dimitris Vetsikas from Pixabay |
Jaime writes: "Meltdowns. While we hope they won’t happen at the library, we know they probably will. Ask any storytime veteran: at some point, screaming, crying, or some other manner of meltdown will visit your storytime. What can you do? Today, I’m sharing five tips from my own storytime experience."
Stop here to read her tips. [Meltdowns: Expecting the Unexpected in Storytime. Eastman, Jaime. ALSC blog. March 2, 2025.]
A recent ALSC blog post by Christine Herman gives some great tips to share with this wonderful co-workers to help them feel comfortable working with kids if they don't regularly interact with them.
Christine writes: "You never signed up to work with kids, you never expected to work with kids… and yet, here you are, covering the Children’s Department. This is a pretty common scenario, and it can be frustrating for people who worry they’re out of their depth or those who just feel rusty or out of place. Even for people who have had children of their own, suddenly dealing with strangers’ children can be an alarming experience!"
Please stop here to find all her practical tips for interacting successfully with kids. [Top Tips for Working with Kids (When You Don't Usually Work with Kids. Herman, Christine. ASLC blog. May 5, 2024.]
Raina writes: "The toddler meltdown! We’ve all seen it in the library whether it is in storytime, in the stacks, or at the checkout stations. How can children’s librarians assist little patrons and their adult caregiver in a time of need like this but in a subtle and gentle way? Calming kits! Children’s librarian, Elizabeth Bartholomew and I explored different options of what could be included in calming kits and drew inspiration from elements that we’ve seen on social media, at other libraries, and of course on Pinterest. We wanted to come up with something simple and helpful that young children and adult caregivers could utilize anywhere, not just at the library."
Click here to see what the kits contain and how they are working out. [Calming Kits for Toddlers and Caregivers. Tuakoi, Raina. ALSC blog. November 26, 2023.]
Jennifer begins her post: "It's been a little over three years since life as we knew it came to a screeching halt with one word: coronavirus. We were caught completely off guard, as were all levels of government and healthcare. No one was prepared for a pandemic; no one had policies and procedures in place to deal with such a threat. Most of the country shut down for 2-4 weeks in order to slow the spread so our health care system wouldn't become completely overwhelmed as had happened in other countries.
Many naively thought it would be over after that, and things would go right back to normal. But of course that's not how pandemics work. Others thought once a vaccine was available, that would be it and things would go back to normal. But of course they didn't, as many people refused to be vaccinated and the virus continued to evolve. Now, three years later the pandemic is considered to be "over," but that doesn't mean the virus is gone; it just means that enough of the population has acquired at least partial immunity, through vaccination or infection, and the virulence of the virus has lessened to the point that it is no longer a crisis, bur has become endemic. So, this means things are back to normal, right? Not exactly."
To read the full post, please stop here. [The New Normal. Sullivan, Jennifer. Adventures in Storytime (and Beyond) blog. May 29, 2023]
Austin writes: "In late 2021 we started to see some real challenges with how our teens and our non-teen-staff were interacting. The massive amount of unfocused energy our middle schoolers especially bring into the library space and the larger clumps they tend to travel in on Fridays were intimidating to some of our staff, and even in the Teen Center there were behavior struggles. We were also fighting a losing battle against the remnants of straws, Takis bags, and anything else they could get their hands on to destroy while they were hanging out from becoming Teen Center decor. Despite our best efforts, monitoring clean-up for waves of middle schoolers coming and going from a room full of at least forty of them at a time with that much unstructured energy was not feasible – banning food and drinks long term isn’t an option for us either."
The solutions - genius! They can be easily adopted at any library. Stop here to read about how they made lemonade out of lemons with their unfocused teens. [Programming with Constructive Destruction. Ferraro, Austin. Teen Librarian Toolbox. School Library Journal. March 17, 2022]
In a recent ALC blog post, Liz Purdy wrote: "All children’s librarians have been there. You’re at the front of the room, trying to interest a group of preschoolers in a carefully curated selection of storytime books and songs, and rhymes. But there’s a current of conversation coming from a corner of the room. Is it a parent interacting with their child? No! It’s two adults carrying on a conversation with one another without regard to the disruption they are causing.
Or how about this one? You’ve put on a song, and it is dance time! But wait! There are at least five caregivers who are glued to their phones. You try to make eye contact, but you’re not on their radar at all. It’s so frustrating! We expect inattention from children. It is developmentally appropriate. But adults are a whole different matter."
Then Liz lists a number of helpful tips and strategies to help you re-direct those grown-ups in a warm, helpful and supportive way.
Check out those tips here. [Essential Storytime Skills: Handling Grown-ups. Purdy, Liz. ALSC blog. February 19, 2023.]
