UW-Madison iSchool Spring Youth Courses

There are some great youth librarianship courses planned by the iSchool's Continuing Education Department this spring. These are great ways to add to your library knowledge and skillsets from your home  office or home. 

Sustainably Grow Your Summer Library Program

February 10 - March 9 (4 weeks)

• Online/asynchronous
• $165 (Register 2 weeks early for 10% off)
• Instructor: Dawn Tevis, La Crosse County Library

Looking for ways to keep your Summer Library Program (SLP) energized and relevant? This course will help you rework your programming in accordance with ALA’s sustainability guidelines, bringing environmentally sound, economically feasible, and socially equitable policies to your library. Learn how a sustainability mindset and the unique characteristics of your community can transform your SLP endeavors and bring resilience, potential, and change to your community. Then apply this knowledge and a wealth of ideas to develop a program that will fit into your upcoming summer library program plan.

Learning outcomes: 

• Understand the history and purpose of SLPs
• Explore sustainability as a core library value and its impact on your SLP strategy
• Evaluate the unique characteristics and possibilities of your location to determine innovative programming possibilities and partnerships
• Create a sustainable summer program plan rooted in your community’s needs to help ensure your SLP thrives now and into the future

This class is ideal for youth librarians and staff in both rural and urban areas who are new to the field, as well as those who have experience and want to re-energize themselves and their work with current sustainability-based best practices and innovations.  

For more info and to register, click here.

Connect and Engage: Effective Youth Outreach Strategies for Libraries

Feb 17-March 30 (6 weeks) 

• Online/asynchronous
• $275 (Register 2 weeks early for 10% off)
• Instructor: Brooke Newberry, La Crosse Public Library

Are you looking to reach a wider youth audience and engage the underserved community? In this course, we will focus on effective outreach strategies, tips and tricks, and essential tools to connect with the youth community. These include tools on how to evaluate your patron population, conduct a needs assessment, and form meaningful new partnerships in your community. Join us to learn how to create engaging, inclusive, and impactful programs that resonate with today’s youth.

By the end of this course, learners will: 

• Understand youth needs and trends
• Develop effective outreach programs
• Utilize new engagement strategies
• Form strategic partnerships
• Evaluate and improve outreach efforts
• Implement sustainable practices

This course is designed for any library worker looking to expand their outreach services or get a better understanding of outreach best practices for youth. 

For more info and to register, click here.

Playing Around: The Library’s Role in Playful Learning for Young Children

March 31 - May 11 (6 weeks)

• Online/asynchronous
• $275 (Register 2 weeks early for 10% off)
• Instructor: Kelsey Johnson-Kaiser, St. Paul (MN) Public Library

Play and learning are two sides of the same coin. Young children learn essential skills through play, yet access to play and play spaces is being reduced across the country. Libraries can serve a critical gap in any community by offering opportunities for free, safe, fun spaces that allow children and caregivers to play together. This course explores how to positively impact access to play and help children ages 0-5 thrive through a combination of theory-based learning and practical tools. We will focus on research about play and the ways play influences literacy; building a play culture in your library; and creating high-quality play spaces in a library of any size and any budget. Participants will emerge with an understanding of the ways libraries can support play and how to make change at their own institution. 

Learning outcomes:

• Understand of the importance of play for children’s healthy development
• Understand and be able to articulate the role of libraries in supporting playful learning
• create a basic play philosophy for their libraries
• Develop a personalized play plan for their libraries
• Identify sustainable strategies for play space maintenance

Who should take this class?  Staff who serve youth ages 0-5 in public libraries.

For more information and to register, click here.

Creating a Welcoming Space for Immigrant and Refugee Families

April 7 -May 4 (4 weeks)

• Online/asynchronous
• $165 (Register 2 weeks early for 10% off)
• Instructor: Jacqui Kociubuk, UW-Madison iSchool PhD Candidate

While immigrant and refugee children and families are a growing presence in many of our communities, it is difficult to know how we can best serve them. Through this course, you will learn about and explore best practices for cultivating a welcoming space and supportive library services to immigrant and refugee children and families both in and beyond the physical library walls.

Learning outcomes:

• Understand how to create a welcoming library space for immigrant and refugee families.
• Explore strategies for cultivating trust and building relationships between immigrant families, the community, and the library.
• Learn best practices and approaches for providing services, resources, and programs to immigrant and refugee children and families.
• Identify and assess opportunities for community partnerships to help expand and support services to immigrant and refugee families.

This course is designed for library staff who are interested in learning more about how to connect with and design library programs, services, and resources for children and families who are New Americans, immigrants, and/or refugees.

For more information and to register, click here.

Tutorial: What are all of these Literacies? An Overview of New & Foundational Literacies for Librarians and Educators

• Online & Self-paced
• Cost: $100.00
• Tutorial Designer: Layla Coleman

The number of literacies that individuals are being asked to establish and maintain in order to participate in today’s society continues to change and grow. With the advent of new literacies and shifts in the ways that schools are teaching foundational measures of literacy, what is an information professional to do? This course overviews the wide array of literacies that anyone working in library or youth spaces may need to understand, teach, or create programming around. These include but are not limited to: school-based measures of foundational literacy (including “leveled readers”, the science of reading, and balanced literacy approaches) and digital literacy, media literacy, and information literacy.

In this tutorial, learners will

• Explore the origins of foundational literacy (the abilities to read, write, and communicate) and identify how foundational literacies are frequently approached in school settings.
• Examine how children and youth establish digital literacies and media literacies.
• Consider the social and cultural factors that impact literacies and how libraries can be influential in literacy development.
• Discuss how information literacy guidance and programming has changed in library and education spaces.
• Reflect on the different ways that literacy learning intersects and connects with your own library’s needs, resources, and programming.

This is a self-paced course that will be available for access as soon as you register. You have up to one year from your registration date to complete the course.

You will automatically receive instructions for setting up your account after you register. Once your login information is set up, please access the course at http://canvas.wisc.edu.

For more information and to register, click here.