Tuesday Tips - CD Spinner Craft

Sam Jones is the Youth Services Librarian at the Beaver Dam Public Library. She shares tips to make your job easier in her Tuesday posts.

One of our monthly programs is Craft Club, an all ages and abilities craft on a Thursday morning. One craft that went over well with the crowd was a CD Spinner. 

We had a ton of old, discarded CDs, so this was a great upcycled craft and super easy to do. Participants decorated the CD with Sharpies and stickers, hot glued a marble to the bottom of the CD in the hole in the middle, hot glued a recycled water bottle cap to the top, and- BOOM- a CD spinner. 

This is also a great fidget toy. I regularly spin mine around at my desk. 

Tuesday Tips - Perler Beads

Sam Jones is the Youth Services Librarian at the Beaver Dam Public Library. She shares tips to make your job easier in her Tuesday posts.

This month, I had my most popular Teen Zone activity to date. At my library, Teen Zone is our meeting space that I open up after school for middle and high schoolers to come and hang out. At one of our Teen Advisory Board meetings, someone suggested making perler bead designs as an activity. When I set it up, almost everyone who came in the room sat down to make something. I even extended it to a three-day event instead of the planned one-day event because they still had ideas of things to make. 

I noticed that the teens liked to do their own designs more than the shaped pegboards. They were also super creative in what they were making. One person made Mike Wazowski from Monsters Inc., which was so cool. Alot of them also really enjoyed the tweezers that came in the pack I bought, which I wasn't expecting. I am definitely buying more when we do this next. I also heard of a mini vacuum that picks up perler beads that I might buy too because the beads got everywhere (mostly from me.. oops). If anyone has a strong opinion on the perler bead vacuum, please let me know. 

Overall, it was a lowkey program that people really seemed to enjoy. One of the teens said that they found using perler beads to be really relaxing. This is definitely something I would run again for them. 

All -Ages Programming Idea

Image by Ennelise Napoleoni-Bianco from Pixabay

In youth services work, some contend that teen programs must be open only to teens and not younger kids. The concern is that teens won't come to a program that isn't theirs alone.

A recent Teen Services Underground blog post shared a very popular program they developed (evolved) that serves K-12 kids. [All Ages Adventure Hour! Ingham, Jenna. Teen Services Underground blog. September 19, 2022]

What do you think?

Throw-it Thursday - What to Do with Discards

Ashley Borman, Technical Services Librarian at the Clintonville (WI) Public Library and YSS board member, is back with her monthly column. She wants to help you with the question...

"I Threw it in the discard pile...Now What Can I Do with It?"

Last month, I recommended a Booklist article that gave some great weeding advice. One of the things it talked about was what to do with those discards. Well, obviously you can sell them (or your Friends group can), or give them away, or recycle them. But do you ever repurpose them? 

There are some great crafting ideas you can do with books or book pages. I help run an adult crafting program at my library and over the years we have done a few book crafts. Book pumpkins, folded book art, and more. If you have an excessive number of discarded books and not enough space to store them before the next book sale, think about having a craft night or making some crafting to-go kits.

Here are just a few things you can do with discarded books (and they make great library decorations)!

Throw-It Thursday: Crafting Conundrums

Question: How do you know when it’s time to get rid of a crafting book? Do you go by last checkout date? Condition? Age? The answer: yes to all of the above. There is a fine balance we walk when it comes to certain parts of our collection. Crafting books are one such area. It seems like they are always getting checked out, whether they are shiny and new, or falling apart or just plain ugly! It’s kind of a conundrum. Some books are so old you just wish you could throw them out, but they are the only books on a specific topic and patrons still use them. Others might look brand new, but not be used frequently.

Obviously, if an item hasn’t circ’ed in 5 years, get rid of it! Why are you holding on to that junk?! Unless it’s a really rare item for a specific type of craft that has limited books (but even then, no one’s using it, so WHY ARE YOU SAVING IT?!). Those crafting books that are well loved and falling apart have lived their best life: time to move on (If they are relatively new, you could look into replacing them, but with as many crafting books as are produced, I recommend replacing them with newer titles on the subject if you can). If you have a crafting book that is thirty years old, and it LOOKS like it was made in the ‘80s or ’90s, you probably don’t want to hang on to it (those pictures do NOT age well, have you seen some of the awful styles from back then?!), whether or not it gets circ’s. Make room for some newer, more eye-catching titles!

I know this doesn’t necessarily seem like an easy answer. Finding the right balance between popular, well-used items and newer, nicer items to replace the old and cruddy crafting books can be difficult, and varies from library to library. However, by weeding out old, gross, and non-circulating materials, you can help create a more visually appealing collection, as well as promoting newer materials you have.

 

Plus, the discards can also make good weapons!

Until next month, my weeding peeps. Stay safe and healthy!

Guest post by: Ashley Borman, Technical Services Librarian, Clintonville Public Library