the shrinking librarian

Mar 29

For Young Readers, a Chance to Work Off Library Debt - NYTimes.com

The system’s “Read Down Your Fees’’ program, which has existed for several years, has proved popular, drawing a steady crowd of users, especially after school, to many of the 62 branches that make up the Queens Library system. For every half-hour that children read, $1 is knocked off their fines.

One of my libraries has a similar program! We also let kids read off their fines (I confess we’re a little more generous with time than this example, a half hour gets you more than $1). If the kids don’t have a fine, they can earn snacks. We get readers after school every day!

Aug 12

teachingliteracy:

Story Room

Cleveland Heights-University Heights Public Library

by annethelibrarian

(via librarianista)

Jul 9

Kids Birthday Parties in Libraries? | Disruptive Library Technology Jester

“Do public libraries host birthday parties for children as part of their programming? I was with my son at a party for one of his friends a local bouncy inflatables place and happened to be thinking about library stuff while waiting for him to finish bouncing around. Suddenly (for me, at least) the two topics came together. A quick Google search for “library birthday parties” shows one promising hit at the Cambridge Springs Public Library but the rest seemed to be birthday parties for libraries or librarian-themed birthday parties. My son gave a noncommittal shrug when I asked him if he wanted his next party at the local library branch — that may be why they are not so common, but I wondered if anyone else had heard of libraries doing this.”

Jun 17

Rescuing Reading: Six-minute Lexile Video Part 1

“When a child outgrows a shoe size, they can’t go back to wearing that size. They must move up. There is no other choice. It is not the same at all with reading. Kids can read at widely varying levels on any one day. Perhaps they read a comic book or magazine in the morning, their science textbook at school and an instruction manual for their new electronic toy in the afternoon and a favorite fiction author in the evening. These materials will all be written at different levels, and the decision to read each one is made for entirely different reasons.”

(via LISNews)

Jun 5

A Facility Forever Young

What do young people want?

When it comes to library space, they’re inclined to seek sophisticated yet comfortable areas. In a focus group that gave teens the opportunity to advise librarians and architects charged with designing the new Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Public Library, their wishes were simple: Skip the clashes of color that might be considered cool or edgy, library Director Bob Pasicznyuk recalls them saying. Instead, teens said they wanted a dynamic space that evokes the atmosphere of a coffee shop. More than video games, these teens talked about “lots of great books” as a feature of young adult space, Pasicznyuk said.

The work of OPN Architects, Inc. will allow Cedar Rapids teens to have all this and more.

The way this design emphasizes the collections is interesting, especially during a time when many libraries aren’t focusing on holdings so much as technology and community space. It certainly sounds like CRPL’s been talking to their users, so I’m not trying to make a value judgment. It’s just interesting.

Apr 21

It’s not every day I’m scrolling down my dash and see something I recognize like this…

The Book Nook, located in the children’s room at the Iowa City Public Library.

This Library playhouse is just the right size for young children to explore and was built out of hundreds of discarded children’s books by Nathan Nissen, a University of Iowa Civil Engineering graduate student. The Book Nook was finished and painted by Iowa City artist Deanne Wortman and her woodworker son, Eric Wortman.

Follow the link to Flickr for pictures of the hand-painted interior.

(via libraryland)

Apr 15

“On my second day of work in the Central Library’s Youth Wing, my supervisor sent me out to the stacks and told me to start reading. I discovered almost immediately a powerful secret. When I was reading the children’s books I could hear something I had thought was gone forever: my mother’s voice. As I turned the pages of There is a Monster at The End of this Book I could hear her as throaty Grover begging me not to turn the pages. In Rosemary Wells’ Noisy Nora I relived the naughty thrill of the refrain “Nora, said her sister, Why are you so dumb?” I was not allowed to call my brother dumb, but in a book it was allowed, and my mother would say it! When I turned the moody pages of The Runaway Bunny and heard her gentle nighttime voice reading “‘If you become a sailboat and sail away from me,’ said his mother, ‘I will become the wind and blow you where I want you to go.’” I slumped on the floor between the shelves, bowed my head to the book in my lap, and cried.”

Lies told by the Children’s Librarian

A beautiful story by my friend Emily about her life as a children’s librarian.

(via nancymartira)

(via bainzie)

Aug 23

Stuffed Animals “sleep over” at Princeton Public Library

Here is how we advertised this program:

Bring your favorite stuffed animal or doll for a sleepover at the library. After a lively evening of stories, music and poems at Family Story Time, tuck the animals in and say goodnight. Come back the next day between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. to pick them up and find out what mischief they got into during the night.

I am so in love with this idea, I can’t even adequately describe it. Stars in my eyes, I tell you! And it works on so many different levels: it’s fun for the kids, it’s fun for the librarians, it utilizes technology and even highlights different areas of the library. A+, Princeton Public Library!

Jul 31

The perfect gift for bookworms with authority

The Little Librarian kit lets my kids turn their stack of favorite books into their own mini-library, complete with library cards, book pockets and even overdue slips for those forgetful borrowers. (via LISNews)

Jul 27

Now showing: A sense of community

With a borrowed projector from the university and a window shade as a makeshift screen, [Sage Holben] shows a few movies almost every weekend. The films, though, are a mere backdrop for a richer tableau involving more than a dozen kids from a half-dozen ethnic backgrounds.

“It’s about people accepting each other. They treat each other with respect on our porch,” said Holben, 64, who rents the second floor of the Victorian house, which has three other tenants. “Having the movie night is as much about conversation as it is about the movie. The development of trust in the neighborhood has been really awesome.” (via LISNews)

This article isn’t strictly library-centric, although Holben is a librarian herself. Still, the community spirit demonstrated by these movie events is something that I’m sure most librarians strive for in their libraries. It is, as Andy from LISNews said, “a pretty inspiring story.”