Tuesday's Topic: Pen Pal Programs

When I was working at my first library out in Long Island, we did a pen pal program. Basically, how it worked was my supervisor, the Head of Children's Services coordinated with another Head of Children's Services through a listserv (maybe Pubyac?) from Canada and we created pen pal match sheets with questions about their favorite things. Then, on our end on Long Island, we matched the children by age, gender and interests. We gave them a packet with an envelope with a stamp, some stationary, pencil, pen pal door sign (they can color it in), stickers, directions about writing an international letter and postage.

Well, I would like to do this program again in my library in Queens, Ny but on a smaller scale. I was thinking this fall, with the part time librarian, we could pair up with a library in Queens and have the kids write one another, using similar criteria like I did in the Long Island library. I would give them a similar packet. The positive part is at the end, we can either meet the other library in person or on Skype.

Has anyone else done this type of program? If so, how did you do it and how did you pair up with a library?

Monday Makeup Topic: Favorite Series at your library

I decided not to post on the holiday and post two topics today. I was wondering what series are popular in your library and how you determine which series to order. And have you read any of them yourself?

The most popular series in my library (which is a suburban library in a urban area (NYC) are: Rainbow Fairies, Captain Underpants, any series by Rick Riordan, A to Z Mysteries, Magic Tree House, Candy and Poison Apple, Geronimo Stilton, Nancy Drew, Goosebumps, Junie B. Jones and Warriors. Some of these are long time favorites as you probably recognize by the series names.

Children are pretty forthcoming in what series they like. We do order books based on customer requests. I initally got a list of popular series when I first started from my library mentor. Later I found there was a list through our system's Juvenile Collection Development department. Sometimes I check and see what others libraries in the system order.

I am a diehard fan for Warriors. I have read every one except the new one. I love that series to bits! I have read Candy Apple and Beacon Street but I am not addicted to those like the Warriors.

Looking forward to hearing your responses!

Flannel Fridays: Songs in Storytime

I didn't realize it is Flannel Fridays. I'm new to the twitter/blogoverse. I guess on Flannel Fridays, we talk about things we do in our storytimes, songs, flannelboards, stories etc? Well today I want to talk about what CDs (if you use any) in storytimes. Right now our library doesn't really have any money but I am sure that will change at some point (hopefully soon) and when we do, I'd love to get some new CDS for storytime. Any recommendations?

For school librarians, I'm very curious what kind of thing you do with the kindergarteners (and pre-k) if you have them for your lessons with them.

Meeting Authors at BEA

Has anyone met any good authors at BEA this year? If so who? If not this year, have you met any in the past? If you did go to BEA, who would you want to meet? I went to BEA two years ago and I met the following authors: Valerie Tripp (American Girl), Kate DiCamillo, Judy Schachner, and several others. It was fun.

On an unrelated note I went to the library rally at the City Hall of NYC. I think it was helpful.

General Library Topic: Library Fundraising

Early this June, to help raise money for the library for books and all (book budget was frozen), we are having our first ever Flea Market/Sale at our library. This was the brainchild of the manager and the Friends of the Library. I have to say I think its a great idea. Have your libraries ever done an event like this? I know many libraries have the book sales, but I was wondering if any of you at your libraries have done other types of fundraising events. What were they? Where they successful? I'll keep you posted about this event!

Tuesday's Topic: Library Advocacy Programming

   I work and live in NYC, which is experiencing a major budget crisis. I work for Queens Library and we would experience a 30% cut if the City Council doesn't help us out (and Michelle won't be able to get a new pair of shoes when she gets laid off). In all seriousness, we decided to do library advocacy to reach out to our council people, to get them to try to help us.
   One program idea I had and has been done in other libraries across NYC, is a Save the Library design a postcard program. We did this yesterday and received 30 postcards. This is how it worked. We found a postcard template, added in the councilman's information, added in a box that said..I Love my Library because... We encouraged the children to draw a picture relating to libraries on the front and a message on the back. We added their first names and the library's address. They had fun with this and we will do it again on Wednesday.

  Have any of you experienced any budget cuts that threatened the following: your job, book budget, hours and other staffing and programs? If so, have you done any advocacy to try to help prevent the cuts?

 The importance of libraries needs to be heard across the US by our politicians. Whether you do or do not experience budget cuts (and most of you out there probably do), please email or write your politicians and explain how important libraries are to you. Thank you.

Organization of Blog

I would like to post here about 5 days a week..with a topic related to a daily theme. It would look like this (with some variation)

Monday: Children's Literature Topic
Tuesday: Programming Topic
Wednesday: General Library Topic
Thursday: Author Encounters and Literary Events Topic
Friday: Follow Friday (pick whatever library topic you would like to talk about)

and occasionally some other surprise topics.

Great links for storytime

http://goo.gl/wDllN Multnomah County Library site

http://goo.gl/oKqpU Hennepin County Library site

http://goo.gl/KZzAQ Johnson County Library site

http://goo.gl/mLjVY Iowa Library resources site

http://goo.gl/NsXcD Wilmette Public Library (Illinois)

http://goo.gl/c8TWY Growing Readers from Mid Hudson Library System

Do you use these links? Work at these libraries? Have some of your own favorites?

My top 10 picture books

Top Ten Picture Books:

1. Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

2. Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes

3. Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown

4. Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See? by Bill Martin and Eric Carle

5. Any book in the Froggie series by Jonathan London

6. Piggies by Audrey and Don Wood

7. How do Dinosaurs Series by Jane Yolen

8. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin

9. Keeping Quilt by Patricia Polacco

10. Strega Nona books by Tomie DePaola

Agree or disagree?

Introduction

Hi. I started this blog to connect with other children's librarians. I want to share and swap resources with fellow librarians and learn what everyone enjoys about this great profession. I'll probably post book reviews, program summaries and other related things. Thanks for listening!