Tuesday's Topic: Summer Reading Club

Many of you are starting registration or programs for Summer Reading for the children and teens this week. I am starting registration this week. We have a kickoff program on the 13th to celebrate the beginning of sign ups. A singer/performer Emily Ellison is coming. The official first day of signups though is this Thursday the 9th. The way we are doing it at my library is like this. We are having a flea market and at the flea market, I have a page and a volunteer sitting at a table registering children for summer reading, giving them their incentive prize and signing them up for programs. We are also going to have them sign petitions, make postcards etc. for advocacy.

Do you guys have a target number? I believe ours is 700 customers (kids, teens and adults). I remember in the past if you met or exceeded the target number, you got a pizza party.

I'm doing 2 programs for school age (craft and games) and one program for storytime but two sessions. I may have some other programs too, partly depending if I am laid off (I could be laid off August 4th, if the money is not reinstated). If you know anyone in NYS esp. NYC encourage them to write to their politicians to save the libraries.

We always have a summer reading party this summer, but because of what I said above, I don't know how that will work this year. Depending on how many kids, I may have two parties.

If you like, please post what you do for Summer Reading.

Books on my list to read for children's Literature

1. When My Name was Keoko by Linda Sue Park
2. Hatch by Roxie Munro
3. Lunchlady series by Jarrett Krosoczka
4. Hooray for Amanda and her Alligator by Mo Willems
5. On Market Street-Anita Lobel
6. Ellie Mc Doodle Series
7. Ivy and Bean Series
8. Allie Finkle Series
9. Judy Moody Series
10. My Weird School
11. Amber Brown Series
12. Dodsworth Series
13. Liz Kessler's new series
14. Main Street series
15. Poison Apple series
16. Percy Jackson Series
17. Charlie the Ranch Dog by Ree Drummond
18. Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein
19. Little White Rabbit by Kevin Henkes
20. A Sick Day for Amos McKee by Phillip C. Stead
21. Gerald and Piggie Series by Mo Willems
22. Lost Hero by Rick Riordan
23. Dork Diaries Series
24. Big Nate Series
25. Emerald Atlas by John Stephens
26. Theodore Boone-John Grisham
27. When you Reach Me-Rebecca Stead
28. NERDS series by Michael Buckley
29. 39 Clues series
30. Penderwicks Trilogy

Wow, looks like I'll have a lot to read this summer. Sounds great though. Do you all have any suggestions I should add to my list? What is on your list to read this summer in children's literature? Next week is Young Adult Literature.

Friday's Topic: Flannel Fridays

For today's Flannel Friday (or as I like to call it the topic of anything relating to toddler/preschool storytime), I am actually going to talk about flannelboards. I have to admit, we got some really great premade flannelboard sets, so I haven't made too many of my own. The only two I have that I made are a turkey one and a duck one. I'll have to get pictures of all these soon, when I can get a hold of the library camera (it's locked up). For now, I'll tell you about the ones I have. They include: Very Hungry Caterpillar, Napping House, Snowy Day, Polar Bear Polar Bear, What do you Hear?, Go Away Big Green Monster, Goldilocks and the Three Bears and it looked like Split Milk. I also inherited a few from the last librarian like one about Spiders and several others.

Thursday's Topic: Author Encounters Real or Virtual

Here is your change to mention any author encounters you have had. This includes virtual or real. I included some of my encounters at BEA (from 2 years ago) last week. I also have met in person Elizabeth Scott and Raina Telegmeier at my library. Virtually, I "met" Jane Yolen, Melanie H Greenberg, Elizabeth Dulemba and Roxie Munro. Also I have met virtually, Sabrina Jeffries, Julia Quinn and Eloisa James.

Just to add Thursday's topic next week will be a miscellaneous topic. Feel free to talk about whatever you like!

Emergency post: Save Libraries

Check out this upcoming events to Save Libraries in NYC..if you live there,  see this link...

Mayor Bloomberg may have control of the budget, but the internet is for the people my friends. Let's use our librarian powers of persuasion to get the word out about saving NYC libraries and library workers.


 such as Hug the Library (http://tinyurl.com/4xu8not), and ), the 24-Hour Read-In (http://tinyurl.com/3pqu976),  Thanks.

My name

My name is Michelle M. I feel funny putting my whole name on here for privacy reasons. But someone asked for my name and I am putting it up.

Wednesday General Library Topics: Computers @ the Library

Here's several questions to think about regarding computers in your library. Do you have some sort of electronic reservation system like SAM? Do you limit how much time they can use the computer? Does any children use the computer for research? Do kids crowd around your computers?

Here's my answers to the questions. We do have an electronic reservation system which is SAM. It does break down and have problems from time to time but its good because kids cannot use the computer over 1 hour and only 1/2 at a time and if its busy, they must electronically make a reservation and only take 1/2 at a time. The computer lets them know when its their turn. Some kids do use the computer for research and I try to inform them that google or wikipedia aren't foolproof research tools and I tell them about our research databases for kids and kid friendly search engines. We did have kids crowd around the computer and when it had gotten bad, I shut off the computer. We used to ONLY have ONE computer, now we have 4. It's a lot better.