About This Blog

This blog started out back in 2015 as a challenge from my then 12-year old son, who was a self-proclaimed computer genius. He seems to be under the impression that computers and the internet didn't exist until his generation for some reason; he thinks he knows everything about computers and I know nothing. Anyway, one night he was scoffing at my computer skills and said I didn't even know how to blog. Now, I'd never had a reason to blog, but I'm not one to back down from a challenge :)

So, I thought for a minute about what I could blog about, and decided since I found other storytime blogs to be very helpful I would start one of my own, from the unique perspective of someone who is just starting out, and was not yet a librarian. I popped over to Blogger, and voila, in a few minutes I had the bare bones of a blog, and by the next day I had written my bio and several posts to be published over the next few days. I showed it to a few people who thought it was good, and encouraged me to continue, and I have.  

I hope others who are interested in children's literature, storytime, or youth services in general find it useful. I try to not just show what books and activities I use, but WHY I chose them, and how they worked, and I include some commentary about various things related to youth services. Over time the scope has evolved along with my career to include school-aged programs, family programs, various bibliographies, and whatever else I had going on at work or in my now-completed MLIS program. So now this block is a hodge-podge of storytimes, various other programs, collection development, and commentary of various issues in youth services, or whatever soapbox issue has provoked me.

While I do enjoy doing storytime and programming in general, it is not my only professional interest or ability. I now have my dream job as the youth services manager for a smaller, single library, and as such I do (or at least oversee) it all: customer service, programming for birth through teen, summer reading, collection development, community outreach, reader's advisory, reference, etc., plus continuing professional development and service. I love variety and interacting with patrons of all ages, and I am committed to reducing barriers and promoting diversity.

Visit my Facebook Page "Adventures In Storytime" and "Like" it for another way to follow my posts and join in the discussion. I really would like to hear from some of you! You can also contact me by email at AdventuresInStorytime@gmail.com.

If you would like to see my book reviews and ratings for middle-grade, YA, and adult books, please visit my Goodreads profile, though I have only been actively using it since 2017.

For archived posts related to other types of programming, older book reviews of middle-grade and YA literature, and commentary on other library topics prior to July 1, 2017, please visit my short-lived and now retired second blog, Jen's Library Tales.

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