Public Library Association Conference 2020

I have gone to a couple of small, local children's literature conferences before, but this was the first year I was able to go to a big library conference. I've been planning on going to this one for at least two years, once I realized it would be held in Nashville, which is only a 3-1/2 hour drive for me.

I have one word to describe it: Overwhelming! The conference center was huge, a bit confusing to navigate, and there were so many things going on at once it was hard to decide what to do! There were big keynote sessions each day, but they started at 8:00 am, so I opted to skip them in favor of more sleep. There were so many breakout sessions, and it's always hard to decide which ones to go to. The ones that sound most relevant to what I do usually aren't telling me anything I don't already know, the ones that sound interesting aren't really of much use to me because I am not in a position that has any power to make decisions or effect any change, some are of no interest, and others sound good, and turn out to be complete duds.

I was only able to go to a day and a half because of other obligations and the hotel was ridiculously expensive, but I crammed as many sessions in as I could. They were all a little different, but had two overarching themes in common: removing barriers to service, and being more intentional in designing programs and services, particularly outreach, to decrease equity and opportunity gaps. I really wish I could have stayed until the end, as there were some other sessions I really would have liked to attend, such as reader's advisory for LGTBQ+ patrons, and one about going fine-free, which is a something my system is beginning to investigate.

The vendor exhibit hall was enormous! I tried to walk through it a couple of times, but it was so huge and I was always pressed for time, so I didn't get very far and it was always overwhelming. I grabbed a few ARC's and a couple of little chachkies, but my manager got 4 or 5 times as many as I did! I did get a couple that were signed, but I wish I could have gotten a few more. I had a hard time being able to tell what were give-a-ways from what was for sale or just for display. I don't really have any extra time for reading right now anyway, so I guess it's for the best. But I did get a picture with the Baker&Taylor cats (above), who somehow I never knew about until now.

Besides the professional development, the conference provided a great opportunity to connect with people. I ran into a former co-worker from a few years back, I got to meet two of my professors from my online MLIS program in person, as well as a few other students, and one alum that I know from our student support group on Facebook. Plus just chatting with other random conference attendees.

If you get a chance, I highly recommend going to a big conference like this, but I have some tips I wish I knew before I went:

• Get in shape and wear comfortable shoes, as there is a LOT of walking! (I did know this one and did wear comfortable shoes, but it was still more exhausting than I expected.)
  
  
• Book your hotel very early! I waited until January, and all the discounted rooms were already gone, so I paid $100 a night more than my colleagues who booked earlier.
  
  
• Talk to people who have gone before, read over the schedule, and have a plan of action before you get there.
  
  
• Don't assume your library won't pay for you to go. I was so sure my system wouldn't pay for me, since I'm just part-time and not a librarian, I didn't even ask. Then later, too late for me to apply, I found out they did approve another part-timer. So I ended up spending a LOT of my own money and using personal time that I really didn't have to. Really kicking myself for that now!

I'd really like to go to the ALSC conference sometime. It was actually only an 1-1/2 hours away from me in 2018, but I waited too late and registration closed well in advance of the conference (I never knew that was a thing; I guess it was a small venue with very limited capacity?). I also haven't been to our state conference yet, so that will probably be on my agenda next year.

Do any of you have any conference tips for newbies, or conferences to recommend? Any other first-time conference goers want to share your experience at PLA?

Ready for a Yeti? - Family Storytime

Last year I decided to give a slight twist to my "Snowman" storytime by having one story about the abominable snowman, or yeti, in addition to stories about traditional snowman. I realized that several cute picture books about yeti have come out in the last few years, and with Disney's release of the movie Abominable last year, I thought a "Yeti" storytime would be fun.

I started with greeting everyone and passing out program sheets with all the songs, and then we waved "hello" to each other and sang "Hello, My Friends, Hello", then warmed up with "Hello, Everybody". After that I introduced our topic and talked about what Yeti are, where they are from, and how they are also called "abominable snowmen". We sang this little song I found on You Tube, with some modification:

The Yeti Song

Who's the most famous monster

that history knows?

Who's tall, white, and furry

with big, stompy toes?

What's the scariest thing

that you ever did see?

It's the abominable beastie 

we call the Yeti!

Then we led into our first story with a quick verse of our "Story Song":

If you're ready for a story, find a seat.

If you're ready for a story, find a seat.

Check your hands, and then your feet,

If you're ready find a seat.

If you're ready for a story, find a seat.

Yeti and the Bird by Nadia Shireen is a sweet story about friendship. Poor Yeti is sad and lonely because all the other animals are afraid of him, so he has no friends. Then one day a lost bird comes crashing into his life, literally. But unlike everyone else, Bird is not afraid of the Yeti, and they become great friends. Until winter comes and Bird must find her way to a warmer location. Yeti is sad, until he finds he has several new friends.

A very charming story about an unlikely friendship that teaches not to judge by appearances with rich illustrations that are neither stark nor too busy.

The kids were eager for the next story, so I went right to it: The Thing About Yetis by Vin Vogel. This story features a cute young Yeti and shows all the things he loves about winter: hot chocolate with marshmallows, sliding down hills, ice skating, building snow castles (then pretending to be Godzilla and knocking them down)...All of which he does accompanied by his favorite stuffie. But, the thing about Yetis is, even they can get tired of the cold and enjoy warm-weather fun as well. Kids will find this relate-able, sometimes funny (like when the Yeti's fur goes "poof" after getting wet), and the digital artwork charming.

Following this I asked them if Yeti's were real. Some said yes, some said no, some weren't sure. I explained that no one knew for sure. Some people believed they were real, and some said they had seen one, but no one had been able to prove it yet and that's why people kept hunting for them to try and get a clear photo or video. I told them now we were to pretend to go exploring and hunting for Yeti.

I simply adapted the traditional call-and-response chant, "Going On A Bear Hunt", by substituting Yeti and appropriate snow-covered, frozen topography.

Going On A Yeti Hunt

We're going on a Yeti hunt.

Gonna find a big one. 

With great big feet,

And long white fur.

Look, it's a great, big snowfield!

Can't go around it,

Can't go under it,

Have to ski across it!

(pretend to ski)

Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh!

[Repeat beginning verse]

Look, it's a wide, frozen river!

Can't swim across it,

Can't go around it,

Have to skate across it!

(pretend to skate)

Glide, glide, glide!

[Repeat beginning verse]

Look, it's a great big mountain!

Can't go around it,

Can't go through it,

Have to climb up it!

(pretend to climb)

Climb, climb, climb!

[Repeat beginning verse]

Look, it's a deep, dark cave!

Just like where the Yeti lives.

Let's go in it!

(pretend to walk carefully)

Step, step, step.

Whoops, what is that?

I feel two great big feet!

And long, shaggy, fur!

[Say the rest quickly, without pausing for response while acting out the motions]

It's the Yeti! Run!  Run, run, run

Climb down the mountain!   Climb, climb, climb

Skate back across the river!  Glide, glide, glide

Ski across the snowfield!  Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh

Go back in the house, and shut the door!  Slam, lock

Ah, safe at last!

This was so much fun! I did have a third story picked out, Dear Yeti by James Kwan, but I decided since the other two were slightly longer than I realized, and people were starting to drift off, to skip it and go right to the final activity.

Activity

I told the kids that now we were going to go on a "real" Yeti hunt! We have a bunch of these little stuffed Yeti with velcro hands that a previous children's librarian had purchased (from Oriental Trading, but sadly no longer available), so before the library opened I hid them around the children's department. I told the kids that there were eight Yeti hiding, and they set off to find them.

Right before storytime started, I stuck one of the Yeti on my back, and I was sure they would spot it during storytime, but they never did. I was certain it would be the first one they found, but even though I kept walking around, they were so focused on looking in the shelves they never looked up, so it ended up being the last one they found. They all had a good time, and I think everyone that hung around and participated was able to find one.

How It Went 

Overall, it went very well. I started out with a big crowd, but as I've just come to accept is typical for the weekend storytime, many drifted off during the course of the storytime, but there were still a decent number that stayed until the very end, and they enjoyed the stories, and both the "Yeti Hunt" chant, and the Yeti hunt activity.

Most of the time people seem to big a big hurry to leave and are uninterested in the after-storytime activity, particularly crafts. Ironically, the time I didn't plan a craft and cut storytime a little short, someone actually asked if we were having any other activities. 

Cuddle Babies - Lapsit Storytime

I had the opportunity to do a baby lapsit storytime for the first time yesterday, and I loved it! My boss had to be in training all day, and though another coworker could have covered it, she graciously let me have the opportunity since I've never done one before, while another coworker agreed to cover my night shift so I could work the morning and not have to do a split.

This storytime is called "Cuddle Babies" in our system, and is a lapsit program for babies birth to 18 months. It is mostly songs and rhymes that are a combination of gentle tickles, bounces, and body-awareness, with one story and playtime at the end. My boss uses the same songs and rhymes each week for a month, then changes them, so all the songs/rhymes I used had already been chosen by her, but I selected the book and music for playtime.

I gave everyone a sheet with the words to all the songs/rhymes, then welcomed everyone and introduced myself, then we said hello to each other by singing the "Hello" song. Next, I passed out scarves to everyone and we did a tickle, which works on body awareness and proprioception:

Baby's Game

Touch your ears, and pat your nose.

Now tickle baby's little toes!

Hide your eyes,

Where are you?

Baby's playing peek-a-boo!

I mentioned how they might notice the younger babies are genuinely surprised to see you reappear after hiding your face because they haven't yet developed the concept that things exist even when you don't see them, and that they might notice when babies are little, they can take toys away and the baby won't care, but as they get older and develop object permanence, they will fuss when you take something away.

Next was a chant accompanied by gently bouncing baby in rhythm, rocking side to side, and a couple of cuddles:

I Love You

One, I love you; two, I love you, three, I love you so!

Four, I love you; five I love you, rock you to and fro.

Six, I love you; seven, I love you, eight, you love me, too.

Nine, I love you; ten, I love you, bouncing buckaroo!

The following chant could be a gentle bounce, or clapping hands together or on knees, with movements lifting baby up and down, and side to side, with a big hug at the end.

Gregory Griggs

Gregory Griggs, Gregory Griggs, 

Had 27 different wigs!

He wore them up, (lift baby up)

He wore them down, (bring baby down)

To please the people of the town.

He wore them east, (lean baby to the right)

He wore them west. (lean baby to the left)

Can you guess the one he liked the best?

THIS ONE! (put scarf on baby's head & hug)

The next one was a nice soft lullaby with some gentle movements.

The Moon

(to the tune of "Hush Little Baby")

I see the moon, and the moon sees me,

Down through the leaves of the old oak tree.

Please let the light that shines on me,

Shine on the ones I love.

Over the mountain, over the sea.

Back where my heart is longing to be.

Please let the light that shines on me,

Shine on the ones I love.

And finally another body awareness song that ends with them quiet and ready for a story:

I Can...

(to the tune of "The Wheels On The Bus")

I can make my hands go clap, clap, clap;

Clap, clap, clap;

Clap, clap, clap.

I can make my hands go clap, clap, clap;

They're a part of me!

I can make my feet go stomp...

I can make my mouth go "Sh"....

We segued to the story with a quick lead-in song:

If You're Ready for a Story...

If you're ready for a story, find a seat.

If you're ready for a story, find a seat.

Check your hands,and then your feet.
If you're ready find a seat.

If you're ready for a story, find a seat!

I looked through several books from some of my go-to authors for babies and toddlers, like Karen Katz, Mary Murphy, Nancy Tafuri, Bill Martin, Jr., and finally settled on Hello Baby! by Mem Fox  and Steve Jenkins. 

This book proved to be perfect with its simple papercraft illustrations that showed each animal on a plain white background and it's very short, simple text. We named each animal and after reading the text, I prompted the audience to either make the animal's sound, or imitate its movement. Making animal sounds is a great way for babies to play with the different sounds of language and figure out how they go together.

After that, it was time for the bubble song and popping bubbles!

Ten Little Bubbles

One little, two little, three little bubbles;

Four little, five little, six little bubbles.

Seven little, eight little, nine little bubbles,

Ten little bubbles go POP!

Pop, pop, pop, go all the bubbles.

Pop, pop, pop, go all the bubbles.

Pop, pop, pop, go all the bubbles.

Ten little bubbles go POP!

I turned on a Raffi CD and blew bubbles in all directions for a minute or two, then put out various balls and sensory toys for the kids to play with.

How It Went

It went really well, and I loved it! While I'm sure I wasn't quite as good as Miss Katie, I think everyone enjoyed it. I was a little distracted by being slightly worried about how my voice would hold out as I was getting over a cold, so I did forget to go over expectations at the beginning, and I had meant to tell everyone to give themselves a pat on the back for managing to get up and get everybody ready, out of the house, and somewhere on time.

It was SO much different from the weekend family storytime! Besides that it was all babies, people started filling in and sitting down on their own when it was about time to start, and were all sitting there ready to go. I didn't have to twist any arms or beg anyone to come, and they all stayed until the end, no mass exodus halfway through. Such a difference when you have a regular crowd that knows the routine and comes to the library specifically for storytime. I would do this one every week if I could!

I'm a little more comfortable dropping in the little literacy and developmental tips with parent of kids this young, and it was great to get a chance to do an actual baby lapsit program. [I've done one that was advertised as a "Baby Jam" for the same age range (0-18 months), but it ended up being more of a toddler storytime, with most of the kids being closer to 24 months and very mobile, and the parents really didn't interact with their child during the songs and rhymes as intended, and just let them mill about.]

Two little girls were so cute towards the end, they just decided that it was over and time to start picking up toys without any prompting. 

Child Development Knowledge Survey

Children's librarians: 

• Are you a children's librarian working in a public library in the United States?
  
• Have you been a children's librarian for fewer than five (5) years?
  
• Did you complete an MLS degree (or equivalent) within the last five (5) years?

If you answered "yes" to all three of these questions, then please follow the link below to take a short, anonymous survey regarding child development knowledge, and please feel free to share the link with anyone you know that fits the criteria above! Thank you!

Standard Recruiting statement:

"I am an LIS student working on a research project as part of my Capstone course at
Valdosta State University. If you are a children’s librarian with an MLIS or equivalent
completed in the last 5 years AND working in a U.S. public library for less than 5 years,
please follow the link below to take a brief voluntary, anonymous survey regarding child development knowledge. Thank you for your participation!"

*Survey is now closed; results have been analyzed and have been published in the Journal of Education for Library and Information Science, Vol. 63, Issue 1, in January, 2022.

Related posts:  "Research Publication"     "And The Survey Says..."

Library Lovers Month - Passive Program

February is Library Lovers Month, which I celebrated with this surprisingly popular passive program (or shameless ploy to solicit compliments, you decide 😉).

I had a great idea for a passive program, inspired by a couple of things. One day some time ago, one of our young regulars handed me several pieces of scrap paper covered with lines of cursive-like scribbles which his mother translated for me as saying "I love the library" and "I love the librarian", which I of course saved with all my other treasures kids have given me:

Then, some time later, someone had put out a box of stuff at work they wanted to get rid of, and one of the items in it was a small cardboard mailbox covered with hearts like kids use for Valentine's day, and that got me to thinking about how great it would be to set up a station for kids to write love letters to the library telling us what they love about it in February. 

I remembered we had a toy mailbox tucked away, so I got it out and added a few stickers to jazz it up and look more Valentine-y. Then I made some stationary and set it all out on a table with some pencils, a few crayons, and a sign inviting them to write or draw to tell us what they love about the library.

The response was overwhelming! Our young patrons REALLY love the library, and REALLY wanted to tell us why! I set it up on Saturday afternoon, and by the end of Sunday afternoon there were already just shy of 50 responses. In fact, they wanted to tell us why they loved the library so much, that when the stationary temporarily ran out, they got creative in finding their own paper, using receipts, coloring pages, and scrap paper.

I was amazed at the response, and how excited some of the kids were to do it. I think the mailbox really helped sell it, as we've never had such a large response to any similar activities before. I had originally just planned on putting them up in the department, but there were so many our floor manager suggested I put them up on the humongous 20" corkboard they just had installed in the main library. So I started with this:

Then after a week it looked like this:

And I still had quite a few left over that I didn't have room for. I had originally intended to leave it up for at least a couple of weeks, but ended up stopping after 8 days and 200+ responses, because I figured at that point we were getting a lot of multiple responses from the same kids and wasting paper.

I loved emptying the mailbox and reading the notes each day to see what they had to say. Some notes were written by the children themselves, some were written by the parents, some chose to draw a picture, and some just scribbled. 

Of course many of them mentioned all the books, some even mentioning specific types, titles, or series, and the fact they could chose their own; but some of the other things they loved were the trains, dramatic play area, and other toys; computers, coloring sheets, dry erase tables, scavenger hunts, storytime, playing with friends, making new friends, reading with mom/dad, programs, games, stickers, being able to place holds, being able to check out more than 2 books (one was very indignant that even as a 5th grader, their school library only lets them check out 2 books), and movies. 

But what I loved seeing the most was how many mentioned the friendly, nice, and helpful people that work at the library and help them find things. The two full-time children's librarians even got mentioned by name, but I claim credit for the one that mentioned "experiments" since I do most of the STEM programs.

Here are some particular quotes that stood out:

" [I love to] do the find at the library" (referring to the scavenger hunts)

"If we didn't have books we wouldn't know anything."

"The librarians are all really nice, and it just rocks in general."

"I remember playing [here] at like 5 [years old]!" (said by 10 year old, as though that was such a long time ago)

"I have [been] goen [sic] to the library my entier [sic] life!" 

Of course when you do something like this you always run the risk of someone being a jerk and saying something nasty, and we did get a couple of those, but considering it was only 3 out of 200+, I think that was pretty good.

Of course I can't close without saying some of the things I love about my library. I have to say I truly enjoy being at work most of the time. We have a wonderfully diverse community with a strong reading culture that is very supportive and appreciative and I love building relationships with our patrons, I have great coworkers and we all get along well and complement each other, I am able to do a little bit of everything and put all my varied interests and experiences to use, and I'm proud of the large and diverse collection we have and all the programs and services we offer.

I 💗My Library!

Valentine's Day Science - STEAM Program

What is "Valentine's Day Science"? Well, it's what you put on the calendar when you still have no idea what you want to do for your February program by the deadline, and then you figure it out later! 😂 In this case, it was several activities that were tweaked to tie them in with Valentine's Day, but could easily be adapted to do anytime.

Ages: 5-10
Time: 1 hour
Number: 20 (I ended up with just 15)
Budget:  $40, but can be done for less 

Materials:

• 1 bag conversation heart candies
• 20 bags "Ju-Ju" gummy heart candies (10 would have been enough)
• cold water
• hot water
• vinegar
• 2 2-L bottles of clear soda
• 80 test tubes or 4-5 oz plastic Dixie cups or plastic shot glasses
• 20 8 oz clear plastic cups
• 10 boxes of flat toothpicks
• 20 small craft sticks with notches cut at each end
• 20 rubber bands
• 40 cotton swabs
• Something to use as a target 

Activity #1 - Mini Cupid's Bow & Arrows

Prep - I used a box cutter to very carefully cut notches at each end of the craft sticks in advance, and put them in hot water to soak an hour before the program to make them more flexible, them removed and quickly blotted dry before passing out.

1. I gave each participant a craft stick that had already been notched and soaked in hot water to soften, a rubber band, two cotton swabs, and a pair of scissors, then instructed them to make a single cut in the rubber band, and to cut or break off one end of each cotton swab.

2. Next, they were instructed to VERY carefully bend the craft stick slightly. They need to do this slowly and gently, and of course there were some who ignored that instruction and bent them too hard and broke them, so be sure to have extras on hand.

3. After that, they tied the rubber band onto one end of the craft stick, then pulled it tightly and tied to the other end and cut off the excess. Many had trouble tying it off at the second end and getting it tight enough. It needs to be really tight! Then rotate the knots around until the rubber band is at one side of the craft stick, rather than the middle.

4. Let dry.

5. Line your arrow up, pull the arrow back with the bowstring, and try to shoot it through the heart target! (This proved to be more challenging that the catapults we made back in the fall, but one boy did manage to get an arrow through the heart.)

Activity #2 - Conversation Heart Chemistry

1. Each participant was given a set of solutions in small cups: cold water, hot water, vinegar, and clear soda; plus a cup with 10-12 conversation hearts. They were instructed to add one heart to each cup to see which would dissolve the fastest.

2. As they were doing this, they were encouraged to make predictions, and explain why.

3. While we waited for the hearts to start dissolving, each child was given a larger cup of clear soda and told to add the remaining conversation hearts to it and watch them dance! We observed how they will first drop to the bottom, then float up to the top, then drop down again, and back up. I asked them to explain what they were observing, and most knew it had to do with the carbonation in the soda and the bubbles, but couldn't identify the gas in the bubbles as CO2 .

4. We made a final observation of our dissolution comparison, and all agreed that the hot water dissolved the most/fastest, then quickly cleaned up to allow plenty of room for our last activity.

Activity #3 - Building Challenge

1. Each participant was given 1 bag of Ju-Ju hearts and 1 box of flat toothpicks [I realized later that was way too many toothpicks, and more candy than most ended up using, so a lot was wasted. I would suggest 1 bag for every two kids, with a couple extra for those who need more, and 1 box of toothpicks for every 3-4 kids is more than enough.] 

These particular candies worked really well as they do not have sugar crystals on the surface to make a big mess and do not get sticky when handling like jelly hearts do. I like using the flat toothpicks because they tend to "grip" better and not allow as much movement as the round toothpicks, plus they are cheaper.

2. They were shown a few pictures of examples, and reminded that they needed to be sure that they had a stable, strong base before they tried to build up, and encouraged to use their imaginations and build whatever they wanted, and they could work together if they chose.

How It Went

So, what do you do when you get sick and lose your voice on the day of a program? Besides panic? First you type up step-by-step instructions with pictures to pass out, and you gratefully accept when a coworker kindly offers to be your voice!

I'd had a cold that caused me to lose my voice and cough excessively at night so that I'd not had any sleep for several days, so doing this program proved to be quite a challenge, and I was so thankful my coworkers were quick to offer to arrange desk coverage so one of them could be my voice to give instructions. I could talk quietly one-on-one, but not to a whole crowd.

Overall, it went pretty well. The mini-bow and arrow proved to be more difficult for them, and much more challenging to hit a target than the mini catapults we made in November. I was a little disappointed that no one really tried to make a really large, tall structure with the building challenge, most were content to make one or more small structures, and one little boy did something I hadn't thought about, and made letters to spell out his name, which would be a great literacy activity to do.

Just as I did when we used candy pumpkins for our catapults, I instructed them not to eat any of the candy we were using in our activities, but told them I had candy set aside for eating that they could have at the end if it was okay with their grownup. 

What I Would Do Differently
The main thing I would do differently is buy less candy and toothpicks. Most of the kids only used about half of their candy hearts and a tiny fraction of the toothpicks. One half of a bag each would have been enough for almost everybody. 

And since the mini bow and arrow seemed too challenging and frustrating for many of them, I'd probably skip that, and spend more time on the building challenge, adding some directed building, like can you build a cube, can you build a pyramid, can you make a heart, can you make your name, then letting them free-build. I think I'm still trying to cram too much into each program, and I need to cut back a little and spend more time on each activity.