Thanks to a LSTA grant, the Richton Park Public Library District is able to offer their Story Time Anytime Program which is a blending of a traditional library service (preschool story time) in a twenty first century medium (online streaming video).

Problem: the library had a steadily declining Story Time program, and despite our best efforts to rejuvenate it we simply could not generate enough children to keep supporting the program.

Solution: numerous conversations with other librarians, parents, and staff  brainstorming lead us to the conclusion that we needed to try and provide service to preschool aged children and their families in a whole new way – through the Internet.

The staff of the Richton Park Library created a number of partnerships in order to create a program that would capture the imagination of our children and keep them coming back for more. These partnerships included 10 different storytellers from around the Midwest; the Tall Grass Arts Association worked with the local high school to provide the set design and the paintings for each story; Governors State University taped the 12 different storytelling sessions and finally 3 different preschools were bused in for the live tapings with the storytellers.

The next step in the program is the editing of each of the story times, burning them to DVDs, cataloging the items, and putting them in the collection for circulation. However, the final goal is to place them on the Richton Park Public Library’s website and have them available for children as a streaming video. You can’t come to the library because Mom or Dad is working? Well, the library can come to you and you can get a Story Time, Anytime.

Keep watching for the upcoming releases of these exciting stories on the Richton Park Public Library’s website and you are all invited to our Story Time Celebration on July 12, 2008 from 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm for a sneak peek at Story Time Anytime!