In the yearly cycle of children’s librarianship, we are always preparing for, implementing, or recovering from the Summer Reading Program.  With varying degrees of readiness and numerous approaches to the theme, twenty members of SWAYS (Southwest Advocates for Youth Services) met on March 14th to discuss ideas for the summer. Here are some fruits of our discussion.

The best resource for all things Summer Reading Program is iREAD. In addition to the catalog of products, there are links to the new iREAD wiki and a Flickr page full of craft ideas. The iRead committee members work hard to provide resources and ideas, and always are looking for ideas and materials from librarians statewide.

In a year of tightening budgets, some libraries are hiring fewer performers and opting for more hands-on experiences for the kids. Numerous field trip ideas were mentioned, including local eateries and grocery stores. In more rural areas, perhaps the children could visit a working farm to see food production.

Decorating the library is essential: If your alarm system will allow it, why not hang (fake) food, utensils, or condiment bottles from the ceiling? Highlight a table setting where books are “cooking” or are ready to be served.  For a sweeter display, life-sized CandyLand pieces could decorate the children’s area.

There are myriad opportunities for guessing contests this summer. Some ideas included Guess the food (can be adapted for any sense – guess by smell, touch, etc.); Guess the kitchen utensils (obsolete or odd); Guess the slogan, ex. “Have it your way”; Guess the identity of a pantry item from a warped picture; Guess the recipe from the ingredients; or Guess the ingredients from the finished product.

The library could hold a pizza tasting contest where children and/or teens sample pies from various establishments and rate them in a blind taste test. This idea can be adapted for other foods, like cupcakes!

Encourage the children to play with their food and have a contest where they transform a zucchini or potato into a work of art. Give prizes for different categories: Prettiest, Funniest, etc.

If your library is going with a Picnic theme, you could have a Picnic Game Day featuring favorites like “Hi-Ho Cherry-o”, “CandyLand”, and “Ants in Your Pants”. If you have the area for it, roast s’mores over a campfire; if not, make “Solar S’mores” instead! http://familyfun.go.com/crafts/solar-smores-673886/. Celebrate the sweet tooth with an Ice Cream Social, or create a giant ice cream sundae and ask that children bring toppings to share. Another idea is to purchase premade cakes and have a decorating contest.

Food is a necessity at any teen program, so making young adult programs focused on food isn’t too much of a stretch. There are numerous programming ideas for the Hunger Games available on the web. A personal favorite program is to challenge teens to eat unfamiliar and/or unsavory foods in a “Food Fear Factor” contest. Another competition for young adults could be an “Iron Chef” type program, using prepackaged foods and ingredients.

A tasty icebreaker idea from Edwardsville Public Library is “Ice Cream Sundae”. Divide teens into groups, and give each group a different component of an ice cream sundae. The teens then find others with the ingredients to complete the sundae.

Some libraries are making science and nutrition connections with the “Reading is Sooo Delicious” theme.  Connect the theme to the natural world like Tri-Township Public Library and have children dissect and “read” owl pellets to see what they find delicious. Familiarize young children with the concept of food groups and healthy versus unhealthy food. Show that healthy foods can be delicious too! Introduce children to international cuisine by highlighting a different type each week. Patrons from different cultures could give food demonstrations.

Ideas for food preparation and cooking with children vary from library to library, as each library has different accommodations and policies. There are plenty of books with opportunities for recipe connections, and two excellent resources for librarians are Book Cooks by Janet Bruno, available for two age groups, and Book Cooks by Cheryl Apgar.

Even if you don’t plan on cooking with the kids, there are still plenty of opportunities to make a mess with food. For adventurous types, consider having a food fight using cooked spaghetti. Make sure to cover the library in plastic beforehand. Have a “Pirate Bash” where children are encouraged “to leave their manners at home”. Think anti-Tea Party, but have one of those too! One contest idea is a Bubble-Blowing Contest with a twist – Contestants must eat a couple Oreos before they try to blow a bubble. Whoever succeeds in blowing a bubble first, wins. Slightly less messy but just as fun is a bobbing for apples alternative where a marshmallow hangs by a string from the ceiling. Start it swinging and have kids attempt to catch it in their mouths.

For most libraries, crafts are a fundamental component of the Summer Reading Program, and our ideas ranged from food production – use trading card envelopes as mini window herb pots – to producing with food – use Hershey’s Kisses to create caterpillars and butterflies. Take the young children shopping using a picture of a shopping cart that they collage with food ad pictures. Or remind them “they are what they eat” by tracing their outline on a piece of paper and having them create a food collage.  Bring the craft into a kitchen by creating an apple chalkboard recipe stand from craft sticks or a chef paper bag puppet. “Ice Cream” can be created with a regular ice cone and a painted and decorated foam ball. An alternative is to use a balloon and either rolled paper or a party hat as the cone. As always, be aware of any allergies attendees may have, like a latex allergy.

While we all spend our summer surrounded by food, let’s not forget about those in our community who go hungry. One excellent idea from Freeburg Area Library District was a food drive during their programming. Asking patrons to bring a nonperishable food item to donate to a food pantry is a wonderful way to help our communities.

Websites
iRead:
Wiki – http://ireadprogram.pbworks.com/w/page/50459529/Reading%20Is%20So%20Delicious!
Flickr page – http://www.flickr.com/photos/iread_illinois
Oriental Trading Company (www.orientaltrading.com): Bake shop stickers, aprons, cupcake bank, food ornaments
Guildcraft Arts & Crafts (www.guildcraftinc.com)
Birthday Express (www.birthdayexpress.com): Candyland window decals
IKEA (www.ikea/us/en)
Amazon (www.amazon.com) Melissa and Doug products including Chef Puppet; Sweet Treats sticker pad; Sandwich Stacking Game
Sporcle (www.sporcle.com) Numerous fun contests, including “Guess the Candybar”; “Guess the Burger”
Food quizzes can be found at www.sporcle.com/games/subcategory/food
Taste of Home Kids Coloring book (www.tasteofhome.com/Kids-Coloring-Cookbook)
Worth1000 (www.worth1000.com) – Creative photos using effects
Dover Publications (http://store.doverpublications.com/) Has coloring books on theme. Dover will also send free samples to your email each week upon request.
Demco (www.demco.com) has food related reading trackers
Zazzle (www.zazzle.com) Custom t-shirts and other customized items
Shindigz (www.shindigz.com) Party supplies

Thanks to the following Youth Services staff who shared their ideas so willingly:
Donna Asbeck    - Six Mile Regional Library District; Janet Andrews -Hayner Public Library District; Annette Bland- Columbia Public Library; Carol Brockmeyer- Daugherty Public Library District; Ivy Cowen- Mascoutah Public Library; Marilyn Engel- Fairview Heights Public Library; Judy Groom- Freeburg Area Library District; Synthia Kalinowski- O’Fallon Public Library; Robin Lovinggood – Tri-Township Public Library (Troy); Sis O’Brien- Bethalto Public Library; Teri Rankin- O’Fallon Public Library; Kay Schuette- Louis Latzer Public Library (Highland); Candy Schuler- Columbia Public Library; Portia Stueve- Valmeyer Public Library ; Karen Volker- Freeburg Area Library District; Heather Watkins- Maryville Public Library; Anne Wolfe- Edwardsville Public Library

Upcoming events:
In an effort to provide a broad program of education and training in preservation, the ICPN is pleased to offer the following workshops.

When Water Emergencies Strike Your Collections:  Response Training & Workshop

A free one day workshop designed to give an introduction to preparing for and responding to water emergencies in museum and library collections.  Development of a disaster plan will be discussed and salvage techniques will be demonstrated.  Book, paper and object conservators will present hands on demonstrations and attendees will participate in a mini-salvage exercise.  This workshop will be repeated on the dates listed below.  All workshops are free and include lunch; each workshop will run from 9am-3:30pm.

• March 27, 2012     McLafferty Annex, SIU-C, Carbondale
• April 18, 2012      Douglas County Museum, Tuscola
• May 10, 2012     Western Illinois Museum, Macomb
• June 11, 2012     Naper Settlement, Naperville
• July 9, 2012     Freeport Art Museum, Freeport

To join the ICPN and sign up for a workshop, contact Bronwyn Eves, Project Manager, at beves@museum.state.il.us.  Membership is free.  You will be added to the member list and will be immediately eligible to participate in member events.

Other member benefits include attending webinars on preservation topics, attending a burn recovery workshop hosted by U of I Fire Service Institute, and borrowing environmental assessment kits to monitor temperature and humidity in collections areas.  ICPN members are also eligible for scholarships for courses at the Campbell Center for Historic Preservation Studies.

Please visit the ICPN website at http://icpn.museum.state.il.us for more information on the network and the benefits of membership.

The ICPN is made possible by IMLS’ Connecting to Collections initiative.

The grant application for the Adult Literacy Grant Program contains three separate literacy grant categories of services, including:

• Adult Volunteer Literacy Tutoring Programs utilizes volunteer tutors to provide one-on-one instruction for adults who want to improve their reading, math, writing and language skills.
• Family Literacy Programs equip parents and their children, together and separately, to improve their basic reading, math, writing, and language skills.
• The educational needs of working adults are met through Workplace Skills Enhancement Programs, which provide on-site basic skills learning opportunities at their workplace.

Find the application, instructions, and other other information at the Illinois State Library website.

The genesis of our article, “Community Centered,” still makes me chuckle a bit. For a piece of writing in which we chose determinately and deliberately to focus away from technology, it had a decidedly technological start.

In 2010, Melissa Rauseo, the Young Adult Librarian at the Peabody Institute Library (Peabody, MA) and a close personal friend, posted an article on her Facebook page. The headline screamed the question “Are Librarians Totally Obsolete?” The author, Will Sherman, answers this question with a strong “no” and goes on to outline in 33 points why librarians and libraries are not only not obsolete, but “irreplaceable”,  focusing on the ways in which librarians and our institutions must, and do, adapt in the digital age. After posting the article, though, Melissa added a comment along the lines of “I’d like to see an article listing the ways in which libraries and librarians are important community and cultural forces.” We had just finished writing a book chapter together, and I responded to her comment with one of my own – “and there we have the subject for our next project.” The idea was born. We enlisted our close friend and colleague Kelley Rae Unger, Adult Services Librarian in Peabody, and got to work.

We wanted to write an article that looked at the social roles that libraries play. While Sherman briefly hints at this in his post, we felt that the subject needed a fuller exploration. As current and former public librarians, we know that what our library does in our community goes way beyond helping people navigate through the digital age. In fact, often what we do is provide balance between the perils and promise of the digital age and the social and community needs that our patrons present us with every day. Arguably, as the digital age progresses, with no abatement and no way to turn back, we see people craving a sense of community and connectedness more and more. Patrons are looking for information, yes, but they are also looking to build bonds with their librarians, with other patrons, and with the community in general. They are looking to learn, but they are also looking to talk, to create, and to experience art and culture together. They have practical needs – a book they want, a form they need – but they also want to explore opportunities. I’ve argued in other writing that the library can be the place where patrons explore and experiment with the people they want to become. I also believe that the public library is there for the public, not just the individual. The library is the place where people can start finding – start building – the community that so many seem to crave.

As we compared notes on the types of services we wanted to highlight in our article, we decided to concretely place our ideas into the real world of libraries. Some of the great fun of writing this article was taking a look at what other libraries, around the country and around the world, are doing to build community. It is amazing to see what librarians are up to out there! The volume of innovative and creative programs and services is astounding – we only used a fraction of the examples we came across. It was gratifying to look around and see that librarians are responding to community needs in unique and progressive ways. Some of the endeavors to build community involved big, time consuming, expensive projects. Others focused on locally produced programming and collection building. Still others simply involved rethinking the best ways to use space, talents, and resources and making adjustments accordingly.

After compiling our list and our examples we realized that many librarians are already doing important work in their communities. Our hope is that librarians can take the list as inspiration and then build their own lists. Take a look at what your library is doing to build community and create culture, then write it down. Bring our list, and your list, to your mayors, city councils, library boards, and Friends. Launch a local campaign highlighting how your library builds community. Ask your patrons what they think, then build on their feedback and ideas.

There has been a lot of angst about whether or not libraries will survive the digital age and, if so, how. We agree that libraries need to change and adapt, but we also think that there are some things that we simply already do really well, really creatively, and that really make a difference. I’ve long thought that we need to focus on those areas in which we can make real change, rather than expend energies in places where we can’t successfully compete (note to libraries: we’re never going to be Google. Let it go). Rethink your library. Rethink its social role. Rethink your programming, collection building, and services. Think about the places in your town where you see people longing for community, for cultural expression and understanding, for civil discourse. Then take a look at how you can offer these things. Trust me, you’ll be filling a niche and you really will be on the road to being the most important place in town.

[To read the article, go to PublicLibrariesOnline.org.]

Good Practices for Great Outcomes: Cataloging Efficiencies that Make a Difference features an outstanding slate of speakers who will discuss the future of cataloging and metadata systems, workflow efficiencies, and opportunities for change. Lunch will be provided by OCLC. For additional information and to register, log on to the OCLC website.

Fortunately, the woman was matched with a tutor who lived nearby in her community. They meet twice a week for an hour at a church less than one mile from the student’s home. After just a few months of classes, the student is learning multiplication tables, reading and comprehending articles in the local newspaper, and acquiring reading skills necessary to obtain a driver’s license. This student’s goal of obtaining a GED will one day become a reality.

The Poetry Foundation Library is the only library dedicated exclusively to poetry. The library features a collection of over 30,000 volumes and private listening booths to experience audio and video recordings. More information can be found in Greg Landgraf’s recent article, A Library Home for Poetry.

Admission to the open house is free, but pre-registration is strongly encouraged.

Lauren Burnett, a motivational speaker and life coach, will open this year’s conference with Step Up to Great Performance: Keeping Up, Reaching Forward, and Moving Through. Sessions will cover topics from presenting a professional image, a boys reading program, and conflict resolution in the workplace to how to market your library and utilizing free collection development tools. More information about the 2011 RFS Conference Sessions can be found here.

The final day to register is September 22nd. No on site registration will be available, so be sure to check out the registration information.