Category Archives: Public

Library Lock-ins for Adults

May 25, 2017 Mary Jordan

(From Public Libraries Online, by Melanie A. Lyttle and Shawn D. Walsh)

It’s a Friday night and library staff are planning to be awake for the next twelve hours, plus the time it takes for them to drive home and fall exhausted into bed. It’s another lock-in, but this time the youngest attendees are 18. It’s an adult lock-in, and just like when they were in high school, there is no expectation of sleep. Squeezed in around jobs and school, new adults make time to gather with their friends at the library and be kids again.

We can’t say that this is an activity that would work everywhere. It seems quite situation-dependent. For example, our Adult Library Lock-In consisted of a core group who grew up attending lock-ins and other library programs. However, this time they brought their college friends, roommates, co-workers, and significant others to meet the librarians and former classmates they spent hours with at the library sometimes as long as five years ago.

How does an adult lock-in look different from a high school lock-in? Instead of large coolers filled with lemonade and water there is a carafe of very strong coffee and some 2 liter bottles of soft drinks. There isn’t a litany of rules to go over at the beginning so everyone behaves because everyone is an adult now. Anyone can leave when they want because most have cars, so there isn’t a need to call an over-sleeping parent and remind them to come get their child in the morning. There is more talking among the participants at the beginning of the event as they catch up with each other on what they have been doing since the last time they saw each other. Even in the age of social media it seems like talking face-to-face is still the best way to get information. There are also new friends from outside the community. It isn’t just kids from the local schools in the area.

How does an adult lock-in look the same as a high school lock-in? There are current and retro-gaming systems set up around the building. Tables are filled with board games ready to play. One television is ready for movie-watching. There is still pizza to eat, and someone still wants to organize a game of capture the flag. There are still people who decide to curl up in a niche on a comfy chair and read during the night, and there are still one or two people who decided to sleep for an hour or two during the event.

Why an adult lock-in? Whether these new adults are attending some type of post-secondary education in the area or farther away, they still want to come home. For many of them the library was their home during high school. This was their third place other than school and home. They could be themselves here. Now they want to share that with their significant other, their college roommate, or their co-worker who likes the same things they do. It is also a time to show the important adults in their lives, the librarians, that they have grown up and become something. Now they tell the librarians about their jobs, their classes, and their internships. And just like during high school, the librarians listen attentively, praise their efforts, and remind these young adults that they still believe they can do anything.

These kids aren’t kids anymore. They are now able to vote for library levies and generally support or ignore libraries. Soon they will have kids of their own, and hopefully they will bring their babies to your library for storytime!

(Read this entire article here!)

Books, Children's services, Public, Resources

Troy library receives donation of more than 1,000 books, other materials

May 25, 2017 Mary Jordan

Home

(From SentinelSource.com, By Meghan Foley Sentinel Staff)

“As the Gay-Kimball Library director was defending her budget and proposed repairs to the building at town meeting in March, something was floating in the back of her mind.

Hours earlier, Stephanie R. Charlefour had learned the small library she oversees was one of three recipients of a national grant that would flood its shelves with new books and other materials geared toward helping children learn and become strong readers.

Charlefour had applied for the grant from the Bookapalooza program, which is run by the Association of Library Services to Children, a division of the American Library Association. Each year since its inception in 2007, the program awards a variety of materials, including books and DVDs, to three public or school libraries in the United States.

The Association for Library Services to Children receives the materials from publishers to evaluate for awards, according to a news release from the organization. But once the books have been reviewed, the association has nowhere to store them. Hence the creation of Bookapalooza.

Charlefour was excited, but couldn’t share her news at town meeting because it wasn’t yet public, she said.

“I remember thinking, ‘This is such a huge honor,’ ” she said. “But I couldn’t announce it publicly until I had gotten the go-ahead.”

Continue reading Troy library receives donation of more than 1,000 books, other materials →

Books, Programs, Public

The collection is all around

May 24, 2017 Mary Jordan

Contact:

Rob Christopher

Marketing Coordinator

ALA Publishing

American Library Association

(312) 280-5052

rchristopher@ala.org

CHICAGO — Public libraries’ mission, skills, and position in their communities make them ideal facilitators of public access to local resources. In other words, the collection is all around, and libraries can help citizens discover historical, cultural, and natural riches that they might otherwise overlook. Providing smart planning and implementation advice, “The Collection All Around: Sharing Our Cities, Towns, and Natural Places,” published by ALA Editions, shows public libraries how to make the most of these outreach opportunities. Using ideas drawn from libraries from around the country, author Jeffrey T. Davis covers:

why this type of initiative is important, demonstrating how this model strengthens libraries with regard to community and institutional support;
programs for brokering public access to cultural venues via ticketing platforms;
using library event calendars to feature the programs and meetings of other city agencies, community organizations, and affiliated institutions;
the joint use of library cards as IDs, for banking, and as parking/transit passes;
ways that libraries can act as guides to local resources, including such examples of “pathfinding” as historical/cultural walking tours, navigating social services, and providing guidance on government benefits and civic involvement;
parklets, crosswalk murals, food truck roundups, and other programs for extending the public library beyond its walls;
initiatives for improving access and connections to natural surroundings such as nature-play environments, offsite StoryWalks, nature maps, and circulating outdoor gear and state parks passes; and
talking points for new and existing partner buy-in, planning advice for getting started and managing the launch, budgeting guidance, technology considerations, and other helpful tips. Continue reading The collection is all around →

Children's services, Public, Services

P.E.I. public libraries eliminate overdue fines for children’s materials

May 24, 2017 Mary Jordan

(From CBC, Prince Edward Island, By Nicole Williams, CBC News)

As of June 1, P.E.I.’s public libraries will be eliminating fines for any children’s material that is returned late.

Roseanne Gauthier, youth services librarian for P.E.I. provincial public libraries, said the decision to eliminate late fees for children’s materials was an easy one.

“Of course, as a librarian, I really want kids to take the books home, so anything that makes it easier for families to take stuff home, I’m happy about,” she said.

Gauthier said library fees can often act as a barrier for families wishing to book out material for their children.

“Sometimes you do see parents or caregivers who are hesitant about having kids take something home, worried that they might get an overdue fine,” she said.

Incentive to return

While overdue fines will be eliminated, borrowers will still have to pay for a book’s replacement if lost.

However, Gauthier said books can be lent out for several months before being considered lost, and hopes that won’t discourage families from lending material.

“I think that in the end, the benefit of having families feel more comfortable with taking things home and not feeling stressed about having to get them back on time to the day, I’m hoping the benefit of that will outweigh any of the books that get lost,” said Gauthier.

(Read the rest of this article here!)

Communication, Programs, Public

Dinosaurs roam Gail Borden Library in Elgin

May 23, 2017 Mary Jordan

From the Chicago Tribune

“On Monday, Gail Borden Public Library officially unveiled its Dinosaur Giants interactive exhibit, timing it with the launch of the library’s summer reading program.

“This is why it’s important to have these exhibits,” Gail Borden executive director Carole Medal told the dozens in attendance. “It’s wonderful to have them right in your backyard.”

The exhibit features four full-scale dinosaur skeletons, one dinosaur skull, and one full-scale flesh model of animals that once inhabited what is now part of Africa 110 to 135 million years ago.

The centerpiece is the Jobaria skeleton, which stands at two stories tall, its head and neck fitting in between the library’s spiral staircase opening.

While the skeletons are all made of plaster casts and not actual fossils, the exhibit nonetheless is impressive, said Medal.

“Each display is interesting, colorful,” she said. “Oh my God, jaws will drop.”

Curiosity bloomed from practically everyone who stepped foot inside the library Monday. A group from St. Mary’s Catholic School, children and adults alike, gaped at the Jobaria skeleton.

“We’re very lucky to have a library like this close to us, that our kids can come to from school and see this, it’s pretty impressive,” said Barbara Colandrea, the school’s principal.

Some actual fossils are sprinkled around Gail Borden. Near the entrance of the children section is the femur fossil of the Jobaria, weighing in at 350 pounds and 135 million years old.

The exhibit continues the library’s long run of attention-grabbing displays, such as castles, Legos, robots and artwork from childrens author Maurice Sendak.

“From beginning to end, this project was so exciting,” said Mary Amici-Kozi, the library’s exhibits manager. The first items and artifacts of the exhibit were delivered last week, and many staff members were working double-digit-hour workdays, said Amici-Kozi and Medal. The Jobaria skeleton took two days to set up.

It is also a return to dinosaurs, having done the same thing in the fall of 2005. Medal said that first exhibit was a game changer for the then-new library, which had opened only two years earlier.”