Tag Archives: Program

Dinosaurs roam Gail Borden Library in Elgin

London - Crystal Palace - Victorian Dinosaurs 1
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.”

(Read the rest of this article here!)

Apply for the 2018 Arbuthnot Honor Lecture

Writer and Poet Naomi Shihab Nye will deliver the
2018 May Hill Arbuthnot Honor Lecture.

(From ALSC)

Photo of Naomi Shihab Nye“A wise and lyrical observer, Naomi Shihab Nye consistently draws on her heritage and writing to attest to our shared humanity,” stated 2018 Arbuthnot Committee Chair Elizabeth Ramsey Bird.

The daughter of a Palestinian father and an American mother, Naomi Shihab Nye grew up in St. Louis, Jerusalem, and San Antonio, Texas. The author and/or editor of more than 30 books for adults and children, her latest for young people, “The Turtle of Oman,” was chosen as a 2015 Notable Children’s Book by the ALA. She has received four Pushcart Prizes, was a National Book Award finalist, and has been named a Guggenheim Fellow, amongst her many honors.

The lecturer, announced annually during the ALA Midwinter Meeting & Exhibits, may be an author, illustrator, editor, critic, librarian, historian or teacher of children’s literature, of any country, who shall prepare a paper considered to be a significant contribution to the field of children’s literature.  This paper is delivered as a lecture each April or May, and is subsequently published in “Children and Libraries,” the journal of ALSC.  Once the name is made public, institutions wishing to host the lecture may apply.  A library school, department of education in a college or university, or a public library system may be considered. Applications to host the 2018 lecture are now open. See below:
Continue reading Apply for the 2018 Arbuthnot Honor Lecture

Reader’s Advisory: Dial A Story!

Ericsson Dialog in green
Wouldn’t it be nice if someone could just read you a story?

For kids, it’s an ultimate treat to get storytime! And now it’s even available while patrons are away from the library: Dial a Story! Kids love to use the phone anyway – letting them hear a story can be an additional fun activity.  Dial a Story programs are going strong in many libraries around the country!

The Broward County library offers one of them: “Convenient, quick and always available – that’s Broward County Library’s Dial-A-Story, a free storytime-by-phone service that’s available 24/7 to anyone with access to a telephone. Dial-A-Story features four different stories at a time, and the stories are changed every other week. Geared toward younger children, the stories are a mix of contemporary tales, timeless classics and favorite fairy and folk tales. Professionally recorded, the stories are easy to access and loads of fun. To hear the latest stories, just call 954-357-7777.”

Professional storytellers are in on this action as well! “The Dial-A-Story program is an outreach service of the Jackson County Library System and the Storytelling Guild for pre-school age children. Guild members record stories on the phone for children to listen to from home. Stories change every two weeks, or more, depending on the storyteller. Children call the library at 541-774-6439 and hear the stories.”

A few other libraries offering Dial a Story programs:

Have you provided a service like this? Have you recorded stories?? This could be a great way to provide some Reader’s Advisory services to patrons – sharing suggestions for some fun books kids would love!

Reader’s Advisory: Storywalk titles!

blue skies
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Have you run a StoryWalk?

Have you been to a StoryWalk?

They sound amazingly fun! And they are a great way to involve kids in a book – and  hopefully interest kids in many more books!

“StoryWalk® is an innovative and delightful way for children — and adults! — to enjoy reading and the outdoors at the same time. Laminated pages from a children’s book are attached to wooden stakes, which are installed along an outdoor path. As you stroll down the trail, you’re directed to the next page in the story.”

“If you are interested in having a StoryWalk® in your community, The StoryWalk Project- FAQ March 2017 Update.doc.

A library person was recently talking about StoryWalks on the ALSC listserve, and asked for suggestions on other titles to use. She collected the responses, and we are sharing them with you here:

  • Life on Mars by Agee
  • The Three Little Aliens & the Big Bad Robot
  • Seymour Simon has several NF space books
  • The Aliens are Coming
  • Company Coming
  • Postcards from Pluto
  • Magic School Bus Lost in the Solar System
  • Aliens Love Underpants by Claire Freedman
  • I Want To Go To The Moon by Tom Saunders
  • The Darkest Dark
  • Oh No, Astro!
  • Star Stuff

Clearly, this would be a fun program in itself. You can also expand on that by involving some Reader’s Advisory work.

  • Add in signs with additional books on topics for each page. Picture of an ant on one? Recommend an ant book! Ms. Frizzle stops at Jupiter? Have a Jupiter book ready to go!
  • Create a bibliography you can give to parents and caregivers at the end, with similar books to the StoryWalk book you just had fun reading. Also put this online, so everyone can find it!
  • Have kids yell out their favorite books! We are already running (fun!), and adding in a yelling component could be even more fun! Keep track of their suggestions, so you stay in touch with the books important to this community group.

Check out some of the photos of StoryWalks on Pinterest!

Teen cooking program suggestions!

US Navy 090818-N-6326B-001 Staff and patients participate in a healthy cooking class at Naval Medical Center San Diego
These are suggestions for teen cooking programs from assorted libraries – but they could easily be done for all ages! The library people running these programs report they get a very good turnout; so might be a fun (potentially messy – never wrong) way to bring some new life into your programming.

Note: If your library does cooking programs, know that the CMLE HQ staff is ready and willing (even eager!) to come help with the taste testing! (And if you were not planning to include taste testers – we still volunteer!)

  • Teen Iron Chef
  • Cupcake Wars
  • Cake Boss
  • Fruit Bouquets
  • Stranger Things Cookie Bake-Off ( teens stop by the teen room to pick up a mystery ingredient that they have to incorporate into their cookies; since our theme is Stranger Things/80’s, we’ll be asking teens to use ingredients like Marshmallow Fluff, Teddy Grahams, and other snack foods that were released in the 80’s)
  • Make pasta from scratch – with rolling pins, the way my grandmother made it, not with a machine
  • A culinary school near by and the owner and an assistant (possibly student) came and did a pizza making program
  • Hunger Games Cornucopia themed food program where teens had to rush into the Cornucopia and grab an unmarked bag. They then had a certain amount of time to create a food creation using all of the ingredient.