Tag Archives: Spotlight Program Series

Books, Programs

Spotlight Program: Ready Player One comes to the library!

Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline

At CMLE, we so enjoy all our different types of libraries, archives, and other members! Seeing all the work you are doing is so inspiring; and we want to return the favor by helping you to find some of the great programming going on around the profession.

Each week we will share an interesting program we find. It may inspire you to do exactly the same thing; or to try something related; or just to try out some different programming ideas.

When books make the jump from page to movie screen, it can be a great opportunity for all types of libraries to promote the book (and others!) with some fun programming!! Those of us who grew up in the 80s may have some attachment to this movie, with all the pop culture imagery throughout the story – and that could give you more ideas for programming.

Check out this article By Jennifer Massa, Fiction Program Librarian, Mount Prospect (Ill.) Public Library: (Click through to see all the material with the original article!)

Is Your Library ‘Ready Player One’ Ready?

Released in 2011, “Ready Player One” by Ernest Cline took the literary world by storm with its multiple gateways of accessibility.

The science fiction novel follows 18-year-old Wade as he tries to find an Easter egg of riches hidden by a billionare in OASIS, a virtual reality game. On his journey, Wade makes friends, falls in love, plays Pac-Man and listens to Rush. Between the ’80s references and the major plot point surrounding a scavenger hunt, readers of all genres were drawn to this futuristic book.

The film adaptation will come out March 29, and fans are buzzing with excitement. Here are a few program ideas to bring the adventure to life for its fans.

Continue reading Spotlight Program: Ready Player One comes to the library! →

Programs

Spotlight Program: Longview Public Library third annual LongCon

London Comic Con 2015 - Gotham (18057299321)
If you have not visited the public library in Longview, WA – their programming might just inspire you to visit!

Check out this excerpt about the great program, written by Alex Bruell alex.bruell@tdn.com:

“Between Ghostbusters, superheroes and Pokémon, there was room for everyone at Longview Public Library’s third annual LongCon.

The event drew roughly 200 people, many dressed up as their favorite characters from shows like BoJack Horseman, Sword Art Online or G.I. Joe. The mini-convention featured local vendors, an “Anime 101” discussion panel, and creations from local artists.

The crowning moment, though, was the convention’s costume contest, which drew about a dozen participants in each age category for kids, teens and adults.

Korene Young, one of the contestants, lives in Rainier but grew up in Kelso. When she went to LongCon in its first year, she said, there were only about 10 people in the audience. This year, about 100 onlookers filled the central floor and balcony of the library.

Now, she said, it’s becoming a real tradition.

“(It’s) getting the chance to get out of my shell,” she said. “Normally I don’t like having my photo taken, but I put on my outfit, and suddenly I’m taking pictures and talking to people with the same interests.”

Two of the judges, Lisa and Samantha Earls, were a mother-daughter team with Lisa as a G.I. Joe and Samantha as “January Chase,” a character created by the local Art-Horse Studios.

Lisa Earls said the convention is a great way to get people interested in coming to the library, as well as a fun way to spend time with her daughter. But as Samantha Earls pointed out, it can also be an opportunity to strengthen existing friendships.

“You know the person, you do schoolwork with them, but finding out you have something in common with them creates an actual connection,” she said.

Heather Foster-Frisly and Brian Bohlmann, both of Portland, came dressed up as the eponymous scientists from Ghostbusters. They showed off intricately handmade costumes with tanks and blinking lights, which earned Bohlmann a tie for first place in the costume contest. But they also expressed appreciation for mini-convention’s existence in the first place.

“The people that would be considered outcasts can come together,” Foster-Frisly said.

Dan Foster, one of the judges for the costume contest, said he’s attended LongCon each year. A semi-regular attendee of Seattle’s Emerald City Comic Con, which drew nearly 100,000 attendees last year, Foster said there’s something special about smaller conventions like LongCon.

“You’re going to Emerald City to drop $100 on an autograph,” Foster said. But at a smaller convention, “you’re more likely to know people. You get to focus on the local art, the local creators.””

Read the rest of this article here!

Programs

Spotlight Program: Senior Fitness Class and Chair Yoga

Yoga, double exposure by Victor TondeeAt CMLE, we so enjoy all our different types of libraries, archives, and other members! Seeing all the work you are doing is so inspiring; and we want to return the favor by helping you to find some of the great programming going on around the profession.

Each week we will share an interesting program we find. It may inspire you to do exactly the same thing; or to try something related; or just to try out some different programming ideas.

Most of our libraries would have seniors in their community, so doing some programming specifically for them is always a good idea! (Think broadly about your potential community; could elementary school students do some yoga with their grandparents or some volunteer grandparents?)

Check out this article from Programming Librarian, by Jane Schweinsburg, Assistant Director, Coventry Public Library, R.I.

“Since many older adult patrons can’t make it to Coventry Public Library’s in-house programs, we decided to offer both a senior fitness class and a chair yoga class at the Coventry Housing Authority, which is conveniently located near the senior living center. We run the classes twice a week for six weeks, and the seniors are always begging for more!

We have a very active adult program at our library, but the elderly don’t always have transportation. Programs are often at night when they don’t want to go out, and we felt we could expand our programs to the whole community by not only offering a senior fitness class, but offering a chair yoga class as well.

We were going to have the classes in our building, but we don’t have an activities room, and since we share the building with Town Hall we have to use the Council Chambers for programs. Those aren’t always available, so we started looking elsewhere.

We talked to the senior center, but the community rooms at the local Housing Authority facilities were better, and the Housing Authority was already looking for activities. That’s worked out very well because some of the folks come from the community, but some of the folks come from the housing units right by the Housing Authority.

We started chair yoga in 2016 and the fitness classes in 2017. The instructors for both of those classes came to us asking if we would want them to teach a class.

Marketing

We get the word out mostly through The Reminder (a local shopper’s weekly), our own newsletter, our website and posters that we put up around town. Word of mouth works well too, especially because the seniors all live together.

Budget Details

We don’t pay anything for our rent, so our only cost is the instructor’s fee. She charges $35/hour, and twice a week for six weeks ends up amounting to $420. We alternate the fitness and yoga sessions so we are never paying both instructors at the same time.

Day-of-event Activity

The maintenance and janitorial staff at the Housing Authority set everything up for us, so we don’t have to do anything on the days of the classes. That staff ends up being very helpful. We couldn’t have class this week because of a snowstorm, so the Housing Authority called everybody in the senior housing development to tell them we didn’t have class.

Once the class starts, the instructor does all the work. She teaches them different exercises, and if it’s the senior’s first session, she has them sign a waiver.

Program Execution

We feel like this program has been a successful way to reach the older community. We get about 20 people each class.

At the end of the last session one of the gals wrote a lengthy thank-you note to the instructor. The instructor has a great sense of humor and is always laughing, so it works out to be a very pleasant class.”

Check out the rest of this article! Can you adapt it into your library?? It sounds like it could be fun!

Programs

Spotlight Program: Library Loud Days: Mondo Lucha at the Library

Loud - logo
At CMLE, we so enjoy all our different types of libraries, archives, and other members! Seeing all the work you are doing is so inspiring; and we want to return the favor by helping you to find some of the great programming going on around the profession.

Each week we will share an interesting program we find. It may inspire you to do exactly the same thing; or to try something related; or just to try out some different programming ideas.

Are you looking for something new? A way to have all kinds of fun things in the library?? Programs to bring in new people? A strategy that might help to bring up your noise factor??

The Milwaukee Public Library has just the program for you! This is the first in their series of Library Loud Days – which is suddenly my FAVORITE library program series of all time!!

From the Public Librarian website, by ALA Public Programs Office:

“On Friday, Dec. 1, more than 300 fans of all ages gathered at a Milwaukee Public Library (MPL) branch for Crush the Shush, a high-flying Mexican wrestling show featuring the Milwaukee-based Mondo Lucha.

The event was offered as part of a series called Library Loud Days — and rightly so. Event-goers cheered through a series of matches and shouted in protest when one of the wrestlers booed the library and reading as an activity. Later, things calmed down a bit; the luchadores (wrestlers) read stories to kids and signed posters and t-shirts, and patrons created their own wrestling masks and promo videos in the library’s makerspace.

Programming Librarian talked with Eileen Force Cahill, MPL’s community relations and engagement director, to learn what went into this extravagant, shush-busting evening.

Programming Librarian: How did this event come to be?

Eileen Force Cahill: About four years ago, MPL began a strategic planning process that identified three audiences with whom we wanted to establish a deeper relationship. We knew we wanted to change people’s notion of the library as a place where an old librarian with glasses would shush you, and reintroduce them to the library as a place where people of all ages in every neighborhood could gather and take advantage of the institution’s limitless resources. We worked with a local marketing agency who partnered with us at no cost, and created what we refer to as an “awareness” campaign, but it’s really more of a “perception” campaign.

Library Loud Days was born in summer 2016. For our first event, we closed down a major downtown street in front of the Central Library to host a hip-hop concert with the group New Age Narcissism. Along with the concert, we had food trucks, spoken-word performances and interactive stations throughout the library, including musical instrument demos.

We followed that with Haunted Central, where we created a haunted experience throughout the library, including a special tour of the “Forbidden Fourth Floor.” Last summer we had a birthday party for our mascot, Browser, with music, balloon artists, face painters, crafts, cake and more. (Read more about past Library Loud Days events.)

Crush the Shush was our latest endeavor. We were looking for something highly unusual and unexpected. The Library Loud Days team had a relationship with one of the producers of Mondo Lucha, and the idea was born. Continue reading Spotlight Program: Library Loud Days: Mondo Lucha at the Library →

Programs

Spotlight Program: Family Dance Party

Country-Dancing-Arthur Murray Dance Studio in The Woodlands TX1080x720
At CMLE, we so enjoy all our different types of libraries, archives, and other members! Seeing all the work you are doing is so inspiring; and we want to return the favor by helping you to find some of the great programming going on around the profession.

Each week we will share an interesting program we find. It may inspire you to do exactly the same thing; or to try something related; or just to try out some different programming ideas.

Want to try a family dance party? Well – who wouldn’t???? It sounds so fun!!

Check out this blog article: By Jenn Carson, MSLIS, CYT, CCYT Library Director of LP Fisher Public Library, Woodstock, N.B., Canada

“Looking for a great way to get families physically active at your library without offering structured sports programs? How about a fun way to combine physical literacy with verbal and music literacy? It’s time for you to host a Family Dance Party!

While I work at a public library, this program can also be offered in a school library during lunch as a way to get kids active indoors on a rainy day, or in an academic library for students to get some stress relief during exams, or even to get to know one another at the beginning of the semester. Adapt it as you see fit; the only goal is to have fun!

Ebony Scott, our summer reading club coordinator, was tasked with creating this program, and she did a great job. Here are the steps involved:

Pick a date, time and location

We had our dance party on a Saturday afternoon in July. We held it in our multipurpose activity room. If you don’t have such a space you could hold it in the children’s department or even outside using a portable stereo system.

Spread the word

We used our event calendar and made a Facebook event to promote the party, along with word of mouth. Ebony made sure to have conversations with our Summer Reading Club members and their families.

Gather supplies

Ebony purchased a bunch of balloons, and they were blown up and left on the floor to be played with. She also rented a dance light from a local music store that could be set to pulsate colors. This light was propped up and projected onto a wall. She used a laptop and a set of computer speakers to have the music loud enough for the room.

And of course … the music!

Ebony tried to pick music that would appeal to a wide age group. The staff had a great time coming up with ideas for the music and practicing our dance moves at the circulation desk. The following is the list played during the event.”

Read the rest of this blog here, including the entire playlist!! (Plus, the photos are adorable!)