September 19, 2013

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Fresh Paint: Works Well with Others

By on September 19, 2012
91912libprogram

The public library is an information center providing resources that the community needs and wants. To know exactly what the community needs and wants the library relies on comment cards, conducts online surveys, and closely follows local issues and trends. But what if there are no customers to poll, no users for librarians to have a discussion with? This is exactly the situation that my library system is currently facing, because we are building a library where there has never been one (for many, many miles) and therefore there are no statistics, surveys, or discussions to base our collection, preliminary programming, or resource needs.

Filed Under: Budgets & Funding, Buildings & Design, Public Libraries, Teens & YA Tagged With:

Coming Soon: Fresh Paint!

By April Layne Pavis, Loudon County (VA) Public Library on September 5, 2012
9512freshpaint

There’s a new column coming to SLJTeen – Fresh Paint: Notes from a Public Library. We’ll hear from April Pavis, teen services librarian, as she prepares to move into the eighth library branch in Loudoun County, Virginia, the Gum Spring Library which will deliver 40,000 square feet of space for materials, programs, education, and entertainment to an area of the county that has never had a library.

Filed Under: Buildings & Design, Industry News, Programs & Programming, Public Libraries, Teens & YA Tagged With:

NY’s Queens Library Brings In Youth Services Champion to New Post

By on August 29, 2012
Tracie D. Hall

If one theme runs through Tracie D. Hall’s career, it’s the passion she feels for young people and

Tracie D. Hall

ensuring they have the resources to succeed. As Queens Library’s  newest director of strategy and organizational development, she’s involved in the library’s customer service priorities—but she’ll also ensure that youth services remains a priority.

“I’m always in awe of the raw potential in young people,” says Hall, who came aboard on July 16. “Institutions can either squash that and try to [...]

Filed Under: Featured, Public Libraries Tagged With: , ,

Locals Create ‘People’s Library’ During Seattle Public Library Closure

By on August 23, 2012
peopleslibrary

Just because citywide budget cuts have forced the Seattle Public Library to close its doors for a week starting Monday, doesn’t mean kids will be left without good books or fun things to do during that time. A group is organizing a “People’s Library” in the Central District—and it needs children and YA titles.

Filed Under: Featured, Public Libraries Tagged With: , , ,

Chicago Kids Read a Record 1.5 Million Books as Part of Rahm’s Readers Summer Reading Program

By on August 22, 2012
rahmreaders

Some 60,232 Chicago kids read more than 1.5 million books this summer, thanks to Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s Rahm’s Readers, the Chicago Public Library’s summer reading program. Studies show that children who participate in summer reading programs maintain or improve their reading skills and start school ready to learn.

Filed Under: Featured, Public Libraries, Students, Teens & YA Tagged With: , , , ,

DC Public Libraries Serve Up Books—and Lunch, Too

By on August 14, 2012
dclibrary

Literacy isn’t the only thing Washington, DC, public libraries are offering kids this summer. They’re also serving up some lunch.
“We wanted to make sure they had a reason to come,” says Ginnie Cooper, chief librarian for the District of Columbia. “Sometimes the kids will come for the lunch, and sometimes they come for the program.”

Filed Under: Featured, Public Libraries, Students Tagged With: , , , , ,

Pictures of the Week: Fairfield Public Library

By on July 25, 2012
Children's Librarian, Cindy Barich & Deputy Town Librarian, Nancy Coriaty (l. to. r.) prepare for the Kick-Off of the Library Olympic Scavenger Hunt at Fairfield Public Library, CT.

Children’s Librarian, Cindy Barich & Deputy Town Librarian, Nancy Coriaty (l. to. r.) prepare for the Kick-Off of the Library Olympic Scavenger Hunt at Fairfield Public Library, CT.

Filed Under: Public Libraries Tagged With:

NYC Pols Urge State to Ban Sex Offenders from Library Children’s Rooms

By Meredith Schwartz on July 12, 2012
NYPL's 42 Street Children's Center.

New York Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and Council Member Peter F. Vallone Jr. of Queens have asked the New York state legislature to pass a law barring sex offenders from children’s reading rooms in libraries.

Filed Under: Buildings & Design, Legislation, Public Libraries Tagged With: ,

Arizona Mandates Stiff Penalties for Schools, Public Libraries Without Filters

By on July 10, 2012
arizona-filters

Arizona’s public schools and libraries must filter all computers that are available to children or risk losing 10 percent of their state funding, according to a new law set to take effect August 1.

Filed Under: Legislation, Public Libraries, Schools & Districts Tagged With: , ,

Want to Work with Kids in a Public Library? Here’s the Inside Scoop

By on July 1, 2012
Illustration by Giselle Potter

It was 2001 and I was a year out of college, my dream of becoming a photographer neatly scrapped due to the slightly sobering fact that my photography skills, not to put too fine a point on it, stunk.

Filed Under: Careers, Featured, Industry News, Public Libraries Tagged With: ,

DC Mayor Signs Law Requiring Youth Anti-Bullying Policies in Libraries, Other City Agencies

By on June 27, 2012
mayor-gray

District of Columbia Mayor Vincent Gray on Friday signed a bill that requires public libraries, schools, recreation centers, and other city agencies that work with young people to adopt and implement antibullying policies.

Filed Under: Public Libraries, Schools & Districts

CO Library Serves Kids “On the Fly” as Wildfires Rage

By on June 19, 2012
poudre-river-public-library

What do you do when disaster strikes? That’s the urgent question the staff at the Poudre River Public Library District in Fort Collins, CO, was forced to answer when the raging High Park wildfires—among the worst in the state’s history—ignited June 9 north and west of the city.

Filed Under: Public Libraries, Students Tagged With: ,

Chicago Building Its First Joint High School/Public Library from the Ground Up

By on June 14, 2012
chicago-hs-pl

Chicago’s taking the partnership between public and school libraries to the next level—it’s building its first public library as part of a school.

Filed Under: Buildings & Design, Public Libraries, Schools & Districts Tagged With:

I’m Sending You to the Public Library!

By Phil Goerner Krista Brakhage on June 6, 2012

By Phil Goerner, teacher librarian, Silver Creek High School, Longmont CO, and Krista Brakhage, teacher-librarian, Poudre High School, Fort Collins CO

School was winding down for the year when a fellow librarian heard the alarm go off in her school library. After she examined the young lady’s backpack, she discovered three library books! “I’m not finished with them yet,” the girl claimed, but the books weren’t checked out. The student then had to explain why she ripped the barcode off and [...]

Filed Under: Librarians & Media Specialists, Public Libraries Tagged With:

Atlanta Library Joins Forces With Zoo to Boost Kids’ Love of Wildlife

By on June 1, 2012
atlanta-zoo

If I ran the zoo, what would I do? That’s the question the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library and Zoo Atlanta want kids to ponder during a jointly run summer environmental education effort focused on igniting kids’ zeal for protecting Georgia’s wildlife—while also inspiring them to consider future careers in animal conservation.

Filed Under: Industry News, Programs & Programming, Public Libraries Tagged With: ,

What Is the Future of Reference?

By on June 1, 2012
From the left (left image): Rocco Staino; Barbara Genco, Library Journal's manager of special projects; and Christopher Harris. From the left (right image):Jon Gregory, Matt Andros, Roger Rosen, Diana McDermott, and Geraldine Curran. Photographs by Sean McGinty.

The world of reference is moving at warp speed these days. Public library patrons are used to Wikipedia and expect the same convenience when it comes to library resources. And in many school libraries, budget crunches, technology issues, and Common Core standards have made librarians’ jobs even more, shall we say, exciting. Wouldn’t you love to sit down with some of the world’s leading reference publishers and say, “Hey, wait a second! This is what we need you to do to make our libraries better”?

Filed Under: ALA Conferences, Featured, Public Libraries, Publishing, Reference, Students Tagged With: , ,

ETots: a Public Library iPad Program for Preschoolers

By on May 30, 2012

Children’s services librarian Cindy Wall documents what she learned in presenting an iPad program for her youngest users —one and two year olds.

Filed Under: Apps, Early Learning, Ebooks, Public Libraries, Technology Tagged With:

We Need Tag-Team Librarianship: Active collaboration between public and school librarians benefits all | Editorial

By on May 1, 2012

Consider this number: nine percent. That’s how many public librarians say they “work directly with school librarians and teachers” on homework assignments. SLJ’s survey of public library spending on children’s and young adult services (see “It Takes Two” ) is eye-opening reading.

Filed Under: Editorial, Public Libraries, Schools & Districts Tagged With:

It Takes Two: The Need for Tighter Collaboration Between School and Public Librarians

By Rebecca T. Miller and Laura Girmscheid on May 1, 2012
it-takes-two

Numbers can be telling, and the story here presents a stark reality that signals an ideal opportunity to foster a stronger relationship between public and school libraries in ways that better support how kids learn and grow.

The results of SLJ’s first survey of public library spending habits on children’s and young adult services reveals a disturbing trend: only 30 percent of respondents say their library collaborates with local schools to coordinate book purchases to support the curriculum—leaving 70 percent that don’t.

Filed Under: Budgets & Funding, Featured, Public Libraries, Schools & Districts Tagged With:

Mind Readers: Thinking Out Loud Can Raise Children’s Comprehension Skills

By Renea Arnold and Nell Colburn on May 1, 2012

It’s toddler storytime: let the rumpus begin! Toddlers bound quickly into the room. One hurdles mom’s legs while waiting for the opening song. Some hop, others roam, and a few practically climb our unflappable colleague Janie. Even after getting most of their wiggles out, many toddlers continue to float around the room—until Janie begins to read one of her favorite books, Owl Babies (Candlewick, 1996) by Martin Waddell.

Filed Under: Books & Media, Literacy, Public Libraries Tagged With: ,
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