PLA Blog

So I’d like to tell you about “Leave No Child or Toddler behind: Summer Reading Programs and Our Youngest Patrons.” The presenters were Sharon Deeds, Dekalb Cty, GA; Deb Noggle, Allan Cty, IN; and Pamela Martin-Diaz, Allen Cty, IN.

This was an amazing program. Of course, all my notes are back at my hotel room, gah! so I’ll try to give you an idea. And my brain cells are crying out, NO! But I will perservere.

The sweetheart of the program was Deb Noggle, who compared her year as planner for the summer reading program to being “Homecoming Queen.” Her phrase to explain how she got things done: “Debbie always gets her way!” Debbie shared Allen County’s programs for 2004 and 2005, so that we could see the progression of a good program to a great program. They are now in development for 2006. Circs are up, staff adoption of the program has increased, and (key the music) everyone lives happily ever after. Not that there’s not a lot of work to be done, but Debbie and her collegues have broken another barrier in children’s services to our youngest patrons.

In Allen County, they talk about the 20 minute miracle, which is used by many services to children to describe reading to your children for 20 minutes a day. For younger children, reading readiness can be accomplished by having your children sort laundry, by color, shape, size. There were so many ideas, I’d be here all day describing them all. I’m hoping this session was one of the ones taped.

One of the great things were the hand outs. (So sorry for yins at home…) There were two sheets that had four scenarios each. I’m using each and every exhausted brain cell to conjure them back up….

1. But my baby can’t read
2. But my baby eats books
3. But…

(I promise there were eight.) I think some of the other ones were like, but my kid won’t sit still…

and then after each objection, there was an answer: Well, babies can build their vocabularies by listening. Talk to your baby. Get board books (okay, that may not have been on there, but it’s a good idea!). The idea was that you were to distribute these to staff who said, “but I don’t know how to promote a program for babies!!” You can look at some of what Allen County does on their website.

Debbie also handed out 2004 and 2005 program booklets (what some counties call the Summer Reading Club Folder) which had activities and a game board. What was great about this was that not only could you see how Year 1 was good and Year 2 was better, you could also see how a library went about getting permission and expressing that they had done so by posting credits to whomever’s information they were broadcasting. It was so nice to have someone say firmly and kindly, “Be fair. Get permission.” Not a one of the organizations they asked turned them down.

So by now, you may be thinking, gah! this is a lot of work. Yes, yes it is. You may not be able to implement these ideas into your 2006 programs, but then again, you might be able to start small, which is how any great program does start.

At home, in Pittsburgh, I run a Mother Goose program for six mos to 24 mos. based on Betsy Diamant-Cohen’s “Mother Goose on the Loose.” I told the moms I would be going to Boston to find out how I could make their kids a part of our SRC (Summer Reading Club.) (In Georgia, it is VRP: Vacation Reading Program.) And while I doubt I’ll be able to get a snazzy folder and game board, there were ideas I can use.

Visit the Pla website which gives information on “Every Child Ready to @ your library.”

This is important stuff! I hope I have piqued your interest and if I get to my notes before the conference ends, I will try to include more “meaty” info.

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Interesting things seen in the Conference center: a bank of pay phones. All were painted brown with brown plastic receivers except for one, which was also painted brown but had a black receiver. Hmmmm. (If you want to see this for yourself, it’s on the 2nd floor of HCC.)

Tags: conferences, PLA, PLA2006

This entry was posted on Friday, March 24th, 2006 at 12:57 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.