PLA Blog

You never know what the actual take-aways from a conference will be. For example, the last time I attended PLA (in Charlotte) I attended a session about serving coffee in the library. The speakers presented everything from the FOL serving coffee from a book truck to, I think it was Chicago PL (? the conference was a long time ago) that rented space on their ground floor to a coffee shop like Starbucks or Tullys and a portion of the sales went into the operating budget. I went home talking about coffee in the library. We never actually got a coffee cart, but we did manage to get rid of the “No Food and Drinks in the Library” signs!

What Children’s SpacesFamily Places has in common with the session I remember from Charlotte is that ideas were presented at the macro level and the micro level.

One of my two favorite parts of today’s session was the presentation by Kim van der Veen from Burgeon Group. She showed us the incredible creations and installations that their firm has done to support Early Learning in library environments. Her talk was utterly inspiring!

AND there are a lot of us who don’t have that kind of money, or aren’t involved in a building project, and still want to create a language-rich Early Literacy environment in our plain-old ordinary libraries. For us, the presentation by Dana Bjerke, Joanna Redman and Kelly Wussow from Hennepin County Library was utterly inspiring also. What a bunch of librarians can do with “cold laminate” and paper! I’d never even heard of cold laminate before today. Now I’m ready to go out and make cold laminate creations!

PLA/ALSC are currently taking orders for customized Every Child Ready To Read brochures. Because of the large quantity being ordered, special pricing allows you to purchase brochures at a substantial savings.

Orders are being accepted for only the quantities listed below:

• 5,000 each of the three brochures (15,000 brochures total) $2,850 ($.19 each)
• 10,000 each of the three brochures (30,000 brochures total) $4,500 ($.15 each)
• 20,000 each of the three brochures (60,000 brochures total) $7,200 ($.12 each)
• 30,000 each of the three brochures (90,000 brochures total) $9,000 ($.10 each)
• 50,000 each of the three brochures (150,000 brochures total) $13,500 ($.09 each)

Plus a $45 set-up fee for each brochure and shipping cost.

Your library’s logo, address, phone number and web address will be imprinted on the back panel of each brochure. Place your order by November 2, 2007. For more information, or to obtain an order form, visit the www.ala.org/everychild.

Is the fantasy genre a mystery to you? Wondering how to keep kids, especially boys, interested in reading now that the Harry Potter series is over, with no ideas on what to recommend? Love the Hogwart’s party concept, and looking for fresh ideas? A Practical Guide to Fantasy is the webinar is for you.

The webinar’s speaker, Nina Hess, is a Senior Editor at Mirrorstone, an imprint of the very famous and popular gaming company, Wizards of the Coast (publishers of Dungeons & Dragons, Magic: The Gathering, and much more). She edits fantasy fiction for children and teens. She is also the author of A Practical Guide to Monsters, which follows the company’s New York Times bestseller, A Practical Guide to Dragons. Needless to say, she is quite the expert.

I was invited to attend a preview of the webinar, and it’s an excellent Fantasy 101 crash course. Nina talks about:

• her experiences working at Mirrorstone (where she works in a “fantasy world”),
• why fantasy is so popular with kids, especially boys, and keeps them reading,
• the different flavors of fantasy plus a little on fantasy vs. science fiction,
• how fantasy and gaming can go hand-in-hand, and how tabletop role-play can lead to more kids in the library *and* more reading,
• program ideas that incorporate fantasy and fantasy reading

This webinar is a great place to start if you’re lost in fantasy, or just need a push in the right direction. Nina also talks about the many resources offered by her company (many of them free!) to help your library begin its journey into fantasy.

The program is coming up soon, so now is the time to register!

Event details:
A Practical Guide to Fantasy
Friday, September 28, 2007
11 a.m. - 12 p.m. Eastern Time [10 a.m. CT / 9 a.m. MT / 8 a.m. PT]
To Register: Send your name and contact information to . You may either email or call in your credit card information at 914-241-2117.
Cost: $50 per person
Group discounts:
10-49: $45/person
50-99: $40/person
100+: $35/person

What you’ll need: This is a Web-based seminar. Registered participants will receive participation instructions, log-on information and a toll-free number to dial in by telephone for the audio portion of the seminar upon payment of the registration fee.

On Sunday, June 24, I attended the program “Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails: Every BOY Ready to Read @ Your Library,” presented by Dr. Leonard Sax, M.D., Ph.D. He explained the gender differences between boys and girls and how we could use this in our storytimes. A few highlights from his Powerpoint presentation:

•Gender gap
-Between 1980-2004, gender gap of leisure-time reading
-1 in 10 boys now reads for fun
-Gender gap has become a chasm (“…a marker of gender identity: girls read, boys don’t.” –Bauerlein & Stotsky 2005, Bauerlein 2007)

•Sex differences in brain development (Harriet Hanlon, et al. 1999)
-studied 224 girls, 284 boys, ages 2 months to 16 years
-fine motor skills and language : girls develop faster
-gross motor skills, spatial memory, visual targeting : boys develop faster

•Learning styles
-Boys listen better when they are standing (rather than sitting – “their brains shut off”)
-Most young girls learn better when sitting
-Does not mean there is a difference in rank (or abilities)
-Boys are taught to sit still in school like the girls (so then school = girly … why they hate it)
-Best temperature to learn: 60 degrees boys, 75 degrees girls (children and young adults for normal size) – 6 degrees of separation

•Extraneous noise (Colin, Elliot and assoc.)
-Bother girls and women at sound levels 10 to 40x lower than boys/,men
-Girls are aware of what’s going on around them
-90-92% of boys not bothered by noise

•Storytime
-Offer Noisy Time Story Time (and Quiet Time Story Time)
-Noisy:
-Turn the thermostat down
-Seats are optional (bean bag chairs?) – boys love to crouch
-Rule: No hitting, can’t disturb others
-Choose stories boys enjoy (Watch out for “demand characteristics” – what’s the right choice?)
-Allow buzzing/tapping/clicking

For more information, visit Dr. Sax’s website: www.boysadrift.com (same title as his new book, being published in August 2007)

I’ve never recorded a session for podcast and *not* sat in on the same session (my post of the session I attended is forthcoming), so this is something new. Many thanks to Melissa Faubel Johnson for minding the digital recorder!

The description for the session, which was presented Saturday, June 23, was as follows:

Audiobooks are a growing portion of library collections. Here is an event to celebrate and learn about the creation of quality audiobook products from the perspective of authors, narrators and producers who build the blocks that create great listening experiences. This program will focus on audiobooks for young adults and children and is cosponsored by ALSC and YALSA.

Many thanks to ALSC for working with us to record and podcast the session!

Here’s the list of when each speaker begins in the recording, and a little tidbit about each speaker’s segment. It sounds like it was a very interesting and entertaining recording, and I’m sad I missed it (even though I wouldn’t have normally attended this session in the first place), so I’m glad we have the podcast to share with all of you.

Intro: Mary Burkey, Moderator, Odyssey Award Committee Chair, introduces the session, and talks a little about the Odyssey Award, a collaboration between ALSC and YALSA.

5:37: Bruce Coville, Author, Full Cast Audio:

16:03: Judy Blume, Author, Books on Tape/Listening Library - very humorous presentation with bits about reading her books to audio. Her advice to writers is to read aloud!

31:00: John Green, Author, Brilliance Audiobooks - Creator/contributor to the videoblog Brotherhood 2.0 who has worked for NPR, includes bits on the relationship between text and audio.

47:00: Jack Gantos, Author, Books on Tape/Listening Library - Oh my word, he’s funny. Jack tells the story of how a reading of his book that was like “Miracle Whip on white bread” led him to read his own books for audio.

58:40: Question and Answer
Really interesting stuff about sending books to audio before print, behind the scenes at an audiobook recording from an author’s perspective, Fisher Price mp3 players, enhanced audio book CDs, and the fabulous emotion in audiobooks. Unfortunately, the recording stops short of the conclusionary comments, but we still got a good bit of it, and it’s still a good listen.

 

 Standard Podcast [79:37m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (301)

8:00 Bright and shiny, or at least awake, I arrived at the convention center for the first session of the day. Babies and Books Beyond the Library.

Rachel Payne, Coordinator of Preschool Services at the Brooklyn Public Library, spoke at the program Brooklyn Reads to Babies. She was followed by Susan Straub, author and director of the Read to Me program, and Sally Anderson, executive director of Mother Goose.

There are a number of initiatives to promote and foster early literacy, but the two I hear the most about at conferences are Mother Goose and Read to Me. The three most important things everyone needs to know about reading to babies:

• it is important to language development
• it helps children enter school ready to succeed
• it is an opportunity for parent/child bonding

The basics were covered, but they also talked about how to get the word out, saturating the area with publicity (e.g. beauty parlors, places of worship, messages on ATM screens). Sally Anderson spoke about working with smaller populations and less money than Brooklyn Public was blessed with, giving suggestions of who to invite to the table when planning an early literacy initiative.

Though not all the information was new it was a good session, and I’ve got a couple ideas I’m looking forward to utilizing.

10:30 From that session I tried moving across the hall to Bringing in the Boys: Using Multiple Intelligencces to Plan Programs that Appeal to Boys, but when I got there the room was packed, without any room left on the floor.

I received this via the Massachusetts Library Association listserv, and thought I’d share:

WGBH/Boston, a leading producer of quality children’s programming and award-winning resources for educators, is pleased to offer librarians a FREE Peep and the Big Wide World Event Kit. The kit has resources for organizing 3 different hands-on science events for preschoolers.

This free kit is available as part of the educational outreach linked to the WGBH-produced, EmmyR Award-winning series, Peep and the Big Wide World. The goal of the series and its outreach is to nurture young children’s interest in science play and discovery.

The kit includes informative Leader’s Guides that outline how to set-up and run the 3 separate events, which focus on the themes of Shadows, Structures, and Ramps. Related reproducible materials for families attending the events are also provided.

To get your free kit, contact by September 30th (one Event Kit is available per library branch while supplies last). You can also download components of the kit and other resources from the site.

For details on the television program, visit the PEEP and the Big Wide World site.

I’m a little slow with posting about the Sunday meeting of PLA committees, but it takes awhile to get used to the three-hour time difference/jet lag.

I’m on the PLA Services to Preschool Children and Their Caregivers Committee, and we met Sunday to discuss our plans for upcoming conferences and the like. We will be having an excellent program at ALA Annual in Washington, D.C. titled “Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tales: Every BOY Ready to Read @ your Library”.

Dr. Leonard Sax, author of Why Gender Matters, will be presenting the latest research on the male brain, how this research may change the way librarians do story times for boys and how this research can be communicated to parents and caregivers. Dr. Sax will present and there will be a question/answer forum.

As any children’s librarian out there can tell you - there is definitely a difference in the behavior of little boys and girls during storytime! This looks to be an great program and I hope y’all can make it!

The Public Library Association (PLA) and the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) are proud to introduce the Every Child Ready to Read® @ your library® wiki, which can be found at http://wikis.ala.org/ecrr. The wiki allows new and current users of the Every Child Ready to Read® @ your library® program to share innovative ideas and best practices.

PLA and ALSC jointly developed the Every Child Ready to Read® @ your library® program to provide public libraries with vital tools to help prepare parents for their critical role as their child’s first teacher. Based on research from the PLA/ALSC Early Literacy Initiative, the three Every Child Ready to Read® programs target parents and caregivers of children ages: 0-2 years-old (Early talkers), 2-3 years-old (Talkers), and 4-5 years-old (Pre-readers). Since the program’s training and materials were introduced in 2004, hundreds of libraries have held programs for parents and caregivers to prepare them to help children get ready to read. To learn more about the program, please visit www.ala.org/everychild

To order Every Child Ready to Read® materials, visit www.alastore.ala.org. For more information on Every Child Ready to Read® @ your library®, contact the PLA office at 800-545-2433. ext. 5PLA, ALSC office at ext. 2164, or visit www.ala.org/everychild. PLA and ALSC are divisions of the American Library Association.