Unprogramming - Can We Talk?

The concepts of creating school-age programs that take a reasonable amount of preparation time, are engaging and lead to literacy, and allow kids the freedom to explore within the program have been buzzing around in my conversations with colleagues and tweeps over the past few months. We all are exploring how, in a period of tight budgets and staff time, we can make the fun happen without killing ourselves. How can we "unprogram" ourselves - and our programs?

Program preparation for school age programs is important but where is the line drawn when the time spent preparing is two, three, five, or even ten times more than the actual program length itself?  Are we, as programmers, leading the charge in the program or empowering the kids in their exploration - are we guides or drill sargeants? Is there a way to organically link the books and materials that surround us every day into the programs and then back again to the collections so that kids understand the fundamental amazingness of the library and its resources?

These questions have led to many conversations and ideas. One of the people I have looked to during this conversation is Amy Koester over at the Show Me Librarian. And now Amy and I would like you to join this conversation at ALA in a few weeks. We will be presenting a 45 minute  "Conversation Starter" on Monday July 1 at 1:30 pm at the Mc Cormick Center Rm S102D.

During this time we want to explore with you ideas on making programming more rich while keeping preparation in perspective.  We'll also share resources that have helped us free ourselves and keep programming and preparation in perspective in our necks of the woods.

We think it's high time we start talking about this...how about you?