1000 Books Before K Resuscitation

After reading Jenni's recent post at From the Biblio Files on re-launching her library's 1000 Books B4 K program, it got me thinking - what are keys to continuing success in a long-term program? How can we keep it fresh?

From my observations and listening on my consulting travels and in my CE teaching, I have gathered a few clues particularly about 1000 Books programs.

Do Ongoing Promotion 
- Long-term programs need far more continual marketing.
- Work through schools, preschools and child care centers to get the word out at parent nights, through newsletters, at preschool and kindergarten screenings and registration, in pediatric clinics at baby "showers" or preschool fairs and celebrations.
- Present at service organizations to keep the word circulating in the community.
- Meet with your United Way, Literacy and Reading councils, communities of practice and any other professional organization and promote the benefits of parents and kids reading together and library use.
- Do annual press releases and send annual short-reports to your elected officials, board and to your library networks.

Do Specific Active Programs to Support This Passive Program
- Hold annual "graduation" parties for participants.
-Open the library before or after hours for 30 minutes and invite parents and kids to spend time reading together. Consider serving a snack, having a costume character come by or another short activity to get them excited.
-Hold an annual celebration with a performer or concert to celebrate the number of total books read and visits made to the library (every 100 level sheet bookmark equals 100 books and one visit to the library). Before you know it, you have some powerful stats to share!)

Don't Let the Materials Get Tired
Jenni hits the nail on the head with her changes. Restructure your theme; restructure your 100 level sheets to make them easier; restructure your incentives. A good hard look can suggest ways to make the program less cumbersome and more inviting.

Change Your Visuals

Consider updating your wall or door display that charts kids' progress. Make it bright and interactive like Knutson (Coon Valley WI) Memorial Library. They purchased pre-made material and added little kid craft stick people that kids could move up the chart. A little play literacy goes a long way!


Don't stay stuck on your theme. La Crosse Public Library changed from flowers to trucks for their wall progress chart and use zoomed up again!

Change out your poster and handout designs often. When people see the same thing repeatedly, they stop "seeing" it.

What are YOUR go-to methods to keep your long-standing programs fresh?

Note: For more information on 1000 Books programs , research to use, how to set them up, where they started, etc, stop here.

          

On the Road - 1000 Books B4 K and Programming Mightiness

Pixabay Image

I'm traveling to the beautiful southwestern part of WI along the Mississippi and Wisconsin rivers to present a workshop on programming mightiness - and in particular 1000 Books Before Kindergarten how-to's. Below are the live links to the topics we plunged into!

While programming isn't all we do, it is certainly the most public and often the most pressured thing we do (from preparation to conflicting demands). Today we look at strategies to program smarter and more effectively; the importance of balance and how to fairly meet the many needs of our public - and our funders. Creating a zen balance between service to all ages, finding time to recharge and plan, learning to get off the hamster wheel of constant programming and program shares were just some of what we explored.

Here are the workshop resources that were shared with my colleagues:

Today's Workshop Pinterest board
Let 1000 Books Bloom Pinterest board
Basic Resources how-to post for 1000 Books

My general Pinterest boards  - (boards on different program types and samples)

Wimp Yourself

Pixabay (free images)  

Astronomy Picture of the Day 

Struckmeyer, Amanda Moss.  DIY Programming and Book Displays: How to Stretch Your Programming without Stretching Your Budget and Staff. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2010.

A *Few * Favorite Programming Blogs:

Show Me Librarian  

Abby the Librarian 

ALSC Blog  

S. Bryce Kozla

Jbrary   (great resource list of blogs to explore!)

Hafuboti  

Mel’s Desk  (great resource list of blogs to explore!)

Kids Library Program Mojo (for a full list of fantastic program idea blogs AND great program idea posts- this is the class crowd-sourced blog from our spring CE course and has a ton of ideas from students!)

On the Road with Preschool Mojo Part 2

Three foot snow drift in Ashland WI in front of Lake Superior 4/24/14

Brooke and I are excited to be up in Ashland WI, on the shores of beautiful Lake Superior, to share some preschool know-how (and learn some too!) with our colleagues from the Northern Waters Library System. We are doing a workshop on starting a 1000 Books program, creating an inexpensive early literacy area and tips on doing effective early literacy storytimes.

We have a Pinterest board, All Things Preschool, full of links for you. If you don't use Pinterest, here are the highlights:

Growing Wisconsin Readers - a great blog to get insight into everything early literacy - including some great posts on early literacy centers developed in WI!

Hennepin County's slideshare with a ton of easy ideas to create inexpensive early literacy activities

1000 Books Before Kindergarten slideshare

All Things Preschool NWLS Morning Presentation 4/24/14 slideshare

1000 Books Before Kindergarten posts here (including a webinar), here, here, and here.

Both Brooke and I are blogging links for the workshop today, so please head over to Reading with Red for more insight into preschool power!

Happy Birthday 1000 Books!

This month marks our third year of doing 1000 Books Before Kindergarten in La Crosse!!

It has been an amazingly fun journey.

Over 850 children have joined the program (in our community of 51K) and 172 have reached the 1000 books goal.

So far over 257,200 books (yes...over a quarter of a million!!)  have been read to kids in our community as a result of this program. 

Our program was built so it could evolve to adapt to how parents and children react to the materials and incentives. Here is how we've changed:

Materials: Our first recording sheet asked parents to write down every title read. Then it morphed to bookmarks with 100 seeds to mark off. It has settled comfortably into a sheet with seeds, ten lines for favorite titles to be recorded and little literacy tips on each sheet.

Incentives: Stickers are king and queen for the kids and their most treasured part of each return visit. Kids still receive a nursery rhyme fingerpuppet at 500 and a book on completion. When we first started our focus group encouraged us to give out  logo-infused incentives to parents at 300 (lanyard), 500 (window cling), 800 (fridge magnet) and 1000 (book bag) levels. We soon realized the parents didn't care. So now, the book bag is given out at sign-up and that is the most prized parental possession (as well as great advertisement for the program around the community!)

Inclusiveness: The program was designed for 1-5 year olds because we wanted the kids to realize the excitement of what was happening. But what about the babies?!?! Our new early literacy librarian Brooke Rasche came on board a year ago and immediately developed and wrote a grant to fund Baby Book Bees to dovetail into our garden themed 1000 Books. With their first 100 books read, graduate Bees have a head start by the time they join 1000 Books. We have 44 babies in this new program!

We continue to talk the programs up, include them on our program flyers and distribute posters to daycares and schools to alert families to what's available. It has been a win-win program for our community and is one that more and more libraries are adding.

If you have added a 1000 Books Before Kindergarten program at your library, please let me know in the comments and I will make sure it gets pinned to my 1000 Books Pinterest board and get it on the google map. And if you are thinking of adding the program, please stop at this blog post for resources, history, research to support grant or funding requests and more!

2017 Update: Over 403.200 books have been read since the program's inception with 1,168 readers in 1000 Books and 194 readers in baby Book Bees. Moving towards half a million books. Go parents and kids!!

Give It Away, Give It Away, Give It Away Now

How often do you go to a program, read a blog post, see a blog comment or in conversation with your colleagues hear, "I stole this program."

You guys, no you didn't!!!!

I feel very strongly about this issue.  We all share so that we all can learn. This issue came up in our programming class and one of the student-librarians wrote this post on our class blog Kids Library Program Mojo.

Each description or workshop or blog post on a program or idea is really an open invitation to take the idea and grow it for YOUR community.

Remember, if you don't use that idea, it stays hidden and the children in your community never get the benefit of that innovation.  Hidden ideas seldom grow, evolve and change.

It's within the scrum of sharing, borrowing and giving away of ideas that we see the true evolution of innovation in children's library work. Be good and credit your source and the originator always and then grow it!

Sandy Krost started 1000 Books Before Kindergarten - look where it is now.

Sara Bryce pioneered Story Action Pods - look where it is now.

Cory Eckert started the Guerrilla Storytime movement - look where it is now.

Mel Depper started the Flannel Friday movement - look where it is now.

Lisa Shaia just started the school age Thrive Thursday movement - look where it is now.

I had a hand in starting the Unprogramming concept - look where it is now.

I could go on...but these are all incredible new, crowd-sourced initiatives that have grown like topsy because we share - and give ownership and agency away.  It is good to know you started the snowball rolling but why do you have to hoard the snow that goes into making it bigger, better and shared across the area, state, region or nation?

Any one of these things would still exist if it were "owned" by its founder in some small way, in one small community, in one lonely place.  But by giving it away, inviting participation, sharing and sharing, all of these innovative children's initiatives, projects, programs and concepts have taken on a vibrant life of their own.

We are stronger together. So free yourself.  Give it away. Take it. Share it. Grow it. Fairly credit it. And be mighty.

On the Road with 1000 Books Workshop

On the road today with friends and colleagues with the Waukesha County Library System, Lakeshores Library System, Kenosha County Library System and Milwaukee County Federated Library System. We are learning about baby brain development, Growing Wisconsin Readers and more (I'm a "more!") at an all day workshop. My "more" is sharing what I know about successfully starting and maintaining 1000 Books Before Kindergarten programs in afternoon break-out sessions.

For all my southern Wisconsin peeps, below are the 1000 books resources that I use and have gathered over the years. Enjoy!!

Tiny Tips for Library Fun - I have blogged about our program over the years. Please use the handy-dandy search box and type in "1000 Books Before Kindergarten" or just jump to my tag-cloud and click!

Beth Crist of the Colorado Department of Education has done an amazing job of pulling together resources, including a webinar by Sandy Krost (the motehr of the very first 1000 Books Club) and a PDF explainign what these programs are all about.

Come on, it wouldn't be true children's librarianship if there wasn't a Pinterest board lurking somewhere. If you are a pinner, drop by my Let 1000 Books Bloom board and link up to exisiting programs around the country. Our newest program developed, just posted today, is from Kathleen Larson from Bloomer (WI) Public Library who has a delightful program just launched!

Waukesha County Federated Library System developed an outstanding webinar on the nuts and bolts of 1000 Books thanks to Angela Meyers. Talk about a resource at your fingertips!

Finally, we have PDfs of all the real forms we tried, happily hosted by our Winding Rivers Library System website. Feel free to use and re-purpose. The more we share....

An Eye for the Future - Part 3

In this series, I am looking at sustainability in our work. The first post addressed some larger issues and thoughts about costs of ongoing projects followed by a post on grant fails   Today, let's consider the sustainability factor of  successful grant-funded  projects.

So what are key components to create sustainability in grant-funded projects?

First don't write it if you can't see a way to sustain the project, keep it fresh or easily make changes to evolve it to meet changing community needs. Taking a pile of money, creating a thing and letting it languish seems to be wasteful. If, in your grant planning, you figure what you need to keep the initiative or service going beyond the grant, it means two things: the grant start-up money is well-used to kick things off and you actually need the service or initiative enough to justify putting future general budget funds into keeping it fresh.

Grant Wins
Here are two examples of sustainability thinking we used in creating and thinking about projects we wanted to continue beyond their initial grant cycle.

2nd Grade Library Stars
Based on meetings with our LMC colleagues who suggested we bring in one grade level for an introduction to the library, we decided to reach out to all second graders and offer a field trip adventure at our Main Library location.  The biggest expense for this was going to be transportation - only one school is in walking distance of our Youth Services Department.

We wrote a Community Foundation grant for buses for $1000 and looked at our program budget for the future to fund the project in ensuing years. If we didn't book three outside performers, we would have that money.

The tours were a huge hit with the teachers, kids and staff. The worth of them was so apparent that the schools funded the buses the second year. Now we are looking at adding seventh grade and kindergarten field trips annually and the schools have agreed to split the bus costs.  This makes these visits sustainable for both organizations.  And because of the impact of the visits and the positives that have resulted, if we needed to fund raise to keep them going, I believe we would have no trouble in gaining support.

Baby Book Bees
We offer our 1000 Books program to children ages 1-5 but really wanted to catch families with their children from birth. So we developed a pre-1000 BksB4K efforts asking parents to read 100 books to their baby before their first birthday.  We decided that offering a little bib at sign-up with the library name and a book as a culminating incentive would be swell.

We wrote a Target grant to fund these two pieces and we received that grant - for twice the amount we asked for! This allowed us to fund the effort beyond a year and get better pricing on the bibs and books.  And how will we maintain this effort beyond this grant funding? We plan to enfold this initiative into the funds for 1000 Books (that original $7000 raised). Once this money is expended, we'll look into using existing programming money to continue or do a special fundraising appeal.

I think, dear readers, you are starting to see how thread of funding for projects needs to be worked into the warp and weave of regular budgets for programs and collections if sustainability is a goal.

Next post, we'll leave special projects behind and look at the sustainability of our programs. See you then!

Part 1
Part 2
Part 4

Graphic courtesy of Pixabay

An Eye for the Future - Part 1

This in the first in a series of blog posts addressing the concept of sustainability in our planning. As a management tool, it helps us build programs and initiatives in a way that points towards success.

I believe in sustainability - not just in my personal life but also in my work at the library.

When I think of projects and initiatives, a big question and discussion point as planning is done and over the course of the project is - can this be sustained? As a manager I like to see amazing efforts and accomplishments. I love to see big picture projects and ideas that push the envelope of our service to families and kids.

But I also like to see how the ideas and efforts can be maintained beyond the here and now. What are the implications - for the budget, for the staff, for continuation over the long-haul, for equitable access? Is the idea for a service or initiative one that will have longevity? Can it evolve and have a nimbleness factor that lets us adjust it for changing needs.  Is this something that if we offer to one, we can offer to all?

To me questions like this that look into the future can inform our choices. They make planning deeper and result in a project or service that is more sustainable.

Let's look at an example.

1000 Books Before Kindergarten
Many libraries are creating these programs for preschoolers in their community. The question is often asked, what are the costs of the program? I always like to say, it's what you can afford - and can realistically maintain. When we developed our program in Menasha, figuring in the cost for a binder for each child, CDs given out at every 100 level and a book at the end brought the cost per child to $14. I could see this would mean we would need to do continual fundraising to maintain this if the program proved popular.

It made me uncomfortable not to have a secure source of funds in place and to have such a high cost per child in terms of sustainability. The program has great worth and, philosophically, I wanted to offer it for as long as we could to involve kids for many years. The pressure of continual fundraising and grant-writing to maintain a project adds stress and uncertainty. I didn't want to repeat that feeling.

When we developed the program in here La Crosse, we had a goal of 1000 kids involved over the life of the program. We worked hard and raised $7000 dollars and figured the cost per child at $6 for stickers, book bag, finger puppet and book.  We now have 750 kids in the program after two and a half years and still have a substantial cushion of funds to go well beyond our original projection (not all families who start will continue).  I believe based on current and projected expenditures, our original funding remains secure for at least six years.  By that time the program may naturally sunset or we can reach out again to generate donor-funding. This passes the sustainability test in my mind.

Our materials have also met that test. We have evolved our recording sheets and incentives to reflect participant feedback. It has helped us save money and still provide an amazing experience for families. We have not had to stay static and we look forward to more tweaks in the future.

In the next blog posts, I'll look at grant-funded projects and their pitfalls - or triumphs.

Part 2
Part 3
Part 4


Graphic courtesy of Pixabay

Hitting the Road

For some insanely crazy reason, the stars aligned and in a few weeks I'll be on a two week road trip of storytelling and workshop presentations.

You know that feeling that you get when you are invited to present six or eight months before the event? "Oh, yes, that would be outstanding!" And it is. Many months in the future, no problemo. And then another request comes in for a nearby date. "That would be outstanding!"  And it is. Still far off somewhere, easy-peasy. And then another request comes in, also in that window of previous bookings, and suddenly I'm thinking "Tour". And then another request comes in and doesn't this all fall trippingly into a convenient two week window. And it does.

So, starting September 6 in my own home town of La Crosse WI, with our Storytelling Festival (where I do a little telling and emcee the Friday night spook tales), here's where you'll find me:

September 8-11
Joining Tessa Michaelson Schmidt, Leah Langby, Merri Lindgren, Megan Schliesmann and Sue Abrahamson as mentor/lecturers at the Youth Services Development Institute with 25 youth librarians from around the state to make library magic.

September 12
Storytelling at a celebration for children in childcare in Marshfield

September 13-14
One of the featured tellers at the Chippewa Valley Storytelling Festival (Eau Claire) joining friends and colleagues Kevin McMullin, Tracy Chipman and the Saskill family.

September 17
Doing a three hour workshop on Stealth Programming for the Winnefox Library System .

September 19
Joining many fantastic colleagues and doing a presentation on the how to develop a 1000 Books Before Kindergarten program for multiple southern WI library systems at one of the first - if not the first - of seven workshops statewide to roll out the amazing new Growing WI Readers initiative from DPI.

September 19-22
Chilling out with feminist library colleagues at a four day retreat in Wisconsin's charming Door County. This chance to share discussion, support, great food and friendship is always a highlight!

The finishing touches are being put on the presentations. The GPS is loaded. The powerpoints are on the flash drive. The handouts ready to go. The puppets packed.  See you on the road!

Image courtesy of Pixabay

Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus Party

This spring, the team decided it was high time to hold a party for our 1000 Books Before K Club kids. We thought: May, nice weather, a bus or historic trolley - PIGEON!!! Thus was the pigeon party born.

We offer one-two events per year for our 1000 Books families.  We often hold them before or after hours so the tots and parents get exclusive use of our space and non-stop attention from staff.  We might have a concert, or a cookie party with Laura Numeroff's Mouse, or mac and cheese and a chance to browse the room. We posted about last fall's Brown Bear event here. Whatever we focus on we make sure to invite our 1000 Books families and let them know something special is about to happen for them.

As a fan of book-based parties, a Pigeon Party based on Mo Willems' books, didn't disappoint. We booked our historic trolley to do a 20 minute drive around our riverfront downtown. We left enough time to do three runs so we could accommodate any sized crowd. Two runs did nicely.

   

One team member, Sherri, welcomed the kids to the trolley with a pigeon stuffed toy and rode along with the families on the trolley. Another team member, Brooke,  had mounted pigeon cards on craft sticks for the kids to hold;  they received these before they got on the trolley. Kids used the card to wave and shout an emphatic "NO!!" when Sherri asked them if the pigeon should drive the bus. 

Brooke also had stories, a small activity - decorate a bus that Pigeon might ride on - and even used the "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus" app with kids one-on-one. We also invited our families to meet staff after the party at the local downtown ice cream parlor and a few families took us up on the idea to visit together outside the library.

A bus can work just as well as a trolley for a program like this.  Parents and kids were excited and staff felt like the planning was just perfect to celebrate a much-loved book with our 1000 Book families!

1000 Books Webinar - Join Me!

Want to learn more about the 1000 Books Before Kindergarten movement that is growing here, there and everywhere?

I will be presenting a webinar on this cool literacy initiative - it's origins, examples of programs from around Wisconsin, how to create and budget for a program like this and plenty of time for input from webinar participants  - whether bragging up your efforts or asking questions about how it all works in case you are thinking of starting this initiative at your library.

Details:

Tuesday, May 14   

9:00 -10:00 am CST

Sponsored by South Central Library System (WI) CE gurus

Hope to see some of you there! And if you can't make it, I'll post the archived link when it goes up!

 

Here is the archived link to the webinar. (you may need to click the link again after the first time to finish the load).

 

 

1000 Books Before Kindergarten is Still Rockin!

I love the organic feel of how 1000 Books Before Kindergarten programs have spread. Started a few years ago in Bremen IN by the mighty Sandy Krost, it has popped up here, there and everywhere around the country. Recently, a colleague, Kathleen Larson at From the Short Stacks, posted my all-time favorite working graphic - a google doc map of places where 1000 Books Before Kindergarten programs have been developed.

Beth Crist of the Colorado State Library produced an excellent summary of what the program is about along with some great links. She also recently hosted a webinar on 1000 Bks B4K with Sandy. My colleague, Sara Bryce did an outstanding job of gathering research to buttress requests for grants, funds and convincing administration on the worth of programs like this at her blog S. Bryce Kozla.  I continue to pin programs on my Let 1000 Books Bloom Pinterest board. (And in a 2014 update, Kelsey Cole at Library Bonanza created a hugely helpful set of FAQs and tips  and Luci Bledsoe on Library Program Mojo shares her planning process to make it easy to start a 1000 Books program at your library!)

While every program has a different feel and approach and theme, every program is alike in encouraging parents to read widely and muchly to their preschooler. Parents are always pleasantly surprised at how easy and fun the process is. And kids are proud of their achievements.

We have really enjoyed this stealth program here at our library. Kids and parents continue to participate as we near our 2nd anniversary. The program has resulted in over 2,500 return visits (plus  families have read almost 197,600 books with La Crosse preschoolers who are in the Club!!) and fun interactions with kids and parents. We continue to improve on it - going from writing titles on 8"x11" sheets to bookmarks with 100 seeds to mark off books read; thinking about decreasing prizes and sticking to stickers and working to keep it publicized for new families coming in.

Our state also recently added a category in their annual report request that allows libraries to report out these statistics for stealth and DIY programs - a sea-change for us since only active program stats and SLP registrations were previously gathered on those reports.

For other links to 1000 Books posts I've done, stop here, here, here, here, and here.  You can also view a webinar I did linked here. And as always, to find samples of our materials, check out our Winding Rivers Library System Youth website and scroll down towards the bottom of the page!

And for a 2014 update on our adventures here at LPL, please stop here!)

Brown Bear Brown Bear Birthday Bash

I heart book parties! No surprise there. They are the perfect storm of fun mixed with a laser focus on a book , character or series that resonates with kids. Whenever possible, we like to tie in parties with events about the book that are creating buzz - a book, movie or DVD debut; an anniversary of a book's publication; a tie-in with Kohl's stuffed book character promotion or a nationwide celebration (think Read for the Record or Read Across America).

When we were thinking about what would be our special 1000 Books Before Kindergarten event for the fall, we decided to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the classic Bill Martin- Eric Carle collaboration.  And the ingredients?

Thanks to Pinterest, I had found some easy to reproduce templates for the characters at 1+1+1+1 blog.  We used volunteer help over the summer to create a little take home packet in a baggie of cut-outs and the text of the book.  For the party I made some 8.5 x 11 sheets with each character on them. Our business manager had found loads of the Brown Bear titles on sale at Kohl's along with other titles by Martin and Carle and purchased 15. Those became our special "birthday presents" to be raffled off. The finishing touch - I ordered a few dozen mini-cupcakes (no cake cutting!).

On party day the families flocked in for some exclusive time before we opened. All families could enter their name for our book drawing. For the program we did a quick Itsy Bitsy Spider to settle the tots in. Then I invited kids from the audience to come up and hold a piece of the story and everyone told the story together. I thanked everyone in 1000 Books for their participation and encouraged those not signed up to join. We drew for the book prizes (displayed around the room - as names were called, kids could come up and make their book choice), then sang happy birthday to Brown Bear and ate our cupcakes (nom nom nom). Simple, effective and fun. That's MY kind of program!

Let 1000 Books Bloom!

There was question on the alsc-l and pubyac listservs recently about the originator of 1000 Books Before Kindergarten programs in libraries. Although I have been involved in these programs, blogged about them and promoted them, it wasn't me.

The good folks at Bremen Public Library in Indiana headed up by Sandra Krost were the developers of the concept. Inspired by Mem Fox's Reading Magic, Sandra designed the program with zoo animals as a theme. She willingly shared her expertise with us while I was at Menasha WI Public Library and project coordinator Ann Hardginski developed that program based on the Very Hungry Caterpillar. When I moved to La Crosse WI PL, we started a program here with a flower/seed theme. And when Ann moved on to become Head of Youth Services at Kimberly-Little Chute (WI) Library she started an "Old MacDonald" themed program.

Since the time that Bremen PL shared their cool effort on pubyac, programs like this have been popping up at libraries all over the country. It is an amazing stealth program that keeps parents heavily involved in nurturing their child's early literacy.  It also encourages frequent visits to the library that help promote the formation of the well-beloved "library habit". And 1000 Book programs are awesome at boosting circulation since parents need many books to keep their own and their child's interest up!

Want a glimpse at how-to's and other libraries' websites that run these programs?  Click on, my friends!

 La Crosse PL Sample page PDFs (scroll down and look under "Passive Programs")

Willmar (MN) PL
Rock Rapids (IA ) PL
Jay Co (IN) PL
Fond du Lac (WI) PL
Goshen (IN) PL
Wells Co (CO) PL
Great River (MN) Regional Library

Have you started a 1000 Books Before Kindergarten program at your library?  Share with me in comments for others to discover. And I'll be pinning it on my 1000 Books Pinterest board too!

To find samples of our materials, check out our Winding Rivers Library System Youth website and scroll down towards the bottom of the page!

THAT'S What I'm Talkin' About!!

Apologies for this post showing up again. My blog is, rightly or wrongly, where I archive some of the good stuff we do. A week ago I accidently deleted the following post while dinking around with my ipad. I was able to back key it and have it stay for long enough to write out the post before it disappeared. Jeez. I am so NOT a digital native!

Here it is again from my badly scribbled transcription. I discovered that though I don't keyboard well, without constant practice, I write REALLY badly. Here goes anyway:

Throughout this week, our business manager put together our circ and program stats for our state's annual report. Today, she reported out the final piece.

Holy smokies, my friends, be sure to sit down because I am about to blow you away.

• We offered 39% fewer traditional children's programs in 2011 than in 2010.
• We had 32% fewer attendees at these programs
• Our circulation of children's materials increased 10% (usual increase is 2-3% annually)
• Our circulation of children's materials increased 15%!!!

What!?!?!?!?!  How'd that happen?!?!?!?!?

We didn't institute a big weeding project; we struggled with a rather messy transition to a new ILS that often had patrons- and staff - frustrated and we cut the number of programs.

I think it is due to three initiaitives we introduced this year. Each of these encouraged check-outs and return visits to the library and are part of our "stealth" or passive programs:

• 1000 Books Before Kindergarten and here
• Cookie Club
• Encourage kids to check out books as an option in SLP reporting activities.

Thinking outside the box and looking for ways to stretch our staff and resources - but still encourage our families to return and use our services frequently - made the difference.  I love it when statistics back up the leaps of faith that we made in changing services.

To find samples of our materials, check out our Winding Rivers Library System Youth website and scroll down towards the bottom of the page!

Image: 'What????'  http://www.flickr.com/photos/33501059@N02/4059486159

Wrapping Up 2011

It's that time of year when we look back at the previous year and report out to our board and community about the changes we made.  Our team keeps an ongoing list during the year of new events, initiatives, partnerships and programs that have been significant - things that have had an impact beyond our usual work of collection development, desk work and programming.

This year we surprised even ourselves.  Without looking at circulation or programming stats, here's the big changes we made.

Major New Initiatives

·         Play Learn Read children's literacy center developed with constantly changing content

·         1000 Books Before Kindergarten Club, parent/child reading initiative launched - 500 signed up

·         Rubber Ducky Club, summer reading club for kids birth-35 months successfully debuted

·         Story Action Pod to support Early Literacy activities for K-2 kids created & updated

·         Monthly rotating daycare  deposit collections begun

·         Cookie Club, an incentive program to encourage library use during Dec – Jan premiered

Notable Changes

·         Re-branded the boat as a "Reading Area" to encourage kids to read rather than run

·         5,735 visits generated by our “passive programs”:  SLP, 1000 Books, Cookie Club

·         kicked off “Rocky and Flare” and "Babe and Todd" videos to publicize events

·         relocated new materials and teacher/parent resources to be more visible/accessible

·         Created an e-newsletter and after hours program just for 1000 Bks B4K kids             

·         Created a "Between Storytimes" coupon book to encourage library use even when no programming is being done

Who knows what 2012 will bring? I'm excited to see!

Image: 'Wrapped Gifts Retirement Party 7-8-09 8' http://www.flickr.com/photos/10506540@N07/3703145222

A Program is a Program is a Program?

If you work with kids, you know that creating, planning, booking and doing programs takes a chunk of our work life. Because it is such an uber-part of our time, I can't help thinking about it and asking why it is we do what we do. Why, really, do we program? Is it to entertain?  Is it to educate? Is it to get people to the library?

I'm pretty old school about it.  For me, we create programs at the library to draw people into our buildings, to create a pleasant library experience and to highlight our collections, increase check-out and support literacy. Thinking about programs this way helps me plan realistically, create breaks for patrons and staff rather than program year-round and helps focus our energy. If programs are doing what they should, our usage and circulation should be directly affected in a positive way.

I like programs that relate to books and literacy and our collection (storytimes and book parties, I heart you). I like programs that piggyback onto pop culture interests of kids and debuting media that allows us to ride a popularity wave while relating back to our books and collections. I am less impressed with clowns, magicians and other performers that our community kids can see any and everywhere around here. I'm not saying we never book them, but I always wonder how it relates to what we are doing in a larger sense. 

I've also been thinking alot lately about the non-traditional program initiatives we're involved in and we've read about at other libraries  - 1000 Books Before Kindergarten, Summer Library Programs (yep, we all do SLP's but do we realize they are "programs" in and of themselves?) Story Action Pods, Free-quent Reader Club, Between-Storytime Coupon Books,Winter Reading programs, etc.  These initiatives are often run over a long period of time and fit all my definitions of programs listed above. What is their place in our program sphere?

Every time we plan and create one of these initiatives, we see people flocking in, circ increasing and interest in books and literacy skyrocket.  Yet we don't necessarily "see" them as programs or count them as programs in terms of attendance.  I think that's a mistake.

What I love about the above initiatives is that beyond the initial planning and very minimal daily administration, they take little staff time. They allow much greater staff-child interaction in the most pleasant way than almost all our traditional programs ("Wow, look at all the books you listened to!"; "Which one of these activities did you enjoy most this week?"; "What's going on in this picture?").  Much of the interaction leads to conversations about reading and books that are fundamentally important in creating a feeling of comfort and worth for these kids.

Yet, we barely count them as programs and the statistics are almost hidden.  We know and report how many kids sign-up for Summer Reading Program - but if we looked at participation (how many times did kids return to the library) - an initial participation rate of 521 kids skyrockets to over 2,000 return visits made to the library by these readers.  But that is usually a lost statistic.  Same for 1000 Books Before Kindergarten Club.  400 kids are being read to but we've had over 1,100 return visits to the library.

These initiatives - passive programs in a way or value-added programs in another light, or perhaps, best of all, stealth programs! - create just as much, and often more, response and participation than our traditional programs. We find ourselves in times of shrinking budgets turning more towards them. Since our state required program statistics only recognize traditional programming stats, we are discussing at our library how to recognize the importance of these unreported statistics that correlate to huge circulation increases and much busier Children's area.

We think they are programs.  How about you?



Image: 'Juggler'  http://www.flickr.com/photos/69444890@N00/404640681

1000 Books Before Kindergarten - 6 Month Update

So how goes this initiative after the first 6 months?

We are happy to have over 400 kids in the program; with just a touch under 50% working actively and returning to the library to trade in their 100 book-level sheets. We have twelve kids who have reached 1000 books and as you can see from the picture, our garden is starting to fill up with color as kids add dots as they finish levels (The 100-400 levels are on the bottom and getting the most color so far!)

We have had over 1,100 visits to the library by participating families during the six months of the program. Our circulation of Picture books, Board books and Easy Readers has gone through the ceiling with an average increase of 20% over last year (usual increases hover at 2-5%).

Parents have been enthusiastic participants and the kids are pretty avid as well. As usual with preschoolers, the congratulatory stickers and  stickers to put on the giant flowers are the big hits for them. The fingerpuppet and book at the 500 and 1000 levels don't quite compare to those sticker treats along the way. Parents do appreciate their little "thank you" rewards (lanyard, window cling and date-due slip magnetic holder) as they go along. But I think even without those parental rewards, they would be on board!

Publicizing the program is ongoing. We talk it up at storytimes. We have sent info to kids in area daycares.  Our schools have been enthusiastic supporters of this effort and we hope to keep reaching out and growing the program as we go along. We were invited to many of the schools during Kindergarten orientation and talked about the initiative and encouraged parents to read alot before the kids start school in fall. We are connecting with the Reach Out and Read program at the health clinics and providing posters and bookmarks for parents at "Well Baby" check-ups. We present at service clubs and organizations in our area.

How is it for staff?  One of our staffers keeps her eye on supplies. We planned for 1000 participants so all that material is ready when we need it.  Otherwise, it consumes very little of our time and the reward for a "passive" program and quality time encouraging kids and parents on their great job is worth every minute spent at "check-in" when they trade in their sheet. Everyone loves the extra time and interaction with the kids and parents and watching them beam as we praise them.

We think we are off to a great start...and more importantly, so are the kids!!

To find samples of our materials, check out our Winding Rivers Library System Youth website and scroll down towards the bottom of the page!

Doing the Summer Thing

Like the rest of our colleagues, we are about to launch into our summer busy season here at the library.  We are particularly excited  - and maybe a little anxious - to be premiering not one, not two, but three new re-vamped programs for our kids.  We totally redesigned our ages 3-10 program; have developed a brand new toddler/baby program and have re-invigorated our teen program.  Today let's look at the newest addition to our SLP family: The Rubber Ducky Club!

We have long invited our one and two year olds to be part of our summer reading club but the fit was always...uncomfortable.  Food coupons and geegaws didn't really fit the tiny tots' interests or needs. And most little prizes were definitely not recommended for under three year olds.  But we wanted to encourage parents reading to their children and using the six pre-literacy skills. What to do, what to do?

And then, like all good things in children's librarianship, we discovered that someone had an answer that would work for us!  We stumbled on the great idea of the Rubber Ducky Club when Karen Burke at the Naperville (IL) Library in Illinois shared their information on this club on ALSCConnect newsletter (another reason to be an ALA/ALSC member...great ideas are shared!). We were intrigued. A quick email exchange ensued and Karen generously shared their club materials.  And here is what we developed:

Our club is split into two months.  Each month features six simplified pre-literacy skills with activities to do often with 0-35 month old kids during that time.  After July 1, the June sheet can be returned, a rubber ducky is presented and the July sheet heads home with the family.  That sheet can be returned in August and redeemed for a brand new book.

Record keeping is minimal and the focus is on encouraging parents in their great work supporting early literacy at home. This completes a wonderful trio of early literacy activities we launched: 1000 Books Before Kindergarten; Play Learn Read centers and now our Rubber Ducky Club.

And to make it all even sweeter, staffers created this little promo video featuring our newest spokes-creatures: Babe and Todd (baby and toddler). Get outta town! This is fun!

Short-Staffed! Lunch with a Friend, Part 2

So we are at lunch, my out-of-town friend and I, and she asks what is happening with this blog. A librarian friend had wondered if it still existed and was I still writing it.  I started to say how tough it's been over the past five months while we've been down a position. And, wise woman that she is, she said "Blog about it!"

I'm not sure I have anything insightful to say about what it's been like. I know so many of my colleagues across the country have been under such extreme duress with positions, funding and hours slashed. Short-staffing affects us and our communities on so many levels.  This is just a personal reflection on what we were able to do and not do (um, this blog) while work-time marched on, minus 40 hours per week in our department.

Everyone in our department shouldered extra responsibilities and desk shifts. They covered for our lost colleague (and me during the lengthy interview process which stretched over holiday closures, vacations and ALA; essay question answering and analysis and final interviews).  Our able desk assistant became uber-Jill of all trades and showed a welcome acumen for all things YS. We cut back on our programming and outreach frequency but developed early literacy initiatives like 1000 Books Before Kindergarten; Early Literacy centers; "Between-Storytime" coupon books and a new summer reading club for birth - 35 month old kids (thank you Naperville (IL) Library for sharing the Rubber Ducky Club with us). We also worked hard to partner with our schools and colleagues including a highly successful collaboration with the high school to bring in an YA author and have a "One Book, One Community" reading program.  These initiatives involved advanced planning but literally ran themselves once developed.

Little things were hard to keep going. We kept up with collection development and weeding but our PR was tough to cover. We field newsletters, Facebook accounts, webpage event updates, info to the schools, handouts and etc. Much of that was on a "way-beyond-deadline-whew-we-made-it" schedule, if it happened at all.  We felt lucky to have fewer programs so our lack of PR fabulousness maybe wasn't noticed. I, for one, got even more rushed and sloppy and 40 hour weeks, crept into 42, 45 and 50 hour weeks just to keep things going. The storytimes I covered weren't as good as I like to have them and though I kept all appointments, I stayed awake nights trying to keep it all in order.

This blog...hah!  Lucky if I got anything in. The hardest thing for me, though, was finding time to work with and support my colleagues.  Time spent with each of them meant time away from deadline-specific work and that was a balance I couldn't find. These are strong, tough people and they brought amazing resilience to the fore during this stressful time.  While we were getting towards the end of our short-staffed period, our much appreciated half-time outreach librarian announced her retirement.   With budget constraints we knew we couldn't fill this position, but the team stepped up again. 

And now, as of six days ago, we have a new full-time team member. She will bring new skills and perspectives into the department. We will re-assess what we can realistically do and move forward to serve our public.  And I wouldn't want to be anywhere else and working with anyone other than the team at my library.   

Image: 'Ivi is crazy -20080804_0233edbw'   http://www.flickr.com/photos/99037763@N00/2805780029