Library Consulting - Staying Connected

One part of my regular system-level consulting work with 28 member libraries involves keeping our  youth staff up-to-date and connected on news of note. Each week, I send out a quick newsletter with info that happens throughout the previous week, upcoming workshops, member tips, an occasional mini-consult on a burning question or expressed need (I survey the librarians biennially).  I think it's important to stay connected and thoughtful about what staff need to do their jobs. Here is this week's email newsletter.

Happy Spring-Equinox SWLS Youth Newsletter

Hi everyone,

Great to start seeing you all. Expect contacts within the next few weeks to book the rest of the year's visits to your library!

PIZZA HUT COUPONS FOR SLP PRIZES

Please fill in your order by Friday April 6.

SLP PROGRAM IDEA

Linda at Cobb recommends Dubuque's Smithsonian National Mississippi River Museum's Outreach programs  For $175 and $.65 a mile you get a dynamic science based program! Details are here (price breaks for multiple sessions of same program)

REMINDER ON LINKS

Generally, almost all links in the newsletter are archived on our SWLS Youth Pinterest page! 

REGISTRATION FOR SLP 18 MUSIC WORKSHOP

Register now

FUN WITH MUSIC SLP WORKSHOP  

Friday April 13  9:00-2:00 pm,  

SWLS headquarters

Join Anna Stange for a hands-on, music-themed summer library program workshop that will  give you a lift and the inside scoop on confidently presenting and doing music with children and teens.  Discover new ways to use music and rhythm, chanting and poetry, beats and boxes (maybe even bottle caps!) in this interactive workshop. There will be time to share your ideas with everyone for the upcoming summer as well as tweak them based on what you learn at the workshop!  Anna Stange, a musician, singer, former elementary school teacher and longtime music teacher in the Chicago area, incorporates music and the arts into all aspects of her work. She warmly inspires participants through many styles of learning and engagement.

We will be distributing free books gleaned from the kits at the workshop. Don't miss your chance to take fistfuls home for prizes or your collections.

DETAILED INFO AND ANSWERS ON DPI SCHOOL/PUBLIC LIBRARY MAY WORKSHOPS

Tessa did a blog post with more detailed information about the workshops I mentioned last week.These workshops are different from our hoped-for mid-August SWLS school/public library collaboration workshop that we are still planning!

SMALL LIBRARIES MEET-UP

The first ever! Hope to see you there. You don't need to be a member of WLA or of WISL to attend. Please share this invite with another librarian!

MINI-CONSULT - STEM RESOURCES (also posted on our SWLS Pinterest Page)

Information on programs (active and passive) with STEM content has been a consistent request from lots of you. While we can't have a STEM system level workshop like Lisa Shaia's every year, we can still connect to great resources. Please try these and program madly and STEM-ly!!

Sowing Seeds Librarian blog - SWLS' own Emly Zorea has a super helpful blog in which she shares programs on STEM and Coding (among other things. If you are not subscribed to it, I highly recommend it).

Storytime Undergrounders recommend: 

PBS Design Squad - Lots of great do-able science-based ideas on this website.

STEM in Libraries blog - with the tagline: "We are scientists...library scientists" you know you are in the right place. A TON of programs.

STARNET STEM Activity Clearinghouse - vetted programs and activities perfect for libraries.

Teachers are Terrific webpage -   a TON of cheap and well-designed lesson plans for various elementary grades

Jbrary blog post on STEM resources - a one-stop shop of blogs and websites by the rpolific early literacy video gurus!

As always if you have questions or concerns, some news or pix to share with everyone, please don't hesitate to get in touch with me.

ALL.THE.THINGS.AGAIN.

I have been fortunate over the past few years to be able to morph from FT children's librarian/manager to retiree to consultant and educator. I really meant to just do a little of this and that after retirement but found my ability to say no has apparently deserted me.

This fall my yes's led to my second year of YS consulting for the 28 member library Southwest (WI) Library system; commuting to UW-Madison iSchool to teach the on-campus grad class on Public Library Youth Services; an 8 week CE class on the basics of youth services and a brand new, albeit temporary, gig as YS consultant for my old home system, the 32 member Winding Rivers Library System, while they search for a full-time replacement for the former consultant. I added to that attendance and presenting at the MN, WI and WA state library conferences, a stray webinar or two. Jeez.

All that was planned and booked long before what became an emotionally wrenching summer that made preparing much of anything impossible from May-August. So understandably I hit September and all the commitments for the next few months feeling like this:

The good news, though, is that all the project management skills and comfort and meditation skills I learned over the years helped calm the madness, get some clarity on planning and prioritizing, do some comforting and heart-self-healing and made it possible to enter fall feeling like things weren't spiraling out of control. I am filling up my time with things I love: family, friends, teaching, consulting and spending time outdoors.

Which brings me to one of the things that I love the most and makes me feel the most hopeful, the most excited, the most astounded and the most thankful that I get to be part of this great big thing called librarianship....road trips to libraries!!

My new four month consulting job requires me to travel to all 32 libraries (plus 7 branches) before Dec. 31. This means I get to travel to a wide range of libraries, primarily in small and rural communities, and talk to a wide range of staffers who work with children and teens. I get to hear how they run their library good. I also get to put my head together with theirs to listen to and talk out problems and issues and sing their praises. It's pretty sweet.

Today was the first day of many library trips. It was crispy cool, sunny and bright, and I traveled up and down the hills and valleys of the driftless region drinking in the views of fall colors, farms, vistas, small towns, rivers and at the end of each leg of the journey a warm welcome from library colleagues and a chance to dig into the guts of librarianship. I think that makes a perfect day.

As busy or as hard as life gets, it's this stuff that keeps me going. And I can't wait for the next stop.