#children's librarians

[booksinmythorax]

Hey children's librarians: what tips do you have for an adult librarian who is floundering while filling in for a kids' specialist who suddenly vacated their post? Asking for me.

[intothestacks]

Adventures in Librarian-ing

Today I read Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress by Christine Baldacchino to a class of Grade 2s.

It's a story about a boy who likes to wear dresses and the prejudice he faces about his interest.

An excerpt from storytime:

Me: They're not being very kind, are they?

Grade 2s: Noooo!

Girl: They're being very rude and mean!

Other Girl: Anyone can wear whatever they want! *classmates murmur in agreement*

Boy: And if girls can wear pants then boys can wear dresses! It's only fair! >:(

Me: Plus, in some cultures what we would consider dresses are considered boy clothes. Though is there really such a thing as boy clothes and girl clothes if everyone should be able to wear whatever they want?

Grade 2s: Nooo! They're just clothes!

[librarianproblems]

[flukeoftheuniverse]

A quick story I want to share about children, stickers, and libraries.

I am a children's librarian and branch manager for a small branch, and as such I am the primary person who handles visits from local schools and preschools. I love this part of my job immensely.

About a week ago I had a group of preschoolers - 15 3-4 year olds - visit the library and I let them do a simple scavenger hunt with stickers for the whole group as prizes. After everyone had their stickers, the teachers with the group let the kids pick out a book each.

When the kids left, I discovered about 12 stickers stuck to my magnet board in the play area. When given the stickers, the kids were ecstatic. And given the choice to stick them on their hands or shirts or the badges they have with their school's info, all but three stuck them on the nearest clean surface they could find.

And I think that's beautiful.

The stickers came off easily, I assure you, or I might not be so kindly disposed towards the whole affair.

[womenoflibraryhistory]

A brief tribute to Louise Bailey from Roger Sutton.

Over at the Horn Book, Roger Sutton has written tributes to five of his mentors: Betsy Hearne, Hazel Rochman, Lillian N. Gerhardt, Zena Sutherland, and Pomona Public Library children’s librarian (and retired Mansfield Public Library  director) Louise Bailey:

Louise changed that: she was young, smart, tenacious, and politically engaged. And so good with kids: I remember one boy, Kenny, who was a habitué of the library not because he was a great reader but because his home life was unbearable. One week he was tremendously excited because a TV crew had come to shoot video of his karate class for some local-interest feature, and he must have told Louise and me a hundred times to remember to tune in. We did–and, heartbreakingly, no Kenny appeared in the footage. The next day, he asked Louise, so hopefully, if she had spotted him in the segment, maybe in the background. “No, Kenny,” she said gently, “I didn’t.” Telling lies to the young is wrong, Yevtushenko told us, and Louise was and is ferociously devoted to both the young and the truth.

In tagging this post, I notice that we had a post way back in 2013 about Clara Webber, who was the children’s librarian at the Pomona Public Library from 1948 to 1970.

[cpl-archives]

Summer Reading Club!

As Summer Reading Club is winding down here at Cleveland Public Library, we thought we would take a look back at the early days of summer reading!

Mrs. Lane presents a certificate for Mr. Smalls Club at the Woodland Branch, 1947.

The development of a summer reading club was begun under Caroline Burnite, the Library’s first Director of Work with Children. Children’s librarians needed a way to attract children to the library during the long summer vacation from school. The Library was generally less busy in the summer months than in the winter and this allowed the librarians to discuss books with children individually.

Mr. Smalls certificate, 1947

Summer reading honor rolls began as early as 1914 at the Perkins Branch (a branch for children only) where children would read through a sequence of books and have their name posted. This was very popular with the kids!

Cowboy Small, 1949

By 1939, the practice of having a summer reading club “theme” became standardized. A committee of children’s librarians would choose the theme to be used in all branches for the summer. This is pretty much how it is still done today. 

Elizabeth Briggs, Director of Work with Children at the Cleveland Public Library from 1937 until 1953, explained the 1943 theme of Plant a Flag of Friendship:

“Although children have little share in planning for the post-war world, upon them will fall for many years the burden of meeting its problem. Their success will depend in no small measure upon knowledge of world conditions and their understanding of other races and nationalities.”

[librarygirl13]

Free downloads! Encourages children to publish stories! Adorable!  

[intothestacks]

Adventures in Librarian-ing

Me: Do you guys know what a book dedication is?

Grade 1s: Nooo!

Me: It's kind of like the author is saying "This is who I wrote this book for, who I was thinking about when I wrote this." The dedication for the book that we're about to read says "For kids everywhere playing in boxes".

Grade 1: *gasps* I play in a box every day during after-school daycare!

Me: Yeah, I think I've seen you doing that too!

Other Grade 1: Wait, so they really wrote the book for us?! For real?!

Me: For real.

Grade 1s: :O

[The book I was about to read was Not a Box by Antoinette Portis]