Children's Services Meeting - January 2015
Date: January 14, 2015
Time: 8:30am-4pm
Location: Belle Isle Library
In attendance: Amy Upchurch (AL); Daniel Fields (BE); Anne Hall (BI); Annie Emmons (CH); Carol Roberts (CT); Tulin Lafollette (DC); Jessica Gonzalez, Vanessa Davis (DN); Amy Thomas (ED); Mary Sholly (LO); Kate Etzkorn (MC); Mary Robinson, Rondia Banks (NW); Kelley Riha, Emily Williams, LaVetta, Dent, Kristin Williamson (OUT); Meghan Attalla (RE); Cheryll Jones (SO); Sally Gray (VI); Alma Brown (WA); Marie Nichols (WR)
Introductions were made.
Family Place
Jessica Gonzalez (DN) shared information about her recent trip with Kristin Williamson (OUT) to the Family Place Institute. She distributed handouts. Kristin will provide a login for printable resources from the Family Place website. The target of Family Place is babies and toddlers (0-5 years). A discussion was held about toys and family friendly children’s areas. Various staff shared best practices and specific toys (panels, puzzles, blocks) that they have found useful. Two Family Place videos were shown. A MAC request for play signs is in the works.
MC – blocks near library application station make a good quiet activity, multi-generational and engaging
AL – Magna-Tiles very popular: http://magnatiles.com/. Also, The Connected Child by Dr. Karyn Pervis researches mending the neglected child www.empoweredtoconnect.org
CH – brain development DHS workshop
Every Child Ready to Read – Kristin will look into training opportunities and share PLA website resources.
Outreach supply catalog is coming soon with brochures, giveaway books, water for presenters, etc.
Sharing
Daniel Fields (BE) – commemoration of Bethany’s 50th year, need for 21st century library, children’s book club starting for upper elementary, Moose Goose on the Loose for babies, storytimes with flannel boards to take home (foam board at Dollar Tree), have volunteers build or create during craft time
Rondia Banks (NW) – Let’s Talk About It Oklahoma is baseball themed, sensory bucket, library explorers program
Meghan Attalla (RE) – mathfest, Hometown Teams Smithsonian exhibit, physical activities, lawn games
Kate Etzkorn (MC) – happy new year program had 65 participants, science programming, book club for after school crowd, Show Me a Story is a book about developing storytelling for all ages, handout with examples of MC storytimes
Annie Emmons (CH) – LEGO club, volunteer opportunities and ongoing partnerships, children reading to dogs
Tulin Lafollette (DC) – children reading to dogs, parachute play, science Sunday, LEGO club - display ideas, new community center manager
Amy Thomas (ED) - staffing changes
Sally Gray (VI) – new director visit with Edgar Cruz program, princess storytime
Carol Roberts (CT) – robotics/LEGO 4-H program with Cynthia, origami
Cheryll Jones (SO) – holiday craft and tree-trimming party, snow globe craft, gingerbread houses, book club has recently read Too Many Tamales and Snowflake Bentley
Marie Nichols (WR) – LEGO club, chess, after school things, Mardi Gras celebration, 90th birthday party – needs ideas for take & go crafts. In February, WR will have the stockyard buffalo.
Jessica Gonzalez (DN)—doing art/craft on Monday evenings: MakerMonday, LEGO club, evening playtimes, school groups from Positive Tomorrows & John Rex (sees 300+ kids a week). Rex visits 25 kids at t time M-F and every child has a card.
Vanessa Davis (DN) – looking at chess club for elementary age
LaVetta Dent (OUT) – Black History Month all-ages programming series with Rhythmically Speaking is Mr. Edwards, Stinky Cheese Man is coming for Spring Fling, Children of the Civil Rights is screening at 3 libraries in April, a celtic group is coming in October and Moscow Nights is Our World for November
Alma Brown (WA) – turkey hat/superhero hats from Paper Hat Book by Alyn Carlson, LEGO club challenges where participants work together in teams, author visit with Robert Kanary How Toroise Helped Jack, Raggedy Ann & Andy storytime
Anne Hall (BI) – refreshing children’s area with new paint and rearranging
Amy Upchurch (AL) – family with 11 children come to almost all programs, LEGO club is getting a great response, gingerbread man library scavenger hunt
Mary Robinson (NW) – resources for chess club: http://wisewolveschess.org, dance academy in March with Irish dancers, volunteer with http://www.bombsawayart.com/ to help with weird art
Summer Reading
LaVetta said the Neighborhood Arts schedule was almost final. It will be the same dates & times except Bethany had requested a change. This year there are 9 weeks of summer. Prize drawings for summer reading will happen at some Neighborhood Arts events. Attendance at NA was down last year, for several reasons. One of the goals of this year’s summer program is to create more of a celebration when children reach goal levels. There will be opportunities for photos and volunteers will be trained on making things more of a celebration.
Kristin talked about summer reading CDs with resources from ODL. This year, we will have printed early childhood reading logs available for families that want them, in addition to the printable log for older children and whoever else wants one. Kristin is working on creating display kits/sets for summer décor. She also needs help with the literacy tips emails that will be sent out to parents during the summer.
Volunteers
Heidi met with libraries to brainstorm ideas. She recapped the 2014 volunteer program goals and talked about this year’s goals and behaviors we want to encourage, duties, and training.
There is a Mem Fox video about reading to children that might help in training reading buddies.
Parachute Play Training
Handouts about Parachute Play from NW and OUT were distributed.
Greatschools.org
Megan Stanek from the Oklahoma Public School Resource Center talked about website resources available to students and families. OKC is doing a push to get our schools on Great Schools, located at: www.greatschools.org/oklahoma/oklahoma-city. She did a demo of the website and showed the sorting and searching options for parents and guardians.
Signup/Spaces
Kellie fielded questions about SignUp and Spaces. She mentioned the summer email newsletter and would like to highlight customers and volunteers, and suggest readalikes in it. We discussed Tailored Titles as well.
Marketing Update
Kim Terry talked about new ads in airport terminals, digital billboards about our download campaign, and food court table stickers at Penn Square Mall. Eventually there will also be banner-wrapped elevators at PSM, too. The BLT class is coming up. MAC needs book reviews, especially sports-related titles for March.
Presenter Showcase and Toy Exchange
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