As I've said before, I am so fortunate that I'm in a position where connecting library professionals to resources that can help with their everyday workflow is a valued part of my job. Like the variety of libraries you readers are from, our member libraries vary widely in size, staffing, structure, culture, and community. Free webinars and other resources that can be viewed at one's own pace can benefit everyone at some angle or another. Isn't the Internet great?!
Here are a few of the things I've been sharing and signing up for lately. Entertaining, thought-provoking, and/or overall awesome, these will keep your mind chugging into the New Year and looking forward to what we can make with youth services in 2016:
WATCH
Webinar Archive: Pop-Up Storytimes with Cheryl Lee: I've watched this webinar more times than I'd like to admit. Cheryl's energy and ease talking about her Pop-Up storytimes makes this webinar a fun one to listen to. To be honest, before this webinar I was against partnering with for-profits but Cheryl made me see that this is a great way to reach families we never see, even at our collaborating school and government agencies. I was able to subsequently defend and encourage a member library's decision to partner with their school's Family Resource Manager to create a storytime at their local McDonald's. Take a look!
Archived TEDx Talk: The Surprisingly Logical Minds of Babies by Laura Schulz: So you got me, I am actually NOT a big TEDx talk fan. "Oh, you have a one sentence solution for a very complicated problem that is miraculously free of barriers? Please take your 20 minutes telling a story worthy of an email forward rather than your methodology." [Bryce note; Everyone I am so the Worst seriously]. BUT this one is good. And it has a transcript so if you don't have the time you can skim it.
LISTEN
Archived Podcast: Freakonomics: Does "Early Education" Come Way too Late?: Thanks to Mel for bringing this up. The reaction I had to this was an unpleasant one, and I'm unsure if I can correctly get into why, exactly, just yet. Except that: One thing to keep in mind: The Woodcock-Johnson is a literacy assessment. The type of assessment Woodcock-Johnson is has a name, and that's "battery." Not the Energizer kind. I might write about it soon. Or let's all have a conversation about it. Personally I don't agree with a lot going on in this. But as youth services library staff, poised as partners in "early education", we need to stay informed and diligent. So you owe it to yourself to listen to this and digest it and form an opinion.
READ
Storytime/Classroom Management at Creative Utah Libraries: One more blog for you feed since they're doing great things! Finding this (as they link to my blog in it) was so timely since our member library staff had just a conversation the day before about behavior management in storytime! An awesome roundup of favorite Jbrary posts as well as some new insights.
What Your Baby's Smile Can Tell You About Her Development by Melinda Beck: Thanks to Cory for this share. This was really cool for two reasons: 1) baby development in some place like the Wall Street Journal that's NOT about some way to make your infant read sentences by age one, and 2)Smiling baby faces. One thing I do when writing our member library staff is send a resource link or a request and link to something cute or funny in my closing. I've gotten so much good feedback on this ridiculous practice that I may write about it soon. Anyway, this link doubled as cute because LOOK! SMILING BABIES!
SIGN UP
Managing Children's Services at ALSC: The ALSC Managing Services Committee is running a four-part course on YS Management for free to us! They take place once a month, January through April. The first link is to part one, which is all about communication. Here are the links to the other four parts:
Scheduling and Time Management
Managing Financials
Supervising the Department
Wild Wisconsin Winter Web Conference: Every year they have 2 straight days of awesome programs, later archived for posterity. It's not uncommon for me to link back to an archived webinar years after its original presentation. AND THIS YEAR THEY HAVE A YOUTH SERVICES SERVICES TRACK.
UPDATE: The link now works and you can see that Mel from Mel's Desk, Dana and Lindsey from Jbrary, Heather from Teen Librarian Toolbox, and Gretchen Casseroti will all be there to provide us with awesome webinars! SAVE THE DATE; Jan 20-21, 2016!
What's gotten you pumped or reflecting on youth services lately?
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