Investing Energy-What's Working For Me: The News Edition

“When one is engaged in suffering, there is so much more to it than keeping it all together”.

This is a quote from Laura van Dernoot Lipsky, founder of the Trauma Stewardship Institute. She said this in a TEDx talk in 2015 titled “Beyond the Cliff.”

Okay.

So.

There is a lot going on.

I get that it can be hard to focus, and hard to know where our focus is supposed to land. I believe this is by design.

I posted before about investing energy. This summer is similar, since my spouse’s full-time gig fell through and we’re adjusting to another new normal where we work mostly opposite schedules and reconfigure our finances. It’s also a little different, for the above reasons and other more personal ones. But I find myself reflecting more on how to cultivate energy, and how to make more “room in the margins” as Laura van Dernoot Lipsky puts it. (I saw her speak a few months ago and it was transformative. Check out her new book, “The Age of Overwhelm: Strategies for the Long Haul” coming out in July).

These are things that have been working for me. You are welcome to try them. You are welcome to mock me for them. Whatever you want to do, really, but I figured I’d share in case they might help:

I Have the Mind of an Infant: Mental Age Theory in Libraries

NOTE: If you're new here, welcome! When I write about accessibility, you will find that I use the terms "people with disabilities", "PWD", "the disability community", and "disabled people" interchangeably. This is something I deliberately do to challenge our institutional insistence on "person-first language."

I have this thing due to my cerebral palsy where the muscles in my right hand constantly want to be clenched in a fist. This runs the spectrum from annoying, since it distracts people, to frustrating, because if I’m holding something in my left hand I’m basically immobilized, to incredibly painful. All of my shoulder muscles are nearly constantly tense. Add to this the practice of mirroring; which is where my right hand just really wants to do anything my left hand does due to my mixed-up-rewired Frankenstein of a brain. This results in things like having to ice down my hand after work if I’m writing all day by hand, my right hand deciding that WE TOTALLY NEED TO CLENCH A TIGHTER FIST THIS IS A LOT OF WRITING WE’RE DOING. Standardized tests were a nightmare.

“This thing” is actually a leftover from the Moro reflex, a reflex useful to infants to cling to a parent for survival. It looks like this should go away by the time a child is 6 months old. I’m not big on developmental timelines, since there can be a lot of parental anxiety about that, but I’m thinking 35 is a safe age to say this shouldn’t be happening.

My brain is developmentally disabled, and my body performs in a way that mimics a baby. So, I have the mind of an infant.

Bookmark This: Summer Reading Hype Videos!

Okay everyone, I did a ridiculous thing and accidentally deleted my original SRP Hype Video content! Whoops... Good thing I never delete any email I ever receive so I could find them all again!

I decided to just put them all together into one post, a one-stop shop for your Summer Reading calm down/check-in needs. These are all the video from 2016 and 2017.

If you weren't around a few years ago, here's the context:
I started this position in the middle of Summer Reading. When the start of SRP came around again, I knew I wanted to do something to support our member library youth services staff. I thought back to what helped me, and I remembered how comforted I felt when I read (and read again and again) posts like Ingrid at The Magpie Librarian's "I Got 99 Problems and They're All Related to Summer Reading." I laughed, I cried, I felt comforted. Like we were all in this together.

So I reached out to some folks and got enough responses to send one video per week from June to August to our member library staff. The next summer I put out an all-call on the blog (since it was no longer a surprise) and I got fewer responses, but still got some. I wonder what changed between 2016 and 2017? It's a mystery.

Anyway, here is a sloth in a teacup followed by some amazing library Youth Services staff from all around the Internet ready to talk self-care, sing pump-you-up songs, and make you laugh. Forever. Because they're recorded.

It will all be okay. You're doing great.

A Fresh Take on Book Brackets: An Outreach Event Series!

This post was written by Jennifer Johnson, my 2018 blog intern. You can read more programming posts by her here.

One of my favorite things about my job is that I am fortunate enough to do not only public programs, but outreach programs as well. This month, I want to share an opportunity that I had to do a program with an outreach group that worked better in their setting than it ever would have as an in-house library program.

For years, I’d wanted to do a Battle of the Books at our library, but we had very spotty participation with the public, and anything we tried along those lines just sort of fizzled out. From August to December 2017, I had conducted a weekly book club with an after-school group at one of our local schools. They were the first to invite me to do this and I was very excited about the possibilities. For that first semester, we read one middle grade novel, going through it in small chunks each week. But for this spring, starting in January and ending a couple of weeks ago, I wanted to try a Battle of the Books with them. I was excited to do this because not only would it be fun, it would also expose the kids to several books that they might not otherwise pick up. I also viewed it as a chance for them to begin building a summer reading list with title suggestions from our brackets. The kids involved in this program were second through fourth graders. The Battle was a hit from start to finish and here’s how we did it.

T-Rex Tea Party at the Library!

This post was authored by Jennifer Johnson, my amazing 2018 blog intern. Check out the rest of her programming posts here.

Happy spring! This month’s program is a perfect mesh of high-interest topics for kids from all walks of life. If your young patrons love tea parties, dinosaurs and/or free snacks, then this program is sure to be a hit! And what’s great is that I was fortunate enough to be able to take it on the road as an outreach program as well. Are you ready to dine with the dinosaurs? Here we go!

Person wearing an inflatable T-rex costume waving at children sitting at a table

Magic Tree House Library Party!

This post is authored by Jennifer Johnson, blog intern. See the rest of her posts here.

National Library Week is coming up next month, and I always try to do at least one or two special literature-based programs for kids during that week. Last year, we hosted a Magic Tree House program and it was a huge hit with our young patrons! The program I’m going to talk about today was based on the first four books, but we had patrons request more programs to keep going through the rest of the series! This was an hour and a half program, so I knew I wanted to have at least one activity for each of the four books, plus snacks and a photo booth, which ended up filling the time quite nicely.

THE TREE HOUSE

The activities here are super simple, but I spent a lot of time on the logistics of the tree house. The activities totally work without it; the payoff for the kids was pretty amazing though.

two wooden doors, each decorated like a tree.

Our meeting room can be split in two with a partition wall that, when not in use, is pushed into a storage area between the two sides of the room. I knew that I wanted to make that storage area our treehouse and have the kids go inside it and emerge into each story. And somehow, amazingly, we pulled it off. I had the dinosaur side of the room ready to go before the kids arrived, on the other side of the partition wall that they couldn’t see when they entered the front half of the room.

Jennifer dressed in a red velvet dress and a white wig, posing with Pete the Cat (who was there for another program!)

I dressed as Morgan le Fay and acted as their guide, taking them all into the “tree house.” The decorations for the tree house were a collaborative effort between our teens (the leafy tree part at the top) and our maintenance staff (the carefully measured wood grain strips and windows). The inner décor was from a Magic Tree House program several years prior, and the painted bookshelf was repurposed from an escape room program. I brought the string lights from home since the storage nook has no lighting of its own, and I also brought a fan for some wind effects. I put real books in the tree house as well, and pulled one out each time we went inside for one of the children to point to and take us to our next destination.

inside the Tree House: storage room decorated with a string of lights, a painted on book shelf and painted on window.

When we emerged into the time of dinosaurs for our relay, the room was decorated with some fake plants and toy dinosaurs I had brought from home. I even had a dinosaur costume that one of my teen volunteers wore (this good-natured girl switched props every time we switched activities, which was about every 15-20 minutes. She wore a helmet and carried a sword for the knights, wore a paper Egyptian headdress for the hieroglyphics, and wore a swashbuckling hat and eye patch for the pirates.) While the dinosaur relay was going on, my other two teen volunteers were working their magic on the other side of the room, putting out the supplies for the jousting and throwing up some simple decorations (felt flags and knight action figures I’d brought from home). This way, when we went back into the tree house and emerged on the other side of the room, it had been transformed into a different time and place! The same happened while we were jousting. The two behind-the-scenes volunteers took down the dino decorations and set up for the hieroglyphic activity so that when we came back through the Magic Tree House, we had been transported once again and so on. This was really complicated to coordinate, but the kids loved actually getting to go inside the tree house and see the room transformed each time. I’m really glad I did it that way, but I think for the next one, I may just have the tree house be a part of the room that the kids can interact with, and put all these stations in the same room to let them peruse at their own pace rather than taking the whole group through each activity at the same time. It certainly is fun to have that wow factor though if you are able to do it!

ACTIVITIES

Dinosaurs Before Dark Dinosaur Stomp Relay: I put tape on the floor for a starting and turn around point (one for each team) and split the kids into two teams to race against each other. I didn’t provide prizes; the glory of being the winning team is reward enough! Each team was given two sets of dinosaur feet, but you could do it with one set for each team. On my signal, the kids would race down to the turn-around point on their dinosaur feet, then race back and pass the feet on to the next person to race, and so on. You may want to stress that this is more of a race of endurance rather than speed because if they try to go too fast on the stompers, they may hurt themselves.

A young child dressed in pink standing on top of plastic dinosaur feet

The Knight at Dawn Jousting Competition: Again, there was no prize for this other than the glory, but the challenge was for the kids to see if they could spear a ring on their lances. I borrowed stick horses from various staff members’ children and my mom was kind enough to make a few for me out of pool noodles. I also made ring holders so that myself and my volunteers wouldn’t have to hold them in our hands and risk getting speared (with a pool noodle, but still). I hot glued clothespins on the ends of dowel rods to clasp the rings in place. The rings were paper plates with the middles cut out. The kids would choose their steeds and lances (also made from pool noodles and lovingly crafted by my mother), then line up to take their turns at attempting to spear the ring. I was fortunate to have a teen volunteer helping me, so we were able to let four kids joust at once if we each held a ring out to both sides. We tried to let each of the children have at least two or three passes at the rings. Unfortunately, to this day, this is still the activity that I regret not getting pictures of the most! The kids had a great time with it, but it was impossible for me to hold the rings and take pictures at the same time! Mummies in the Morning Hieroglyph Messages: I made copies of a hieroglyphic alphabet pulled from National Geographic for Kids, laid them out on tables with different colored paper, crayons, and coloring pencils, and let the kids create their own signs, letters, etc. using the hieroglyphic alphabet. This was so easy to do and I got some very interesting messages! (One of them translated to “Poop is cool.”)

Several children sitting at a desk, writing on colored paper

Pirates Past Noon Pirate Bean Bag Toss and Walk the Plank: The bean bag toss was something I created years ago for a summer reading finale that I pulled back out for this program. The kids could take turns at the toss, and they could take turns at walking the plank, which was a piece of wood I borrowed from our maintenance department laid out on a large blue piece of paper. I made three-dimensional shark fins out of cardstock and hot glued them to the paper as if they were circling around the plank. These activities were incredibly easy for my volunteers to supervise which gave me a chance to set out the snacks we had prepared.

Large cardboard box decorated like a treasure map. Several holes are cut in it for the bean bag toss.

Child walking carefully on a wooden board placed in the middle of a large piece of blue paper, simulating water. 

Snacks
Dinosaur Eggs: This program was right around Easter, so we were able to buy several bags of chocolate eggs fairly cheap!
Pretzel Swords: I bought the large, thick pretzel rods and put a Lifesaver Gummy around the end of each one to make a hilt. Super easy and the kids loved them!
Cheese Pyramid: I simply bought a variety of cheese cube flavors and stacked them into a pyramid. No fuss!
Fish and Chips: This one is a great example of my dad joke humor at its finest. I bought potato chips and Goldfish crackers and tossed them together almost like Chex Mix.

We also had a photo area with a Jack and Annie standee that I won at a conference that year (it was fate!) and an adorable knight/horse photo prop that one of our very talented clerks had painted for an outreach event. I called in a lot of favors and reused a lot of old things for this program. Without the help of our teen volunteers, all that razzle dazzle with the tree house would not have been possible. I borrowed a lot of props from my mom because she and I love going to the local Renaissance Festival every year and she’s built up quite a stash. I commissioned a lot of help creating new things from our volunteers and other staff members because I was out of town at a conference the week before the program. But I think it’s important to make use of the talents of the people around you when they are willing to help. We all want to be Super Librarian, but you don’t have to do it all yourself. That’s the great thing about library services! We are all in it together!

I hope some of these ideas are useful and inspire you to have a Magic Tree House program at your library! One thing’s for certain, these books don’t seem to be losing popularity any time soon!

Center for the Future of Libraries Fellowship-- a YS Opportunity!

I'm excited to share that the Center for the Future of Libraries has opened a call for proposals for the Center for the Future of Libraries Fellowship. And, OF COURSE I think this a great opportunity for Youth Services library staff!

A lined background with a red stamp that says, "Due
5/15/18." In black text: "Center for the Future of
Libraries Fellowship: A YS Opportunity!"

What does the future of Youth Services look like to you? What innovation in youth services are you itching to research, try, or develop? What pie-in-the-sky ideas are swimming around in that wonderful, youth-focused head of yours?

From the press release (emphasis mine for skimming purposes):
"The Future of Libraries Fellowship will provide an individual or group with a stipend of $10,000 to advance new ideas and perspectives for the future of libraries through the creation of a public product – report, white paper, video, resource, tool – that will help library professionals envision the future of library collections, services, spaces, technologies, or partnerships. Projects may build on existing work, research, or initiatives of the Association, its Offices, Divisions, and Round Tables, or explore new directions and interests.

The deadline for proposals for the 2018 fellowship is May 15, 2018."

I'd love to see a ton of Youth Services submissions. I really feel like there are so many great conversations happening about even the nature of youth services itself, but implementation can be tough when you're running 15 programs a week/managing tours for your whole district/on the desk several hours a week/yelling "walk please" every 20 minutes/getting Child Germ Flu/constantly planning either Summer Reading or Battle of the Books/ etc etc etc. Or maybe you're facing a rough time and buzzing along and could use a new project to sink your teeth into.

Youth Services IS the future of libraries; we're literally shaping family library legacies and creating lifelong library users and supporters, everyday. But we hardly get the time or support to really consider what that even means. We see it in the courses that are offered, the conference proposals that get accepted, the Storytime Underground questions that get asked again and again: we're looking for quick tips for right now, and that's what we're getting.

And that's great, and it can work.

We ALSO deserve the space, the time, and the support to really consider what youth services actually means, and what our future could look like.

So here's a chance: $10,000  to create something that could inform the future of our work.
What would you do with it?

Learn how to apply here and email completed applications to mfigueroa at ala dot org.

(You might be thinking that this looks like something someone in academia would be more suited for. And you're right that library staff from other fields may have had more past experience with proposals like this. But you're already doing the tough work of creating their future patron bases; I know you can do this, too.)

All You Need to Run a Great Minecraft Library Party

This post is authored by Jennifer Johnson, 2018 blog intern.

This month’s program is another high-interest one: Minecraft Party! This would be great for Libraries Rock! Summer Reading (rock, mining, there’s something there, right?). I honestly think I could do a Minecraft program once every month or so, and registration would fill up every single time.

I’ve found that it’s a good idea to give your patrons a paper bag with their name on it at the beginning of the program so that they have a place to put all the goodies they will gather.

So without further ado, here are some game, activity, and snack ideas for your next Minecraft celebration! (Note: these were done over the course of a couple years of these programs. I recommend three to four of these activities for a one-hour program.)

Announcing: Fostering Grade Level Reading!

Just in time for the proposed elimination of funding for the Institute of Museum of Library Services, I'm pleased to announce a new project funded by a Library Services and Technology Act grant: Fostering Grade Level Reading!

A teddy bear with an open book in its lap, appearing to read
on a blue background. Text reads, "Fostering Grade Level Reading."
Picture created in Canva with a free image as decoration.

Fostering Grade Level Reading (or Fostering Readers, as the team is calling it colloquially) is really one of those dream-come-true projects for me. As project co-manager, I'm able to deep dive into my background with literacy research to work with our project team toward providing librarians and out-of-school-time providers with what they need to support children learning to read, and foster student ability to read at grade level by third grade. At our first in-person meeting, I was able gush with our reading specialists about big names in educational research, which was fun! I'm using brain cells that haven't been tapped since 2009 which... hurts my head. But in a good way!

Fostering Grade Level Reading is a partnership between Washington County Cooperative Library Services and OregonASK. Right now, our subject matter experts are compiling research in preparation to create a toolkit for use in libraries and for out-of-school-time teachers/caregivers. In accordance with our LSTA timeline, we will have a toolkit prepared for publication online, available for free by the beginning of 2019.

We need your help: Currently, our funding is made possible by a grant obtained through the State Library of Oregon while Katie, project co-manager, was employed there are the state Youth Services Consultant. Katie has since become my new coworker (!!!) and our employer has taken over as the fiscal agent for the grant. We are applying for a second year of funding, which would allow us us to: 1) strengthen the toolkit with an official pilot and unofficial feedback from those around the country who are using it, and 2) make informed recommendations for training with the toolkit. For the second year funding, we are asking for support from youth services library staff in the form of letters of support; the more, the better! This will enhance our justification that not only is a product like this needed; but an evaluated and vetted product like this is crucial to filling the knowledge gap posed "after" Every Child Ready to Read. If you work in libraries and are not a youth services staff member, but can speak to the importance of this project for libraries and youth services, you're welcome to send one along as well.

Please email me (brycek at wccls at org) or Katie (katiea at wccls dot org) your completed letter of support! Letters are due to us by March 16, 2018 for compilation and submission with our grant application.



Thanks for your consideration!

Investing Energy in Trying Times: What's Working for Me

Comedian Maria Bamford, looking stern. Text says:
"If you stay alive for no other reason at all, please
do it for spite."

I’ve started to write this post a couple times and then stopped, deleting. Because it’s hard to talk about and think about. Because I might say the wrong thing. But then Abby (who I recently met IRL, which was awesome) told me that I’m one of the reasons she feels as though she can talk mental health as a library professional, so here we go.

Disclaimer: this post promises to be at the very least, self-indulgent and/or deeply personal. It is absolutely a million percent about me and has no implications for anyone else. That said, if something I talk about here sounds helpful to you, you’re welcome to try it.

Disclaimer 2: yes, I am extremely privileged, and I acknowledge that.

Zombie Dancemob in the Library! An All-Ages Event

This post is authored by Jennifer Johnson, BDP blog intern.

A group of zombie dancers do their best scary poses 

on the front steps of the library. (Thrill the World 2016)

Happy New Year everyone and thank you in advance for indulging my programming ramblings! I am super excited for my inaugural programming post to be this one in particular. There was a tease in my introductory post about my library’s Thrill the World programs and now you get to hear about it in full! We are headed to Zombieland, so remember rule #4: Seatbelts!



Before I tell you how I found out about Thrill the World, I want to direct you to their website so that you can see what exactly it is. I can’t explain it much better than they do themselves.



For me, this idea was born from the quirky, wonderful people of Cookeville, TN, my stomping ground. There was a group in 2008 that participated in Thrill the World, but sadly, I didn’t hear about it until after the fact.  However, I was determined that if they ever did it again, I would be right there dancing with them. I even began teaching myself the dance at home in anticipation! Now, to my knowledge, 2008 was the one and only year that Cookeville ever participated and my hope for zombie dancing glory dwindled.

When planning programs for Fall 2016,  one thing kept nagging at the back of my mind: You need to make Thrill the World happen. I knew that it was an annual event and that it happened on a certain date and time in October. And so, with the  of my supervisor and our teen librarian, I put it on the fall schedule that year.

PRE-PROGRAM PLANNING: