Stretching Money into Fun Programs

As we talked about the relationship of money to program success, many student-librarians shared how there are many fun programs that can be created with very little money to create a big impact.

The class also felt strongly that spending alot of staff time on preparing and doing programs also equals money so they make a concerted effort to keep the planning reasonable.

This is what they shared:

• Every summer we do a wildlife scavanger hunt.  We are lucky to be in nature, so I give each team a list of items to collect to make a collage.  It costs nothing for kids to gather various colored and textured rocks, leaves, flowers etc.  
• We always have a program that is "If you build it, they will come"  we gather paper toweling tubes plastic lids...etc. The kids use their imagination and come up with some fantastic displays.  This is a free program.  Very little planning, just time to collect, and set up the program.  best part, we all have a blast.
• I know I did a program for fall where the kids activity was to use stencils to put colored leaves on a tree on our library window. It turned out lovely and many patrons and the library board loved it. However the library board from then on wanted something on the window all year, well let's just say I wasn't as excited to do it after awhile and the ideas for something new all year stopped flowing.
• Our Smart Cookie program right now, is basically free. Our kids read, when they finish a level, then they get a free cookie from our local grocery store. Of course, we are lucky that our local grocery store donates all these cookies :)
• It is so fun to model to parents how so much learning can be done with so little money. We love using everyday objects to create a lot of fun and to use the imaginations of our kids. Sending home the recipe for homemade play dough, or bubbles, or origami instructions is very fun for all.

March Madness Programs!

While discussing DIY and passive/stealth programs, students shared some of the ways they hook into basketball frenzy during March!

• To coincide with the NCAA's March Madness,  both Youth Services (YS) and Adult Services (AS) are having "Sweet 16" brackets.  In YS, we have chosen 16 books to go head-to-head to play for the "March Madness of Books" title.  I made a bracket using 2" x 15" strips of construction paper and taping them to the big wall.  It is now up, sans the books - too early for them - and is 8.5' tall and 12' wide.
• I downloaded the covers of the books the YS staff chose (there's eight of us, so I had each person choose two titles).  I printed them out, trimmed them, and mounted them on 8" x 10" pieces of yellow construction paper. Patrons and staff will vote each week for the winner of each game.  After 4 weeks, we'll have our champ.
• We're doing a Junior Fiction Tournament of Books, as well.  We use the 16 most popular JFic books checked out over the past year according to our ILS and let kids vote on them over the month either at the library or online.  Ours is bracketed out on our wall with painter's tape and photocopies of the covers.  I think it'll be really interesting to find out what book wins.
• We do a March Madness book program as well. During February, kids nominate titles to compete. Then we select from nominations which ones will actually compete (and add a few of our own) and have kids vote each week. The best thing about it is how many kids will request and read titles off of the brackets. This program is very easy to run - just be prepared with read-alikes for each title.  We didn't give any prizes or collect any predictions - just votes at each stage. And kids could choose to just vote on a single contest - which they often did. The fact that there was no prize meant that we could roll with however a kid approached it. Our community can get very PRIZE FOCUSED. This was a nice change. 
• I'm doing a March Madness Teen Books tournaments. It is super easy. We started planning it in the beginning of February and started mid-February. My two month old Teen Advisory Board helped select the initial 32 titles. The tournament runs 6 weeks with 5 rounds and Round 2 starts tomorrow. Each round we narrow the field down until we have one champ. We use the lingo (Sweet 16, Elite 8...) Teen books are huge with adults too so I opened the tournament up to everyone. I'm just giving out a $25 Amazon gift card at the end of tournament.

The Best Planning is Proactive

In thinking about how to balance the programs we offer, the class was asked to share an example of how they changed a program, grew it or adapted it to create a better balance. This is one in a series of posts in which class participants responded to the prompt: Share an example of a way you evolved a program that led to a more successful outcome.

Kristine from Reedsburg WI looks at changes coming down the pike and starts adapting programs and schedules right away.

I try to stay connected with the community and be proactive to changes than reactive. 

 

For example, when our school district implemented the 4K program, I added a Friday Morning Storytime to accomodate families with 4 and 5 year olds because 4K is Monday through Thursday. 

 

Our school board just adopted the school calendar for next year and there will be early release every Friday.  I have started the planning for how the Library can program for our school age kids on Friday afternoons.

We started our Homeschooling program because of the growing number of homeschooled families.

Mix-up to Mash-up

In thinking about how to balance the programs we offer, the class was asked to share an example of how they changed a program, grew it or adapted it to create a better balance. This is one in a series of posts in which class participants responded to the prompt: Share an example of a way you evolved a program that led to a more successful outcome. 

Teresa from Illinois had a magical mixed-up moment that turned into an opportunity that grew.

When I started working at the library, Children’s Book Week was a big deal. Children’s books were only purchased in spring and fall. (Don’t know why.) Anyway, the fall books were always saved back for Book Week. Teachers brought their elementary classes (usually walking, but sometimes by bus) to the library to listen to book talks or a story, look at the new books, and get applications for library cards.

A scheduling mistake started the evolution. One day a kindergarten and a fourth grade showed up at almost the same time. So we had the 4th graders each find a kindergartener to read to. It worked. There were pairs spread out all over the children’s room. The younger ones loved being read to; the older kids felt like superstars.

The next year we took it a step farther and invited adult volunteers to come read to classes during Book Week – not to large groups, but to 2, 3, or 4 children. And the fourth grade class purposely overlapped with the kindergarten.

A few years later, the schools cut the number of bus trips. The next evolution took our show on the road. Two librarians, several canvas bags full of books, and a day in each elementary school, plus one afternoon at the library for homeschoolers. By the end of the week, we had seen over 1,000 kids - nearly every elementary student in town.

It's a Fine Day for a Fair

In thinking about how to balance the programs we offer, the class was asked to share an example of how they changed a program, grew it or adapted it to create a better balance. This is one in a series of posts in which class participants responded to the prompt: Share an example of a way you evolved a program that led to a more successful outcome.

Luci started out with a child safety fair featuring vehicles and each year after it....grew!

As part of our SLP, we started having a child safety fair in 2010. It was held for 75 minutes one afternoon in the beginning of August.  We had a fire engine,  ambulance, police car, and hospital representatives first year. We added a school bus and free bottled water the second year.

I don't remember what we all changed the third year but we invited the humane society to join us. For the fourth year (2013), our safety fair evolved into a 2-hour evening event. I added wellness to the theme and invited organizations like the YMCA, Headstart, Birth to Three, the county health department,  the county sheriff's department,  a school crossing guard, Geoffrey the Giraffe from Toys 'R Us, and more. 

We also had a "bandage brigade" where we accepted boxes of band-aids with designs for children at the library throughout June and July with the idea that if not every child, at least every family attending the safety fair would receive a box of band-aids. I believe we had about 140 boxes donated, many by our SLP families. We had wonderful donated door prizes like bicycle helmets,  first aid kits, and car booster seats! 

While we would have between 60 and 75 people attending our afternoon fairs, we estimated that there were approximately 300 in attendance at last year's safety fair. We look forward to having another successful safety fair this August with some additions,  such as more on bicycle safety along with ATV and motorcycle safety and a simple hot dog supper which would serve as a fundraiser for the library.  

This might not be a program that a library in a larger community would offer its residents but in a small community like ours, this was a significant event enjoyed and appreciated by many people.  Oh, I should say, except for staffing,  the only cost was $6.95 for the purchase of Mr. Yuk stickers. Our library system designs and prints up to 100 copies of posters and fliers free of charge to the local library and everything else was donated.

Volunteers Are Free, Right?

In thinking about how to balance the programs we offer, the class was asked to share an example of how they changed a program, grew it or adapted it to create a better balance. This is one in a series of posts in which class participants responded to the prompt: Share an example of a way you evolved a program that led to a more successful outcome.

Erin, who works at the Herrick District Library (MI) and tweets at @erinisinire shares what happened when a great idea for a program run primarily by volunteers is seen for what it is: wildly expensive in terms of staff time.

For the past 6 or 7 years we've had a wildly popular SRP called "Reading Buddies." Young readers (1st-5th grade) were paired with a trained-by-us volunteer (6th grade and up) to read together in the library for one hour once a week for 8 weeks. We offered 3 sessions of 15 readers/buddies each and asked that all participants be able to commit to at least 6 of the weeks (accounting for summer vacations, camps, etc). 

Sounds lovely, right? These 90 people showing up faithfully each week to read together?

It was a scheduling and staff nightmare. 

Shockingly, some people can be wildly unreliable! If we were lucky, we'd get a call in advanced letting us know they were unable to make it. Frequently, we'd have no shows. It was horrible having to tell a volunteer we were sorry to have wasted their time, but their reader was a no-show. It was horrible having a kid show up excited to participate only to have their volunteer not be there. Staff were usually asked to fill in. We offered the program at both the branch and the main library. Our branch is TINY. That many people showing up at once to read together was disruptive to the other patrons who were there to use the library. TWO staff members were assigned to "run" each session-hand out progress folders to the kids, fill in as older buddies or find other staff to fill in, help with readers advisory, and wander around the department to make sure (especially the teen volunteers) were on track and actually reading and not messing around.

This was obviously a wildly expensive program that needed to change in order to survive.

We decided to offer a session this winter as a "pilot" program. Instead of looking to teens for this, we asked our Literacy Heroes (volunteer adults who go through a 3 hour training program by us and head out to various organizations and schools in the area to read with kids or offer small storytimes at other organizations-this is another program we're about to "evolve!") if they'd be interested. We had 15 kids and 15 volunteers sign up in advance. We asked EVERYONE to attend one meeting at a designated time-they were informed this was a mandatory meeting for participation at sign up-so we could match up buddies and readers. They were also informed in advance that they would be responsible for determining all future hourly meeting times AT THE LIBRARY. We strongly urged them to exchange contact information in case they needed to cancel. 

8 volunteers and 8 kids/parents showed up for the meeting. We matched them up and away they went. All folders are held at the reference desk and are accessible to each group whenever they come in to read together. Staff on desk are responsible for assisting with readers advisory if necessary. No more scrambling, no more staff intervention, no more 30 extra people in the department trying to read together at the same time. 

We are still learning from this as the program is still going on. We have yet to hear that it's not working. There were communication problems on our end from the onset and those have been corrected. For SRP this year we've already decided to drop the readers ages (1st-3rd) and we will still allow teens to participate. 

Here's hoping our evolution will work!

Storytime Cell Phone Chaos

In thinking about how to balance the programs we offer, the class was asked to share an example of how they changed a program, grew it or adapted it to create a better balance. This is one in a series of posts in which class participants responded to the prompt: Share an example of a way you evolved a program that led to a more successful outcome.

Lori from Indiana had cell-phone loving parents with their kids running amok in storytime. It was time for a change.

I don't know if anyone else has experienced this:  Parents who don't  seem to want to sit with their kids during story time.

We had quite the problem with this new crop of parents.  We have a very large meeting room, and most of the parents would sit as far away as they could from their kids.  They would then proceed to talk among themselves, text, or talk on their cells.  This, naturally, led to their little angels running amok!  They would then be flabbergasted if we had to ask them to sit with their child.  Sort of a "How dare you!"

Took us long enough, but this is what we did:  We closed the divider in the room.  The crafts were set up on the other side of the wall, so no chairs for them to use.  (We do have ready access to chairs if a parent/grandparent is in need of one).  We bought alphabet carpet squares. 

We began our new procedure without warning or calling attention to the changes.  When they arrived (after check-in and name tags), we took them to the "second door."  OOOOOHHHHH.  We handed a carpet square to each child with the request to find a spot for your carpet and you mom/etc., and have a seat on the carpet.  Granted, some went to the back (divider wall), but the kid stayed with them.  And the carpet squares kept the kids seated, for the most part, until it was time for activities.

We end the program each week with a craft, so we open the divider a bit and everyone goes in for the craft.  Story time has never ran so smoothly!

Graphic courtesy of Pixabay