It's so much more than thank you notes...

Here at our little library in Massachusetts we have invited Mannersmith Etiquette Consulting to come in and give our young patrons a "pre-holiday" refresher seminar. The seminars are specifically geared to children and run only 45 minutes to an hour depending on the childrens' ages.
We happen to have a very generous "Friends" group who provided funding for the two sessions; one for Preschoolers & Kindergartners and a second session for 1st through 4th graders. Each session was $100.
Mannersmith was delightful in every way (they come highly recommended from everyone from The Washington Post to Martha Stewart). They even included handouts so that the children could take them home and share their experience with their families.
Unfortunately, because of the nature of the program, Mannersmith did require us to limit each session to 15 participants and (rare for us) required pregistration. I do think, though, that the positive feedback from so many parents (even those that did not sign up) far outweighed the minor annoyance of the few that we unable to secure a slot.

Anime Convention @ your library

At the Springfield City Library, I’ve run a very successful two-day event here called “Springfield Library Chibiconn” for the last 4 years. Basically, we re-create a small anime convention in our community room. Its always a Saturday and Sunday in September. (By keeping it around the same time, folks come to look for it in the future.)

On Saturday we have an anime “Film Festival”. Most years this is actually showing the first two episodes of a variety of shows. We usually start with all age’s shows in the morning and move all the way up to 15+ or older in the late afternoon/evening.

We get permission by going to the companies and requesting them. Most anime companies in America will give the A-Ok for free. The ones I have had the best luck with are:

ADV: http://www.advfilms.com/
Rightstuf: http://www.rightstuf.com/
Funimation: http://www.funimation.com/
Bandai: http://www.bandai-ent.com/

You can see what Anime they own on their websites and the sites have contact info for obtaining permission.

The second day is a day of Anime Events. We do art contests, costume contests, trivia games; invite special guests to give presentations (This year we have a Mass based manga creator coming, in the past its been local convention heads, and some fans that presented workshops on aspects of anime and anime culture)

We get a lot of our prizes at a local Anime Shop, but they can be found online, at Book Stores with large manga selections, or comic shops. I personally attend a lot of anime conventions, and get signed swag for prizes from voice actors.

We run it as an all ages event, but the majority of people that come are teens.

This is one of our more popular events bringing in over 125 people for the whole weekend. We take pre-reg starting about a month before hand, and will allow folks in at the door asuming we have room.

Big Truck Day

One of our charges as a library is to be a center for our community. Truck Day may seem like a roundabout, non-literary way of achieving that goal, but it works for us.

We coordinate with the Highway Department to find a weekday during the summer when all the Big Town Trucks can come to the Library parking lot. Publicity is pretty minimal, consisting of signs in the Children’s Room and a posting in our usual newspaper column, and now on the website as well. We routinely draw participants in the toddler to 3rd Grade age range, although this year I saw some 5th and 6th graders.

We have a small circular drive in front of the lower level of our Library, which we block off with cones. The trucks line up along the edge of it. Our selection varies by year, depending on what the Highway Department is willing and able to share, but we usually get: street sweeper, big dump truck, plow, excavator, flat-backed truck (don’t ask me the technical name), and usually some cute little utility vehicles. The drivers are on-site and available for questions, although they don’t hover around the trucks. It is up to the children’s caretakers to supervise mounting and dismounting and taking turns.

We set up a table in the shade or in the downstairs foyer, and serve juice, water and a big sheet cake with a truck drawn on it in icing. Since our annual circulation numbers are calculated at the end of June, we write our circ number on the truck in icing. (This turned out to be a terrific talking point this year, as patrons were interested to know that our staff circulates approximately one item for each minute we are open.)

Indoors, the Children’s librarians display our fine collection of truck books, which were a big hit with both the children and the Highway Department staff.

In addition to providing a link between two Town departments, Truck Day is a way to introduce youngsters and their parents to the Library. Often parents of young children are just reacquainting themselves with Library usage for the first time since they were young. We make sure to have Friends of the Library membership materials on hand, as well as plenty of balloons!

We encouraged visitors to enjoy their cake and juice outdoors on the lovely benches near our lower-level door, and invited them to wash hands before looking through the books.
This year, on a cloudy day that turned to rain between 11 and 1, we had 113 visitors. One first-grader asked a Highway Department employee to autograph his baseball.

Here’s the list of materials we used:

- Balloons & helium: $25 for a kit with 50 balloons (@ BJ’s)
-Cake: $17 (we order it, from Costco or a supermarket)—NOTE: SAVE THE LABEL for food allergy questions! You have to draw the truck and circ. number on the order form, but the decorators do a good job of copying it.
-Water: $15 (96 little bottles) and/or juice boxes (sticky but popular)
-Plates and napkins: we usually have them around, but if you don’t, get some.
-TRASH CANS! We filled 2 office-sized trash cans to the brim.
-Tablecloth
-Friends’ brochures
Some adults asked for forks, and we had enough on hand to accommodate them. Kids seemed happy to eat with their fingers.

Book Review Fandex

My son's 5th grade teacher had the class do this, and it's brilliant: every student got 1/4 of a sheet of heavy cardstock, in various colors. The students then picked 4 books with a thematic link (adventure series, girls' fantastic fiction,etc.) and wrote short, 1 or 2 sentence reviews of each.

The reviews were printed on the colored strips vertically with the student's name on top, their thematic link, and then the 4 picks. The strips were then riveted together and mounted as a fandex, and everyone got to take one home for the summer.

If my digital camera were working, I'd post a photo. It's pretty cool.
--Juno

The Solar System Experience

Our local elementary school has installed a 1 to 1 billion scale model of the Solar System in our town. The sun sits right here in our library parking lot (we always knew that the world revolved around books!!) and the rest of the planets are posted at various mathematically appropriate spots around town. The library has creatd a display of astronomy books, videos and DVDs and the school has given us maps to track the locations of the planets as hand outs and we've also hung poster versions on our walls. The best part for the kids, however, is the three scales that sit at the base of the shelves--they are set to measure a childs weight on three different planets: Earth, Mercury and Jupiter.

Culture Mavens...

If your library is like ours, then you offer museum passes to your patrons. Then your patrons ask for books for children attending a museum for the first time. We all love Readers Advisory but sometimes time is an issue. To that end, we've created "culture kits" in our Children's Room. As a test, we are starting with The Art Museum, The Science Museum and The Aquarium. Each kits contains 6-8 books and videos to help inform a childs' visit. We hope that the kits will help both parents and children enjoy their trip more!!

Counting your Chickens...before they're hatched?

That's our theme for summer reading--we're hoping that the kids will focus on Math/Science books and to encourage them to come into our library we're hatching chickens!! We've partnered with a local organic farm from whom we will be leasing an incubator and a local student in 4H will be responsible(with oversight of course) for keeping watch and turning the eggs daily. He will then be able to use the experience as his annual 4H project and presentation...this will truly be a community project and we're looking forward to lots of chicken-themed summer activities!! Check back for updates (and birth announcements for our chicks!) -Rhiannon

American Girl Party

May as well jump on the American Girl doll craze...right? We opened an American Girl Mall. The set-up is relatively easy. We simply draped the large tables with cloths and invited girls to bring their own American girl dolls. Set up one table with various small hair decorations--barrettes, brightly colored elastics, ribbons etc. (All of these things plus small combs and brushes can be purchased at a local dollar store) for a "Hair salon". Another table we set up as a "Hat Shop". We bought inexpensive hat forms at a craft shop and set them out with bits of lace, faux flowers and ribbons. Each girl decorated a hat for her doll to wear and take home. A third table was the "Tea Shop"--cookies and juice arranged on pretty trays and dishes. Leave a space in the room for the sharing and swapping of clothes and expect most girls to focus on the hairbrushing (apparently the main point of having an American Girl doll). We do recommend a signup sheet and some age guidelines. Overall cash outlay was about $50-60 for a dozen girls. Most of the hat supplies can be purchased in bargain bins at crafts stores to keep costs to a minimum. -Rhiannon

Music, Movement and Mayhem

A new program is starting in our library this January. For 2-4 year-olds, this activity will include songs, fingerplays, dance and general silliness. It will meet twice a month, and run for about a half an hour. Kids and caregivers can participate as much as they want to. Each program will have a theme. The first one will be about transportation. We'll sing "Wheels on the Bus" and other vehicle-related songs. Coloring sheets will be handed out at the end. We feel this kind of activity will help kids burn off that extra energy they seem to have during the winter months. If it proves to be popular, we'll probably offer this program throughout the school year.
- Xochiquetzal

OnLine Book Discussion

Our Children's Services department has started an online book discussion page for 9-12 year olds.

Staff selects a title each month and has multiple copies available for check out. We post the title and display the books in the children's room and invite the kids to log on and contribute!
We've only had it online for a couple of months but we've had positive feedback and it's interesting to see what the kids have to say.

It is set up as a bliki (a blog and wiki page used together). We are focusing on keeping that 9-12 year old age group reading and gaining confidence and ability using the latest methods to communicate!

Join (or at least take a look) our OnLine Discussion at http://volensetpotens.blogspot.com
Pass it along at your library if you like what you see! -Aurora

Gingerbread Workshop

This year we're doing a Gingerbread Workshop for the holidays. We've got two programs planned- one for the preschool kids and one for kids in shcool. If we get enough interest we'll also do one for teens and older patrons.

The program is a two day workshop On the first day the kids will be making the gingerbread dough and cutting out the gingerbread. The gingerbread will be from a mix so will be simple for all ages to make. Once the dough is mixed, the kids will get a portion to roll out and form. The preschool kids are making gingerbread men, while the older kids will be making simple houses. We plan on baking the gingerbread when everyone leaves. This way if any break we can make some extra and substitue them.

The second day of the workshop is when the kids can get creative. We'll have all sorts of decorations and frostings available for them to use to make their creations unique.
Ereshkigal

R.E.A.D. Dog Visit

We are fortunate to have a local dog handler whose black lab is a certified Reading Education Assistance Dog! She will visit our library on a Saturday and the children have a chance to sit one on one with her and read aloud.
R.E.A.D. dogs are registered therapy animals, trained and tested for health, safety, skills and temperament. Dogs make good reading companions because they help the child to relax and they do not judge, laugh or criticize the child who may be a tentative reader or who may have a speech impediment. The trainer may also stop the child and have them 'explain' something they are reading to the dog to encourage comprehension. Sometimes the child uses a dog biscuit to point at the page and words they are reading , which really helps keep the dogs attention! Kids love this program making enormous strides in reading, communication skills, building self-esteem, confidence and learning respect for themselves and the animals! Check out www.therapyanimals.org to see if someone close by can visit your library!-Aurora