Facebook Valentine’s Day

Valentines for veterans

Vermont libraries on Facebook post events to bring the community in. Poultney and Williston with unique ideas. Dorothy Alling Memorial suggests valentines for Veterans, with a great flag/heart motif:
You can make a difference to active and retired service men and women. Simply make a valentine, write a note if you want and sign your valentine to let our veterans know that they are not forgotten. We will mail all the valentines to the White River Junction VA Medical Center in time for Valentine’s Day. Please have your valentine cards to the library before Friday, February 3rd.

Heres the Poultney Public Library:

What do you love about your Library? February is Library Lover’s Month! Please stop by the circulation desk to fill out a valentine heart or post on our Facebook wall to tell us what YOU love about the Poultney Public Library. Share the love by recommending our Facebook page to your friends. Right now 182 people “like” the Poultney Public Library. Let’s see if we can get that number over 200 by the end of February!

Get ready for The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

The Hunger Games movie will be released March 23, 2012. Join the fervor with a YA book club , as Amity DeAngelis did at the Weatherfield Proctor Library. Her idea of pairing survival training for teens with the the Suzanne Collins trilogy is genius!

For the book clubs I chose a popular series and had three meetings. For two of the book clubs (Percy Jackson and Twilight) I did related crafts at the first two meetings and then did pizza and a trip to the movies to see the film version at the last meeting. This did require some planning ahead to make sure that the movie was going to be released at the time we would be having the third meeting. The library paid for the pizza but the attendees were responsible for their movie ticket. For the other book club (The Hunger Games) I partnered with the Precision Valley Fish & Game Association to set up survival training for each meeting. Each meeting covered a different topic: archery, emergency shelter building, and fire making.

SAT Prep at Libraries

Burnham Memorial Library offers an informal SAT prep course to area HS students. Here’s youth services Gizelle Guyette (gguyette@colchestervt.gov): Princeton Review was willing to work with us. They provide the tests, which are actual SATs with current sections, scoring, rules and regs. We provide the venue and the proctor (me). We set the room and test conditions up as specified by SAT testing rules… we recreate as closely as possible the environment they will encounter with the real test, including timing and specific regulations regarding allowed utensils and equipment. After the exam, the tests are sent by FedEx to be scored by Princeton Review, and on the following Saturday, one of their instructors brings their scores and teaches a strategy session for individual sections, and then specific questions.

If the library is interested, talk to the Princeton Review. Gizelle’s contact is Shannon Shepardson, SShepardson@Review.com; phone: (800) 447.0254 x5630; mail: The Princeton Review 1340 Centre Street l Suite 104 l Newton, MA 02459

Paint the picture clearly– the library budget, opportunities for Young Adults, likelihood that students will be able to purchase courses. Burnham paid $500 in the initial year for the service and books, no charge to the students of course. The second year Princeton Review provided the course pro bono.

Gizelle again: Students who participated and gave us feedback told me that their scores between the Practice SAT and the official one improved 100-150 points, and that they went into the real SAT “feeling like they knew what they were doing.”

Living Books Program

The Ilsley Public Library in Middlebury hosted a Living Books Program.  Rather than having an author visit and talk about their book, they arranged for patrons to “check out” a person for a one-on-one conversation. Here’s the library description:

We make books come alive by inviting their authors to visit and talk with us. Now we’re going a step further.

On Saturday the 12th, we will feature living books.  You check them out for up to 30 minutes, talk with them, and then return them.  Have a coffee, sit down, it’s all about learning something new.

Each “book” is a person – local residents of different backgrounds (such as a retired FBI agent, a pro wrestler, and an animal rights activist) who have volunteered to be “checked-out” by readers for one-on-one conversations.  Everyone stays in the library.

Job Search 101 Workshops

The Rockingham Free Public Library in Bellows Falls offered a series of workshops called “Job Search 101″ for young adults ages 15 to 21.  The workshop series was free; participants met each week.

This series gave participants basic information, skills and techniques to begin career planning.

The curriculum and format were designed by the group itself in order to meet their specific employment needs and interests. All aspects of finding a job were covered: resume writing, job search techniques, interviews and building positive, useful, and practical skills in order to obtain and maintain a job.

Harry Potter Read-A-Thon

The Fletcher Free Library in Burlington is hosting a Harry Potter Read-A-Thon to celebrate the release of the “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” movie.

Harry Potter Read-a-thon. Friday, July 15th, 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. Stop by the library any time during the day to hear a dramatic reading of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows to celebrate the movie’s release. Wizarding attire encouraged! Free. All ages welcome, but recommended for ages 8 & up. No preregistration needed.

Getting Rid of Old Card Catalogs?

Julia Fickes stands next to her Empire style dress created using catalog cards and Jane Austen check-out cards for the bodice.

Peacham Library completed the move from the card catalog to a new automated library system. With this transition came the need to dispose of thousands of 3 x 5 catalog cards. Rather than just throw them out, library Director Becky Jensen decided to offer a contest. The “Celebrate Automation with a Creation” program allowed library patrons to take as many catalog cards as they wanted in order to create a project.  Projects could be artistic, literary, funky or  just plain fun!  Patrons took on the challenge and created jewelry, a poem, clothing, a bulletin board, masks, a game, 3D scenes, a fishing pole, and a cat puppet. 

Sixteen entries were received from patrons ranging in age from 4 to 93.  Awards were given for all entries, including: “Best Miniature Work” for an origami crane on a ring; “Best Use of Title Cards” for a cat that was created using cards with such titles as The Cat Who Tailed a Thief (the tail) and the Cat in the Hat (leg);and “Best Literary Piece” for an Ogden Nash-inspired poem.  What won “Best in Show”? Library patrons selected a dress made with catalog cards by thirteen-year-old Julia Fickes. The dress was designed in a style popular in Jane Austin books, with Jane Austen check-out cards used for the bodice.  All entries were on display at Peacham Library in November 2010.

(Article recycled from December 2010 edition of Vermont Department of Libraries Newsletter)

Sensory Friendly Film Series

Samantha Maskell, the Youth Services Librarian at the Rockingham Free Public Library recently hosted a successful Sensory Friendly Film Series.  They had 11 people and their caretakers at the first film (hand picked to see how it would work), then the same audience as well as a few families with toddlers at the next.  The ability to go in and out of the room also worked well, and some people needed to do that in order to take in the experience.

Here is some information on the program from her, as well as the flyer used:

This program is modeled after one that was launched by AMC  (www.amcentertainment.com/) and The Autism Society of America  (http://www.autism-society.org)

The things that set this film series apart from other film series is how you set it up: 

• Lights need to be up – not bright, just make sure that the room isn’t dark
• Sound needs to be lower
• No one gets to say “shhhhhhh, other people are trying to watch the movie” instead, the audience gets to watch it in the way they’re most comfortable, whether it’s clapping, talking, singing, dancing, or something else – as long as no one is in danger – this needs to be in a time or place in your library when noise won’t be a problem.
• Be sure to skip previews and go straight to the movie
• Have an easy exit, sometimes members of this audience need a break from the movie – be prepared for them to come in and out.
• If you allow food, allow home-brought snacks or be prepared to provide gluten/casein-free snack options.
• Be sure you have permission to show films (http://www.movlic.com/library/)
• Be flexible

We also provided a Social Story for this event.  The idea for the Social Story was provided by a high school teacher who works with autistic youth, they use social stories as ways to prepare some youths for what they’re going to encounter.  Our social story is very simple, pictures of the Library, what they can do at the Library, the movie set-up, and the movie schedule.

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YA Spelling Bee

Brownell Library held a spelling bee with two teen teams, a staff team, and a trustee team. Kat Redniss, the Young Adult Librarian, printed out word lists from Scripps Howard and gave them to the teams a couple months in advance.

The teams created their own names and slogans, made t-shirts, and trashed talked each other playfully. Teams were able to get sponsors on their own. Sponsors, including local businesses, personal friends, and families, could donate any amount of money.

At the event, the Library held a bake sale with treats baked by staff and trustees, had a bowl out for donations, and held a raffle. People bought raffle tickets and then put their ticket into the container of the team they thought would win. The raffle winner was drawn from the bee winner’s container. The winner got a portion of the money and the library got the rest. (The winner gave most of the money back to the library.) Kat reports, “This was a blast, fun competition, literacy-oriented, and productive! Brownell Library raised over $1100.”

Need resources? Check out the Scripps Howard website for specific directions to hold one of their patented fundraising bees; or try the Merriam Webster website for Scripps Howard word lists. The Scripps Howard website includes ideas to build excitement such as dressing in black and yellow (bees) or showing the documentary “Spellbound.”

Skywarn Talk

Greensboro Free Library hosted a talk by the National Weather Service which trained participants to be Skywarn weather spotters for the National Weather Service in Burlington.

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