Mockingjay Hits Menomonie

Colleen from Menomonie reported a crowd of 21 teens whose parents were willing to drop them off at the library for a Mockingjay release party (more were wishing they could come, and an on-duty police officer who stopped by to pick up a copy of the book for his...

Keeping Up–In General!

One of the biggest issues raised at a recent Youth Services Idea Swap was the perennial issue of TIME, and the lack thereof. We discussed the challenges of keeping up with newer media (blogs, facebook pages, flickr, websites), while still staying true to other key...

Spread the Word on MORE

Part of the IFLS Long Range Plan is to produce some MORE-related materials for youth. This sounds pretty vague, doesn’t it? That’s because we wanted to make sure to leave room for people working with youth to help us decide what format and contentyou would...

Teens Evaluating Books!

Two book-related announcements today:The big day is here! Your teens have been reading the 2010 Teens’ TopTen nominations since last April, and now they can tell us which books are their favorites. Voting for the 2010 Teens’ Top Ten is available -and this...

High Points, Low Points

Okay, so today was the Youth Services Idea Swap in Prescott. Wow, it is amazing when 10 committed and interesting people get together to talk about what works in their library, and what they are struggling with! Look for some detailed reports, coming up.In the...

Super Summer Program Round-up: Pokemon!

In Chippewa Falls, they had an easy, fun program that librarians and kids alike would be happy to repeat. This just in from Colleen:One our best programs this summer was our ‘Pokemon Summer Academy’ that we held for kids in 2nd -7th grades. Kids played an...

Programming Is for Everyone!

The Wonder Weavers performed storytelling at the Amery Public Library for the Polk County Adult Development Center. As you can see, their participatory storytelling was a hit!Amery often brings in performers for the Adult Development Center. The participants are...

Storyblocks–Storytime Resource

If you are looking for ways to spice up your storytime, or if you have a new staff person or volunteer you want to train in the Wonderful Ways of Storytime, there are a lot of great resources out there. But there is always room for more, right??The Colorado State...

Book Giveaway!

Sometimes I feel like I am posting to a cold, empty world out there. To test this theory, I am going to give away some books that Maureen brought back from her adventures at the annual conference of the Romance Writer’s Association (thanks, Maureen!). You can...

Summertime Fun in Durand

They’ve been having fun in Durand this summer, learning and creating, reading and playing all about water. In this picture, presenters from Beaver Creek came to talk about invasive species and how kids can help keep waterways clean.Storytime was also a big...

Most popular series for kids right now…

After an unscientific poll of librarians in IFLS-land and on PUBYAC, I came up with a list of the current most-popular series for kids and teens. I was looking for the older-than-picturebook crowd, and I got an amazing array of suggestions. I compared this with a list...