New Year Resolution: Thinking Hard About Hard Things

Thanks to a nudge from the ALSC Blog, I found a fascinating discussion on the Storytime Underground site (no longer available) about libraries celebrating mainstream holidays, making libraries inclusive places for everyone, thinking about assumptions and privilege,...

Fred Rogers Wisdom

As I’ve been delving into the early childhood world more and more in the past year, I have heard innumerable references to Fred Rogers.  I grew up in the early years of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, and have fond memories of watching his show as a...

Absentee Readers’ Advisory in Fall Creek

Thanks to Jenna Gilles-Turner for the guest post!Boys readingI have been trying to help youth even when I am not in the library. I have come up with various ways to help kids find books on our shelves and with reader’s advisory. I’ve come up with some...

Storytime Resources on IFLS Blog

Superhero storytime at LEPMPLWe’ve been doing some sprucing up of services to preschoolers in our system during the past year or so, and as part of that I have added some useful resources to the IFLS website about storytime.  Look there for suggestions of...

Make some maker supplies!

Thanks to Jill Patchin at the L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library in Eau Claire for this information/blog post:Strawbees in action (from Strawbee’s kickstarter page)We recently purchased a new die for our machine to make Strawbees, which will allow us to...

Dinosaur Game

Dino Tongue by Joe Utsler, flickr, Creative Commons Who isn’t interested in dinosaurs??I came across this amazing live-action game designed FOR KIDS at a LIBRARY and it is way too cool not to share.  Scott Nicholson, a professor in the ISchool at the...

Responsive Programming for Homeschoolers

Team-building with homeschoolersThanks to Kathy Larson from Bloomer for supplying this guest post:Fall Creek and several other libraries in library land have been offering programs for Homeschool students and it inspired me to think about creating my own. In the...

Book Bunches in Ellsworth

Thanks to Julie Belz from Ellsworth for this guest post!After reading about a library in Colby, Wisconsin creating book bunches on the Growing WI Readers blog, we decided that it would be worth a try here in Ellsworth.Book bunches displayThey are flying off the...

Guest Book Review: Beautiful Darkness

Thanks to Emily Eckstrand-Brummer, currently of Stanley and soon-to-be from Hibbing, MN for this guest book review!Beautiful Darkness coverBeautiful Darkness by Fabien Vehlmann and KerascoëtI just HAD to share this awesome young adult graphic novel with my fellow...

Facebook Engagement for the Win!

Thanks to Kim Hennings from New Richmond for sharing this Facebook engagement idea:”I thought I would let you know about a promotion we ran yesterday for “cyber Monday” on our facebook page.  I saw the idea on Pinterest to wrap up 25 gifts and...