High Energy Holidays in Rice Lake

Thanks to Katherine Elchert, the youth services manager at the Rice Lake Public Library for this guest post! The Rice Lake Public Library hosts our annual holiday extravaganza on the first Saturday of December. Instead of our regular family storytime + crafts, the...

Scheduling Programs

I no longer do programs at a library, but I do schedule workshops and other gatherings that I really hope people will be able to attend, so I have some understanding of the challenge it is to find the day and time of day and year that will work for the most people.I...

Tween Booklist

Looking for a ready-made booklist of books to recommend to 8-12 year olds?  Look no further!  The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) has created an attractive booklist, complete with annotations, to help kids find the right book.  All...

Growing Wisconsin Readers with Frogs

Tiffany Meyer from Dresser Village Library received one of the Growing Wisconsin Readers grants this year 1000 Books Before Kindergarten program that is a collaboration between Dresser and the St. Croix Falls library.  The program started on November 1, and they...

Insect Camp at the Library

Playing SLUG (like SPUD, but with hoops and frisbees Jenna at Fall Creek held an after school Insect Camp this fall, with art and science, games and exploring for school age kids.  There’s a complete blog post about it on her blog, but I’m including a...

Program Idea Generators

Does the well ever run dry?  Sometimes, even though we often have more ideas than time to do them, it is really great to have a few new places to look for ideas.  Here are a few I came across this week:Library as Incubator had a great post about a new...

I Heart This New Resource!

We’ve talked a lot in the past few years about how to make library programs and services more inclusive and accessible for kids on the autism spectrum.  And now there is a terrific new resource with very practical ideas about how to make storytimes more...

Costumes Make Everything More Fun

Thanks to Julie Belz from Ellsworth for sending in a few great photos of Halloween celebrations in Ellsworth!Thursday storytime friends trick-or-treating around the library at the end of storytime.  The Pumpkin Party in the Park in Ellsworth drew 350 kids...

My Amazing Day

A friend of mine from college has published a board book!  Imagine my delight when the book was excellent, and I felt like I could recommend it to librarians…My Amazing Day:  A Celebration of Wonder and Gratitude by Karin Fisher-Golton, Lori A. Cheung...

Borrow an Amphibian

Cole and a young patron enjoy a frog togetherSt. Croix Falls Public Library is a great place to check out materials, create art, hear stories, use technology…and now, you can also check out amphibians for a week! Randy Korb (the Frog Guy, who many of you saw a...