ALSC Mentor Program

Ideas from ALSC's new mentoring program. Also good for managers to mentor their employees!

Suggested Mentoring Activities

ALSC Competencies for Librarians Serving Children in Public Libraries  

• In advance of your meeting, each come up with 3-5 questions for the other to answer. Make sure to forward to the other person a few days before your meeting to give that person time to come up with appropriate answers. 
• Discuss the qualities that make an effective manager/director. Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of managers you’ve both encountered in your previous jobs. 
• Do a resume/CV review. Share/critique job experiences and skills.
• Perform a mock interview. Take turns asking each other difficult interview questions (i.e. “Where do you see yourself in 5 years?”). Afterwards give written feedback. 
• Create a shared document/spreadsheet of program ideas. Encourage others to enter their own ideas/suggestions.
• Create a book list of titles that you both enjoy. Discuss the benefits/drawbacks of your favorites. 
• Discuss your experiences with mock Newbery/Caldecott elections. What has worked for you? What hasn’t?
• Create a wish-list for your library. What sort of technology would you like to have? What resources would you buy?
• Visit ALSC’s Great Websites for Kids. Discuss which of the featured sites you’ve used and which you would like to try. Suggest a site. 
• Read and discuss an article from Children & Libraries magazine. What did you like? What didn’t you like? 
• Co-author an ALSC Blog guest post. Submit your idea for a blog post.  
• Read an article about mentoring (i.e. resources). Discuss how it applies to your match. 
• Participate in a free ALSC Student Session and discuss how the materials apply to you. 
• Discuss your experiences with El día de los niños/El día de los libros (Children's Day/Book Day) programs. Have you hosted an event? What has worked? 
• Explore the Every Child Ready to Read Ning site. Discuss what resources would work for you and how you might be able to add to the site.

From ALSC

Fresh Paint ideas

Great series of articles from a new library and teen center. Program and outreach ideas, language for advocating for teens, etc. So many ideas and phrases to remember!

Meeting with school librarians: "we talked about sharing materials, providing space for student-to-student tutoring, in-school visits by librarians, field trips to the library, and getting library cards into the hands of students...I advised the librarians to work with teachers to get the list to us as soon as it’s finalized, so come August, we’ll have the books that their kids need. We also discussed an idea to reduce the physical stress on students: lending textbooks to the library to shelve in our reference collection or in our teen center so that kids won’t have to lug those heavy tomes home every night."

Programming from scratch: "It was important for me to establish a calendar that set a standard, but left plenty of room to grow. I was inclined to host dozens of programs during the first few months in order to show the community everything we were capable of doing, but heeded the advice from the director who advised me to leave enough room in the schedule to add, but never to take away, programs. Adding programs as we get to know the community’s interests is a step forward; cancelling a program because of overbooking or realizing there’s no interest in it is a step backwards. While we may not have as many programs planned as other libraries, we have plenty of wiggle room in the schedule as well as preapproval for last-minute additions, if need be."


SLJ column

Read, Play, Grow!

Program ideas to help teach parents how to play with infants/toddlers. Brooklyn PL sets up stations with home objects (cereal boxes, board books, shredded paper) after storytimes and at playdates.

SLJ July 2013

Homeless Teens and Libraries

Resources mentioned:

• True Colors Fund, aimed at LGBT teens
• National Safe Place
• Project RISE in Akron, funded through the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act-Education for Homeless Children and Youth Programs

From VOYA February 2013

Harvard Library Test Kitchen

Harvard's Graduate School of Design offers the seminar Library Test Kitchen:

Part class, part funded research, we're fabricating library futures.

We're an Advanced Seminar in the Harvard Graduate School of Design. We have a working budget, a defined client, and a desire for impact. And we want to have fun while we're at it.

Our goal is real-world impact inside and outside the walls of Harvard. We make things that contribute to the library discourse. We collaborate with the Harvard Library, and academic and public libraries from across the U.S.

Knowledge, public space, the internet, education, these are massive contemporary forces libraries bear. We see libraries as an untapped creative domain for architects, designers -- folks of all kinds -- to dig into. Their program is the convergence of knowledge, space, community, and relationships. 

November-December 2012, they have a pop-up Labrary with installations open to the public to explore and discuss library opportunities and futures.

...I want one, too.

Effective Library Management

1. Be a mensch (Josh credits his father in Minnesota with teaching him this)
2. 
   

• Care… at least a little 
• Don’t lie (you may not always be able to convey the entire truth, but do not lie)
• Don’t be a coward (you don’t have to be stalwartly brave—just don’t be a coward)

-Not Dead Yet, LJ

1001 Books Before Kindergarten

"Literacy is one of the greatest gifts a parent can give a child, and learning the skills needed for reading and writing begins at infancy into childhood.

...
1,001 Books Before Kindergarten is a reading program for families with children from birth through age 5. It was designed to get parents actively involved in reading to their children from birth and help foster a lifelong love of reading as children gain pre-literacy skills.
...
At registration, families receive information about the program and the Library, the children's collection and recommended reads, early literacy skills and early literacy practices, and a book log for the first 100 titles recorded in 1,001 Books Before Kindergarten.
After each set of 100 books are read and logged, parents and children return to the Youth Services Desk to pick up a prize and pages for the next 100 books and receive additional information about upcoming events.
When 1,001 books are reached, each child will get a graduation ceremony, a book, and his or her picture on the Library's wall of stars.
...
1,001 books read over the years makes reading together a special time and becomes part of a daily routine.  Every time a parent reads a book to a child, it counts in this program, and there will be favorite books children will want to hear over and over again. It is truly about having fun and enjoying the adventure along the way!"

Could be cool to see if Evanced or another online reading program tracker could help keep track of the 100(s of) books.

-From the RAILS press release about Algonquin's new program. 

Scavenger Hunt with Friends

Teen Tech Week idea from YALSA YALS Winter 2013

For tweens/teens, for adults, or for whoever wants to participate? Just in the library or all around town... lots of options! Maybe have the list of items on a bookmark or the website for those who want to participate and don't have a smart phone.

App mentioned by YALSA: http://scavengerhuntwithfriends.com/

(also fun for staff aka "trial run")