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This conversation about practical ways to incorporate meaningful play was full of great information. The facilitators talked about play with every age level from preschool to teen. Then, they gave realistic ways to play on a budget and with low staff involvement.

Next, we were released into our small groups to discuss how we play in our library and how we could incorporate even more play into our programming. My group was full of ideas such as a lock-in based on different books and after-hours program for middle schoolers. The best statement that I heard at my table was, “Think outside of the Monopoly box.” How are you playing at your library? Are you including all ages?

The guerrilla storytime converstation by Storytime Underground was absolutely filled with practical tips, ideas, and solutions that you can take home and implement right now. The feeling of camaraderie and identification was also wonderful as participants told their tales of storytime successes and disasters. I’m going home with new ideas about how to more gracefully and successfully enforce storytime rules, some fabulous new content, and great ideas for adding more narrative skill building to my storytmes. This session has definitely left me inspired and ready to try some new things.

What is something that you are currently passionate about in library services? Can you tell me about it in 5 minutes? Welcome to spark talks.

Spark talks were born out of a necessity for new ideas to come out in a timely fashion. Conference proposals are often sent in over a year in advance, and we all know that so much can happen in a year! While there are similar programs such as IGNITE or PechaKucha, the only rule for Spark talks is that it must be 5 minutes. Any longer and an air horn will literally go off. You must learn to be succinct in your lecture, argument, or information you are telling.

I was fortunate enough to attend both sessions. I learned about things such as serving military families, library drama from this past year, and why you should be doing your own in-house trainings (Guerrilla Training). In total, there were 16 sessions. The sessions were funny, heart wrenching, loud, and amazing! Hopefully this is a program that we see occurring more at conferences nationwide. Or, as one fabulous librarian suggested, maybe we should make a conference where every presentation is 5 minutes.

This was a fun session put on by a group of librarians from the Chicago area who work with children and teens.  Their aim is to use technology to help patrons develop their creativity, collaboration, communication and critical thinking skills.  I attended this program with the hope of learning some cheap, easy, and fun tools to start some more tech-focused youth programming.  Success!

They discussed stop motion animation, pencil animation and a 90 second Newbery program.  Robotics  were discussed through the use of an artbot – a very cool drawing robot using a Solo cup and the motor from an electric toothbrush; WeDo, which is the most open-ended Lego robotic set; and of course Lego Mindstorms.  They finished out with an “Art meets Tech” program using light painting which seems so simple even I can do it!  So help your kids and teens build their digital literacy and STEAM skills with some of these fun ideas.  The presenters were kind enough to make their materials available online via the PLA website.

Erin Silva | Youth Services Librarian | Kalona Public Library

One of the sessions that I most looked forward to at #pla2014 was Wee Be Jammin: Using Music to Promote Early Literacy in the Library.  I am a big music person when it comes to story time.  My undergrad degree is in music and I have used it to develop music-based programs at the library.  This group of Chicago-area presenters had stuff that I have not heard of before and I really learned a lot.  From adding hand motions to “Hickory Dickory Dock” to singing a clean up song for getting your scarves back in the bag, I was furiously scribbling notes and singing along.  What was even more fantastic was that the music and developmental theory was given for each story time age group.

In case you missed this session as it was full, the handouts are on the PLA conference web site.  In addition, the presenters have even more sample programs and handouts online at http://bit.ly/1dR0f8x.  I highly encourage you to check them out or even bring them to your local library conferences.

Lisa Mulvenna
Head of Youth Services
Clinton-Macomb Public Library

Tinker is a group of librarians in the Chicagoland area who, after learning that they were all experimenting with open-ended tech play programs at their libraries, formed a network with meetups to share their experiences. Six Tinker members were at PLA to share some examples of their successful programs for tinkering with technology with kids and teens.

All of these programs, in three categories, are available in detail on their handouts:

1. Animation and Film Making
   1. Stop-motion animation
   2. Pencil animation
   3. 90 Second Newbery
2. Robotics
   1. Artbots
   2. WeDo
   3. Mindstorms
3. Art Meets Tech
   1. Light Painting

Conference highlight so far: hearing Rainbow Rowell speak and getting the chance to tell her that she’s the absolute best. It was even worth waking up at 6am!

One of the fun parts about attending national conferences is the parties.  I had the exciting opportunity to have a party at my library last night.  The AWE Early Learning computer folks decided to use the beautiful historic Indiana State Library to have a fun and lively reception for #pla2014 attendees.  The evening included wine and champagne, fruit, and lots of sweet treats (including cream puffs with chocolate frosting.  Yes.  I had two.) and popular tours of our 1934 art nouveau building.

Unfortunately, I was too busy hobnobbing with Sammy, my interviewing Toucan puppet, to take any pictures of the place when it was full of people, but you can still get an idea of the general grandeur.  It was a great time and I was so happy to welcome PLA attendees to the Indiana State Library.

There was a lot going on at the Evanced party at the lovely Indianapolis ArtsGarden. Author/illustrator Kathryn Otoshi spoke beautifully about bullying and read her picture book “One.”

Young Actors Theater

The Young Actors Theater did a readers theater production of her book “Zero” and also performed their own piece. Demos of the Evanced beta product “Wandoo Planet” proved interesting. Kids build a virtual tree by identifying their main interests and then receive content suggestions. Evanced announced that they gave $5,000 to the Young Actors Theater. Yay!

I dream of the day when every public library is my public library.

-Brian Charlson

This Public Library Association 2014 Conference offers a particularly impressive selection of programs about various aspects of serving traditionally underserved users.  And boy–is there a lot to learn.  Before this afternoon, I hadn’t heard about Refreshable Braille Displays.  According to Brian Charlson, Director of Technology at the Carroll Center for the Blind, they are actually the most popular devices for K-12 students who are blind or have low vision.  Refreshable Braille Displays are electronic devices that allow users to read text that is typically displayed visually on a computer monitor.  The devices themselves do not have any screens, but are connected to computers by a USB cord.  Showing 18 characters at a time, Refreshable Braille Displays convert visual text into tactual text and produces Braille output for the reader.

A question that was asked during this program–how do we as librarians provide access to reading material to patrons who are blind or have low vision?  Brian went on to explain that three things are required:

1. Your users need to know that the technology exists.
2. Your users need to be able to afford the technology.
3. Your users need to know how to use the technology.

This is where our role as librarians is crucial.  Even our youngest patrons who are blind or have low vision rely on libraries to provide information, access, and training.  And while consumer products like Kindles and Nooks are not required to comply with ADA Standards, public libraries are, indeed, required.  So, if you circulates e-reader devices in your Children’s Department or elsewhere in your library, here are a few questions to ask yourself:

• Do these devices have text to speech capabilities?
• Can the user change the font size and the font type?
• Is there functionality to change contrast settings?
• Can the user have individual words spelled out?
• Can users change the background and foreground colors and set transparency to make the interface easier to read?

One last takeaway.  No two people–whether they are blind or sighted–are alike.  Every user has their own set of needs, and we as librarians can/should do what we can to help.

How many of your administrators ask for solid data for your early literacy programs? Many supervisors need numbers for budget reasons or justification for staff members. While most youth services librarians can agree that ECRR2 has changed our programming for the better, there has been little research proving this. Luckily, this is beginning to change.

How do you measure the impact early literacy programs have on children? The University of Washington Information School received an Institute for Museum and Library Services National Leadership Research Grant to measure early literacy outcomes for children from birth to entering kindergarten who attend public library storytimes. The results have been amazing!

After observing more than 240 storytimes, the research has been compiled and examined. The research has proven that early literacy storytimes are making a difference. Children are responding to what the librarian is doing and responding to the content that is being provided.

I am excited to see the full results and practices that were used in this research. I believe this research is a stepping stone to bringing early literacy to the forefront of youth services. To stay updated on this research check out Facebook.com/views2

Does your library focus its attention on specific programs and readers’ advisory strategies for tweens? This afternoon’s program, presented by Abby Johnson and Renata Sancken with additional preparation by Sarah Bean Thompson and Kate Conklin, addressed these issues in a very practical and easily understandable way.

Today’s panelists defined tweens as 4th-6th graders, although some schools of thought push the age range even younger. The trouble with this group is that although they are not yet teenagers, they feel that they are too old for many traditional children’s programs and wish not to be associated with younger kids.

How can we best meet tweens’ needs? Try creating book lists or training other staff members in readers’ advisory for this age group. Many great middle grade novels have been published in the last year that meet this criteria, including Holly Black’s Doll Bones and Tim Federle’s Better Nate Than Ever, just to name a few. Also, target specific programs just to this demographic. Talk to your tweens and find out what they want; are they looking for an outlet to discuss their favorite TV show or a fun craft to make? The more you create an environment tailored to their wants and needs, the more empowered they will feel.

What are some of your best practices for reaching tweens in your library?

Gretchen Kaser
Youth Services Librarian
Lee Memorial Library

Combine Saroj Ghoting, the wonderful early literacy expert and Cen Campbell, the fearless new media user, and you get some terrific ideas about how to use e-books and apps in storytimes. Their focus was not to argue if, when and how much when it comes to app use in storytimes, but to accept the reality–families are using and will continue to use media with kids. If we don’t wade in and position ourselves as the experts, we leave the playing field open for Disney, Nickelodeon, Fisher-Price, etc. Go to littleelit.com for app lists, discussions, training ideas, programming tips, etc. by wise librarians from all over the place.

I took a break from the traditional youth sessions this afternoon and took in “Making a Collection Count” from the collections track.  This presentation was put on by two rock star Michigan librarians-Holly Hibner & Mary Kelly.  They are also co-authors of Awfullibrarybooks.net and Making a Collection Count: A Holistic Approach to Library Collection Management.

As a manager and a librarian who participates in collection development, this presentation was extremely interesting for me.  The full slideshow is up on the Awful Library Books web site if you are interested.  My big takeaways from this session were:

• Document each step of your collection workflow.  Collection development isn’t just buying books.
• A collection development policy is important.  In addition to containing general selection criteria, it is important that you include resource sharing, maintenance, and weeding.
• We collect data so we can evaluate our collection through statistics.
• Physical inventories are necessary.  You don’t need to do the whole collection at once-start with your Fiction “A” section or your most expensive collection.  Make it workable for you (or your volunteers).  You will be able to catch inaccurate call numbers, mislabeled items, and items marked missing.  This shows that you are paying attention to both your customers and your collection.
• When you have pulled your collection statistics, you can see the collection use, collection age, and collection turnover.
• Once everything else is in place, develop collection benchmarks.  They don’t need to be set in stone.  Benchmarks can measure circulation over the first 6 months, 1 year, or 5 years and they may all be different.

I am excited to get back to my own collection now!

Lisa Mulvenna
Head of Youth Services
Clinton-Macomb Public Library

Saroj Ghoting and Cen Campbell presented about the use of technology in early literacy programming, with a lot of takeaways that we should probably all be trying to apply at our libraries. Both Saroj and Cen emphasize that technology must not just be interactive, but reactive. The app has to support relationship building between caregiver and child.

I find myself especially motivated by their call to be media mentors to families in our communities. If we don’t, there are many large corporations that are happy to do it instead, and often without a child’s health and development at heart. We live in a hybrid publishing world, and our programs as well as readers advisory should reflect that media environment.

I very much appreciated Cen’s advice to start where you are. It can be very intimidating, but learning along with your community is a perfectly fine place to start.

Photo by Amy Koester, one of the contributors to the collapsed tower on the left.

This morning I attended the Makerbox: No Space Required program. The panel of presenters put together an outstanding handout of what is in their various Makerboxes–on topics like music, electronics and circuitry, engineering, 3D creating, and crafting–and I hope they’ll share it online. The handout wasn’t my greatest takeaway, however. My greatest takeaway was inspired by the failed marshmallow tower my team of fellow volunteers built.

The takeaway: time for open ended activities is integral for the maker mentality. There needs to be time for trial and error, for learning to use the materials, for adapting methods. With a few simple materials and a chunk of time, an engaging maker program is accessible for every library.

In case you missed it, this session was the place to be this morning.  500 librarians filled the room to learn all about creating a maker space without a dedicated space.  The trick is to make boxes containing all of your supplies and trade between libraries!

The session started off with a competitive marshmallow challenge between 2 teams.  This a great activity for both kids an teens.  The four speakers then discussed how they got a grant to put their Maker Boxes together and programs that spawned from them.

While my library can’t do something on this scale, I am really intrigued with the concept of smaller Maker Boxes for our community to use, especially our local teachers.

Lisa Mulvenna
Head of Youth Services
Clinton-Macomb Public Library

Perhaps the best event I’ve stumbled across so far at PLA 2014 has been AAP’s Young Adult Crossover Panel. Since this event was sponsored by the Association of American Publishers and Booklist, as opposed to PLA, I was not aware of it until seeing it mentioned in an email. I’m so glad I went! Where else could I see Laurie Halse Anderson, Jason Reynolds, Eliot Schrefer, and Gene Luen Yang talk about, literally, anything they wanted?

Although the four are all technically YA writers, much of what they spoke about was highly applicable to children’s services as well. Mr. Yang gave us a fascinating breakdown of the portrayals of Asians and Asian-Americans in comics and graphic novels throughout history, reminding everyone how important it is to promote inclusion across different cultures. Mr. Reynolds brought up a great point when he stated that he writes to give his readers – children and teens – a voice.

This is one of the things I love most about this profession; youth services departments in public libraries provide a forum for children of all cultures and socioeconomic statuses to have their voices heard and learn from our many, many resources. This panel definitely succeeded in reinvigorating my passion for the field!

Gretchen Kaser
Youth Services Librarian
Lee Memorial Library

One of the neat things about conferences are the connections that you can make.  When setting up my PLA schedule, I looked for the extras beyond the traditional sessions.  This morning I took part in a breakfast by Rosen Publishing.  Despite the early hour (7 is early for me), I sat down with other librarians and we got to discuss issues concerning the profession.  Rosen started us off with the question “What keeps you up at night?”  For me, it is finding a good programming balance for our department.  How many is too many programs?  Is there a minimum requirement?  How do you deal with burnout and get refreshed since it is different for every staff member?  I got to talk with other librarians and get feedback on my thoughts, while addressing their issues too.  If you have a chance, I highly recommend taking advantage of the opportunities available to connect with your peers.

Lisa Mulvenna
Head of Youth Services
Clinton-Macomb Public Library

In the opening session of the 2014 PLA conference, Bryan Stevenson shared amazing personal stories and advice. By the end of the talk, I believe every person in the room felt a connection with Bryan and his amazing life story.

One of the ideas that really stuck with me was: Choose to do the uncomfortable. It is when we push for things that opportunities arise. It is exhausting to do uncomfortable things, but we must remember to be brave.

So what makes you uncomfortable? Go find it and make a difference.

Today’s opening session of the 2014 PLA Conference featured Bryan Stevenson, a lawyer and the Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative. He is a fascinating man on paper and the web, but hearing him speak about how public libraries can work to confront and correct injustice was truly inspiring.

Stevenson shared four suggestions for how public libraries can make our services to the marginalized more effective:

1. Think about proximity. Make sure the library and all it offers is accessible to those who need it most.
2. Don’t just accept the narrative; change it. We all know the status quo because we’re living it, but the status quo can be changed. And that starts with changing the narrative about what’s realistic and what’s needed for services and access.
3. Commit to being hopeful. That doesn’t mean being blindly optimistic; it means we need to be willing to go to places where hopelessness prevails and be a witness and advocate.
4. Commit to doing things that are uncomfortable. Confronting injustice, inequality–it’s uncomfortable. But if anything is to change, if we are going to reach communities who so far see no value in the library, or see the library as a place they are not welcome, we need to commit to doing things for these communities that may feel uncomfortable at first simply because they are new and different.

Stevenson ended his session by sharing a story about a conversation he had with Rosa Parks. Parks had asked him what he does, what his mission is. He listed a litany of things he’s doing and things he wants to accomplish, and Parks responded by saying, “That’s going to make you tired, tired, tired.”

And their mutual friend followed Parks’s statement with, “And that’s why you’re going to need to be brave, brave, brave.”

All things that librarians of every ilk need to hear and act on.

I am one of those people who have great fun checking out libraries when I am out and about.  When my group had a couple of free hours this morning, we headed over to the Indianapolis Public Library’s Central Library.  If you are ever in downtown Indy, definitely check it out.  The children’s area is called The Learning Curve and has a big technology focus. From QR code scavenger hunts to staff with lab coats, it is definitely neat!  My favorite part about the area was the story time area with the giant green screen.  People have the opportunity to do actions in front of the screen and either see themselves driving a race car or doing the weather report.  I asked staff how they use it with story time and they said that they do their regular story time, then give the kids time at the end to interact with the green screen.

Lisa Mulvenna
Head of Youth Services
Clinton-Macomb Public Library

At the Indianapolis Children’s Museum–the world’s biggest and best! for a Family Place Symposium on families and health. Not an official PLA event, but very exciting to be in this amazing space, learning about this terrific program. We are not a Family Place Museum yet, but I am certainly going to make it a goal!

Shelley Sutherland

KidSpace Supervisor

Niles Public Library, IL

Sure, you can use your five fingers to remind yourself about ECRR2 but it’s going to be a snowy PLA, so if your mittens are hiding those fingers, just remember to TALK!  The preconference sessions panel gave us a mini-session on presenting ECRR2 and then moved on to their successes (and roadblocks) to bringing it to their communities.  I’m always on the hunt for new tips to share with parents, so here’s a few I’m taking with me:

*Every time you read a wordless book with your child, it’s a different experience.  Tired of reading the same books over and over? Wordless books can be a sanity saver!

*Children learn 9 new words each day

*Lullabies get a lot of mileage in a child’s life.  The song that is part of a bedtime routine for a toddler helps calm a sick 4 year old or ease an anxious 8 year old.

*Librarians have the opportunity to be media mentors for families.  (“Media mentor” is a new phrase for me, but it’s one I can see using frequently)

…and the afternoon session is starting!