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Young library patrons enjoy some tea with Bobette.

 As youth librarians, we understand the connection between children’s participation in imaginative play and early literacy.  Room for this play, however, is difficult to find in smaller library locations where space and storage must compete for shelving, computers, and seating arrangements.  At our Hope Mills Branch of the Cumberland County Public Library & Information Center in North Carolina, we don’t have the room in our community facility to house bunches of toys in our collection. Fortunately, our system has devised some creative ways, beyond our traditional story times, to encourage children to play and explore.  Both programming and partnerships allow room to foster imaginative play without the need for more physical space.

One of these interactive programs, Preschool Performers, combined dramatic arts and music to develop children’s connection to storytelling.  Our young participants acted out scenes from traditional folktales or original short stories. Children also participated in familiar nursery rhymes with accompanying actions, singing and dancing to selections on CD.  Attendees manipulated puppets from our professional collection and played an active role in sharing flannel and magnet board stories.  Our costumes consisted of minimal supplies; we relied heavily on construction paper masks and paper bag puppets.  Our groups practiced once a week for almost a month. An audience of the participants’ families and friends attended a grand performance the evening of their final practice. Children and their families were able to see their names in print as our Community Relations Department created a program for the show.

Our library system adapted this series from programming spearheaded by Madison Public Library in Wisconsin.  We presented this program at our Headquarters Library on our stage in our large activity room, but it could easily be set in a conference or story time room at smaller branch locations.  The North Carolina Public Library Director’s Association awarded this series the best children’s program from a large library system in our state that year.  This programming provided a forum for children to experience the dramatic arts in a relaxed environment.

Our Hope Mills Branch also focuses on play with one of our current programs starring our wildly popular puppet Bobette. Bobette is identical to our story time mascot monkey Bobo; parents reserve her for a few days or a week, allowing their children opportunities to play with Bobette at home. This program allows children to relieve the story time experience as they pretend.

Families involved with this program describe the creative ways their children play through a journal Bobette brings with her to their home.  Children delight in celebrating the monkey’s attendance at birthday parties and special events; they also play the role of caregiver for their new friend, combing Bobette’s fur and brushing her teeth.  A parent recalled her child’s special recollections with Bobette. “We ate breakfast together.  We read a lot of books, and we had a movie night. Bobette is the happiest monkey I ever met, and she always makes me smile.” (Bobette’s favorite food is plastic apples.)  This program encourages play at home with little staff involvement.

These programs celebrate exploration and imagination, but our library also brings in toys to our branches during special library programs due to our relationship with the Partnership for Children of Cumberland County’s Resource Lending Library. Youth librarians, early childhood educators, and

Children's Programs at Hope Mills Branch Library

Do you believe your children’s department is isolated from the rest of your system’s library team, or have you found the support you need from other departments and volunteers? Teamwork is as essential to the success of youth services as is a love of children.

Partial cross-training remains critical to the survival of youth services at smaller branches and library systems. At our Hope Mills Branch Library, a community branch of the Cumberland County Public Library and Information Center in North Carolina, children’s staffers are supported by other departments. Our children’s staffers lead our programs, but employees in Circulation and Information Services play an instrumental role in serving our youngest library patrons. As space and staff are at a premium, all library employees at our Hope Mills Branch are directly involved with ensuring that children’s programs remain a success.

Behind the Scenes

Page staffers assist with the inventory of our story time collections. Employees organize and create programming materials to be used during our special book-based events. These projects determine our programming effectiveness but are often overlooked by the customers participating in the experience. Volunteers also provide assistance with story time preparation and aid youth services staffers juggling the demands of reference work, collection development and outreach visits.

It’s Show Time

While trained youth services staffers present the actual programs, we seek assistance from other departments in keeping statistics during special events. This support frees our staffers’ time to focus on the quality of the actual presentation and to ensure we get those customers straggling in the Activity Room in our final count.

Extend an Invitation

The most effective way we promote our programming is through our word-of-mouth marketing campaign. Staffers in all departments receive a brief training on various services provided by our library system, and we maintain records on the number of times we promote these programs to our customers. When all staffers market our resources directly to our patrons, they personally invite parents to bring their sons and daughters to our story times. Our attendance has skyrocketed.

These examples of programming assistance demonstrate that a team of dedicated staff is necessary for children’s programming to thrive. This teamwork also positively impacts our other departments.  Our youth services librarians and associates staff our general Information Services Desk and provide one-on-one instruction to adult customers through Book-a-Librarian sessions. What ways does your library cross-train staff to maximize the programs available for your children and their families?

As an intern years ago, I was thrilled to volunteer as a costumed character for a special children’s library program.  This particular animal will remain nameless, but I knew I was capable of being the star of the show.  After all, I already had years of story time experience in person under my belt.  Wouldn’t it be easier to essentially “hide” from view and boogie like the best of them?  Well, it turns out (no surprise here) that it wasn’t as easy as I thought to maneuver around in a giant costume, with limited vision, restricted mobility, and the sheer panic that an overjoyed youngster was going to pull my head off!  Though I struggled through that experience, the children were thrilled; hugging and screaming as if they had met their long-lost best friend.  With only a couple of these required programs on my part (and the second character didn’t make it any easier,) my dip into the world of costumed characters was fleeting.  It was evident, however, how much these young patrons (not to mention their parents and teachers) enjoyed these meet-and-greets with these fuzzy, furry characters.  It was also evident that my skills were best put to use reading the books than dancing in costume, so how could I learn how to incorporate costumed characters in my programming?

Fast track to my professional library career, and my library system had already been utilizing costumed characters with positive results for years.  Our Cumberland County Public Library & Information Center rents storybook characters each year (frequently during our large Summer Reading Club programs,) and these book-based, character-driven story times prove extremely popular. Costume Specialists provide a variety of choices (http://www.costumespecialists.com/)if you’re interested in booking a character.  In addition to these branch events, our library touts a recognizable feline mascot with mass appeal throughout the year. With furry, spotted paws and an oversized t-shirt to promote library initiatives, our costumed mascot CC Leopard greets adoring young fans everywhere he or she goes.  CC makes appearances at community festivals serving thousands to drop-in appearances at weekly scheduled story times.  CC is also a staple of our Summer Reading Club promotional visits during school-wide assemblies.

You may be in a library branch with a larger youth services department, with willing and able staff interested in donning the suit so those less inclined can lead story time or focus on library promotion.  If your youth services department is limited in personnel, however, and you find that costumed characters may not be the best fit for you personally, consider the positive impact teamwork can play.  At my community branch, like many of your libraries, our departments thrive due to a significant amount of cross-training; Circulation staffers provide crowd control and count attendance during children’s story times.  Work with other departments to find a staffer to wear your library’s suit; it could very well be that your best costumed character is a staffer in Circulation or your Information Services Librarian.  Volunteers can also be a natural fit with the right coach to guide them in their theatrics. 

CC Leopard has become our cat’s meow, and teamwork is all tha

More recognizable than any celebrity to our preschool and younger set, Bobo the Monkey serves as our wildly popular story time puppet mascot. He leads our opening and closing songs and greets the hundreds of program participants in attendance at our busy Hope Mills Branch of the Cumberland County Public Library & Information Center in North Carolina.

For many of these kids, Bobo is the essence of story time. Our Youth Services Library Associate II Sarah Edwards, always thinking of innovative ways to extend the resources available at our high- circulating but smaller community location, decided to revise an idea she learned about at a conference. Our branch’s youth services supervisor Vicki Sheeler worked with Sarah to develop the procedures on just how to continue the library experience right into children’s homes with a special visit from a beloved story time participant. Meet Bobette, Bobo’s long-lost twin sister.

An identical puppet to Bobo (except for the addition of a flowered ankle bracelet she wears), our children can sign out Bobette to take home for a few days. When parents schedule a visit with Bobette, they borrow Bobette and a donated copy of I Must Have Bobo! by Eileen Rosenthal to read; participants are encouraged to autograph the book’s pages. Bobette’s accessories (hairbrush included) as well as a journal accompany the child home and allow the youngster and caregiver to work together to describe the details of Bobette’s visit.

Prep time is minimal. Statistics are maintained by staff and participation by patrons is voluntary (though this monkey has proved as popular as her sibling). There’s no punitive consequence if Bobette suffers a slight mishap during her travels (say an unfortunate run-in with markers), though lighthearted but serious care instructions encourage families to treat Bobette carefully. “Bobette likes to be read to, to have her picture made with you, to be brushed, sung to, and rocked. Bobette does NOT like water, especially bathtubs, pools and oceans, your live pets (unless you are holding Bobette safely in your arms), or to be fed real food. It is OK to feed her pretend food at your tea party or picnic!”

Photos in Bobette’s journal highlight her adventures, from her attendance at a soccer game, to an afternoon at the movies, and even to a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese! These journal photos provided by families are optional, but they foster a shared experience among our participants. Bobette also serves as a natural conversation starter for families about our library programming when parents and kids talk about Bobette’s visit with their friends and neighbors.

Bobette extends the story time experience beyond the walls of our library for our youngest patrons. What story time mascots are a smash hit in your community? I look forward to learning the creative ways you enhance your programming experience for your library’s children!