And now for something completely different

With apologies to Monty Python - yesterday I did something completely different which was a lapsit storytime. There were 6 moms there and about a dozen children all under two. I hope the mom's and kids had half as much fun as I did! Three weeks ago, I met with the children's librarian at the Miramar Marine Corps Base Library and volunteered to do this...and immediately began wondering what I done! OK, I know kids and I know books and I have done a few storytimes in my time....for older kids - "but what will I do with the baby-o?" (Quoting the title from one of the resources I used to prepare for this event.)

Well, I did what I have been trained to do - I went to the library and checked out a big stack of resources and possible books to read to this age group. And then I read. I learned about child development, early literacy skills, the difference between prewalkers and walkers...and pretalkers and talkers. I smiled over pages of rhymes, fingerplays and songs. I poured over lists of suggested books and sorted through hundreds of pages of text as well as dozens of websites to help answer questions about the ideal length of a lapsit story time (around 20 minutes), whether it is better to have a theme or no theme and other pressing issues.

Finally, I made my final choices...I decided on a theme: "All About Me" and chose 4 songs (all short) three fingerplays and four books. (Ten Little Fingers by Annie Kubler, illustrator; Here Are My Hands by Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault; Whose Knees Are These? by Jabardi Asim and Whose Nose and Toes? by John Butler) The theme was all about baby and baby's body. I encouraged (and for the most part got) participation and everyone left, 25 minutes later, happy. The program was...about 5 - 10 minutes too long.

I will do another of these programs in two weeks - the theme? All About Me - Dressed for Halloween. I have a few Halloween books that I am thinking about using - mostly about dressing up and going trick-or-treating. If anyone out there has suggestions for the perfect lapsit read aloud or rhyme/fingerplay please let me hear it. I'll trade - here is a great early literacy web resource: http://www.hclib.org./Birthto6/EarlyLit_Choosing.cfm. I especially enjoyed seeing the videos of the fingerplays.

It has been very discouraging having this shiny new MLIS degree and not having a job. This was a great reminder of why I went to school and why I enjoy working in public libraries. Let's hope I get the chance to do this on a regular basis soon.

Phones...not just for making calls anymore

So, here is my first "official" blog entry for class. The assignment: blog about anything related to technology. Where to start? Just for fun I asked my kids what their favorite technology is...I got blank stares from one...a raft of questions from another, "what do you mean? Can I say a teleportation device? Do you mean computers??" and from my youngest (the smart-aleck) "I would have to say it's a toss-up between the wheel and fire." All three are "digital natives" having grown up surrounded by computers and have never known the pain of DOS commands or the world before the Internet. (Yes, it really did exist).

In the past two years of library school, I have been exposed to more technology than I ever thought possible...I have several blogs...I built a website...I can use words like "user experience" as well as bandwidth and processing speed with ease. I have over 100 friends on Facebook and have even built a Facebook page for my library branch to allow us to communicate with patrons that way.

And I have an Android phone. While I do use it to make calls, I also use it to go mobile with everything I can do on my computer. What freedom! What power! What efficiency. Questions can be answered instantly from anywhere, issues are easier to resolve and it has never been easier to communicate. Watching the news and wonder where some international location is? I can pull out the phone and check the Internet for the answers. Library accounts, the catalog and databases are all available 24/7 to anyone with a phone that can access the internet - reference services, too. According to the Pew Internet Project studies - more and more people are "going mobile" and they are doing it at younger and younger ages. Increasingly teens are using Internet search engines for information...but they don't have the experience and knowledge to effectively evaluate, organize and use the information that they receive. Libraries need to combine the convenience of the Internet with training in information literacy. Libraries have always provided meaningful access to library materials - we need to embrace mobile technologies and social networking to continue to reach members of our communities and provide services where and when they need them. For an increasing number of teens - that is out in the ether...

There is always more to learn

More than twenty years after I donned cap and gown to receive a bachelor's degree at UCLA I returned to the 'scene of the crime' for a master's degree. In the intervening years many things have changed, yet at the UCLA campus many things were eerily the same. My first week of classes I was sitting on the edge of the inverted fountain waiting for the class - looking around not much has changed physically in this spot on campus. As I looked closer, though, almost every student passing by was either talking on a cell phone or wearing a pair of earbuds. These were not common student accessories when I was an undergraduate. We did, however, wear the same overloaded backpacks! On June 12, 2010 I was in cap and gown again, this time to receive my MLIS from UCLA. One might think that would be enough...however, here I am, one month later, taking an on-line class in library services and kids. I will be participating in ALSC's pilot course 21 Things for 21st Century KidLibs. Lifelong learning? Yep, I got that. #alsc21things