By Marcia Sarnowski
It’s a pleasure to report that several of the librarians providing youth services in WRLS are making important contributions to services and programs.
Sara Bryce, Youth Services Librarian at the La Crosse Public Library, has been chosen to attend the NASA-supported workshop, Explore: Life on Mars?, April 3-4, 2012 at the University of Wisconsin Geology Museum in Madison, WI. The Explore program is designed to help librarians bring earth and space science to their communities through fun and engaging hands-on activities.
Rachel Cornelius, Assistant Director and Young Adult Librarian at the Sparta Free Library, has been named to the Best Fiction for Young Adults 2013 Committee of YALSA, a division of the American Library Association. Rachel invites field nominations for outstanding teen fiction published this year. You can use this form to submit titles for consideration: http://yalsa.ala.org/forms/bfya.
Jody Hanneman, director of the Ettrick Public Library and Youth Services Librarian for the Black River Falls Public Library, is one of two representatives of the Winding Rivers Library System on the Wisconsin Public Library Consortium (WPLC) Selection Committee. The other WRLS representative is Mary Dunn, Readers Advisory Librarian at the La Crosse Public Library.
Arin Wilken, director of the Mondovi Public Library, was recently appointed to a term on the Children’s Book Award Committee of the Wisconsin Library Association. The Committee provides additions to the list of Notable Wisconsin Authors/Illustrators and the biographical information which accompanies them; selects the recipient of the Elizabeth Burr/Worzalla Award; constructs an annual list of publications for children and young adults created by Wisconsin authors and illustrators which were published during the previous year, and annually selects a maximum of ten books to receive Outstanding Achievement recognition.
Early Literacy Training using board books
The UW-Madison School of Library and Information Studies Continuing Education Services recently offered a free webinar called Board Books in Libraries: Helping Librarians and Caregivers Develop Emergent Readers, presented by Dr. Allison Kaplan of the UW Faculty. Here is the description:
“This discussion will present information on emergent literacy and the use of board books in early literacy programs. Information from current research on literacy and brain development as well as information from Every Child Ready to Read (Association for Library Service to Children, 2011) will also be provided. After participating in this webinar, viewers will gain an understanding of developing programs for children from birth to age 4.”
Here is a link to the archived presentation: http://bit.ly/zyNcdP
You may share this convenient desktop training with library staff and volunteers who are involved with providing early literacy programs for parents (and caregivers) and young children. There are some wonderful tips for using board books to start babies and toddlers on the way to enjoying books and becoming readers when they are ready.
This is a list of the books Dr. Kaplan mentioned in the webinar. Consider adding these to your programming and circulating collections.
Board books presented at the February 23, 2012 webinar Board Books in Libraries:
American Babies (2010). Watertown, MA: Charlesbridge.
Braun, Sebastien. (2012). Peekaboo Baby. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press.
Curious George My First Book of Color (2011). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Hoban, Tana. (1994). Who Are They? New York, NY: Greenwillow Books.
Kunhardt, Dorothy. (1968 [first edition]). Pat the Bunny. New York, NY: Random House.
My Face Book. (2011). New York, NY: Star Bright Books.
Siminovich, Lorena. (2010). I Like Fruit. Somerville, MA: Templar Books.
Note: Star Bright has a series of really nice board books in a wide array of languages. It is a small press so you might not find their books in the regular book jobbers inventory. Candlewick (including Templar books imprint) and Charlesbridge are providing a lot of good quality board books. Enjoy!