Best Practice Portfolio

LIS 723: Services to Children and Young Adults

Jenna Nemec-Loise, Instructor
Evan Mather
May 6, 2015

Table of Contents
Self-Assessment

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Childrens Library and Teen Central, Boston Public Library

Summer Volunteer Squads, Arlington Heights Memorial Library

Stargazer Nights, Skokie Public Library

Sensory Story Times, Seattle Public Library

Book Clubs, John Hersey High School

Healing Kits, Ferguson Public Library

Statement of Professional Service Philosophy

Self-Assessment
I have been lucky to work in libraries for nearly a decade, and Ive been working with
youth & teens for my entire adult life. (Longer, even.) From the age of 13, I worked as
a teachers aide for supplementary religious and Hebrew school and my synagogue. At
18 I moved up to teacher, and stayed in that position for around 6 years. My library
career began as a circulation clerk for Cook Memorial Library District in 2005. After 3
years, I moved to a full-time position as Library Assistant at Grayslake Central High
School, where I stayed for another 3 years. I had a brief 2 month stint in a Youth
Services department that was a bad experience (because of the library, which will go
unprinted, not the fact that it was Youth Services), after which I was out of the
working-with-kids-game for a while, working Adult Services at White Oak Library
District for almost 2 years. About 18 months ago I was lucky enough to get a part-time
job in teen services at Arlington Heights Memorial Library, as well as a substitute
position in both Adult and Youth Services at Glenside Public Library.
Over the past year and a half, Ive worked with a team to provide library services for
ages 12-18, including designing programs and unprograms and providing outreach to
area schools, including database and research presentations and book talks. We have
been fortunate to be able to provide significant resources for STEAM and Maker-like
programs, including computer coding, digital video & music production, Arduino, and
3-D Printers. I feel like Ive significantly cultivated experience with teens, and am
excited to share what Ive learned with my peers. Still, I am even more excited to
refine that knowledge with what I learn in class during the related sessions and
assignments, and to better learn how those programs fit within the broader umbrella
of youth services.
This is all to say that I have extensive experience working with teens, some
experience working with middle-graders, and little experience working with children
below 8 or so, especially within a library setting. I have an imbalance of experience
and skills, and am hoping that this course will help me round those skills out and work
out muscles I havent much used. While I think my career will focus more on
working with teens, having a skillset to work with the entire spectrum of youth
services will help me in both the big-picture (advocating for a broad youth services
model, possibly managing a youth services department) as well as the small (helping
out at a story time, partnering for multi-age programming).
My main goals for this class are to gain more experience designing and delivering
programs for younger children; to better understand the long-range planning that
goes into building youth services programs and agendas in the public library setting;
to better partner with community members outside of the library; and advocate to
them for library services to children. To that end, I am looking forward to many of the
assignments and projects coming up. The sessions earlier in the semester, like Early
Learning & Kindergarten Readiness, learning about the importance of play spaces, and
designing an Early Learning Program, seem like they will especially fill in the gaps of

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working with younger children. Im also really excited to design a Summer Learning
Program from the ground up with a specific community in mind. It will be a great
combination of combining advocacy, big-picture design, and actual on-the-ground
implementation. The programs later in the semester (Diversity & Access,
Collaborations & Partnerships) will round out the experience, and give great bigpicture perspective to how youth services can serve its entire community.
Im fired up and excited to see what the semester holds.

Childrens Library and Teen Central

Boston Public Library
https://www.bpl.org/kids/kids-at-bpl/childrens-room-copley/
Renovations on the second floor of Bostons Central Library included new improved
areas for youth in ages birth through 8th grade in the Childrens Library and for
teens in high school in Teen Central. The Childrens Library includes low-level
shelving including an interactive tunnel and light-up lion cubs, echoing classic lions
in past library architectural designs. There are also several separate play areas,
including a large sensory wall, an open storytime space with seating for both
children and caregivers. Decor echoes Boston landmarks and literary characters,
from brownstones and the Commons to Make Way for Ducklings and Curious George.
There is also a tween-specific area for middle-school aged children and older, with
collaborative table space, comfortable lounge seating, and computer banks. Teen
Central includes shelves of teen materials, as well as comfortable seating at both a
living room style and restaurant booth type set ups. Decor includes a stylized MBTA
map, old defunct typewriters, and Boston street signs. The area also includes a
closed off lounge with several mobile screens for watching movies or playing games,
as well as a MakerSpace lab equipped with a 3D printer and digital editing
equipment.

These new renovated spaces foster engagement and informal learning that is
developmentally appropriate to the users for which they are intended. The large
sensory play wall is excellent for younger children, stimulating babies to
preschoolers in enough myriad ways to demand repeat visits. Providing recognizable
landmarks and echoes of the city within the decor grants the library a specificity of
place, as well as helping children recognize symbols and representations of real
things, a key developmental skill. Incorporating play space with the book stacks, like
done with the tunnels and lions, encourages exploration, and incorporates reading
with play, without a clear delineation between the two that more separated areas
would suggest. Similarly, the arrangement of Teen Central encourages teen
collaboration and HOMAGO-style informal learning. The adaptable space allows
agency to informally Hang Out and choose the activities that interest them and
Mess Around. The availability of 21st century learning tools in the MakerSpace allow
them to explore and pursue their personal interests and Geek Out.

Summer Volunteer Squads

Arlington Heights Memorial Library
http://www.ahml.info/teens/summervolunteer
Since 2012, the Arlington Heights Memorial Library has expanded their teen
volunteer program for helping with youth Summer Reading signups to include a
broad range of squads that meet on a regular basis. For teens entering grades 7
through 12, squads are led by staff from various library departments, and often
include partnerships with community stakeholders. Squads cover a different topics
and activities, but all work toward a final goal that contributes to the benefit of the
library, especially programs for youth. Examples include: Act Up!, which prepares
teens to present storytimes, puppet shows, and readers theater to younger
audiences; Biblio Buddies, where teens with conversational Spanish skills present
outreach programs for Spanish-speaking patrons; Local History Hunters, where teens
collect local history, interview local residents, and contribute to the local history
page of the librarys website; Sprout Squad, where teens plant and maintain a
community garden and serve samples at the local farmers market; Robotics Squad,
where teens prepare to present programs on WeDo, Kibo, and Mindstorms for
younger patrons; and there is still the Traditionalists program, where teens can help
at the summer reading table in the youth department.

The Summer Volunteer Squads give participants leadership skills and opportunities
for civic engagement. Teens have the agency to explore their own personal interests
and apply their own skills in a way that benefits the entire library. Within each
squad, they are able to more fully refine and pursue individual interests, from
theater to art to gardening to history to coding, as well as develop other skills like
project planning and public speaking. Squad members learn the diverse
opportunities available at libraries, and they and their families become advocates
for the library and its services. Youth attending squad-presented programs benefit
from unique experiences where they learn from more identifiable teens and develop
role models for their own future involvement in the library. Squads also provide both
a model and opportunity for collaboration. Participants will work with library staff
beyond the youth services staff they usually encounter, as squads are led by people
from numerous departments. There are also numerous community collaborations,
including the local historical society with Local History Hunters and the park district
for Sprout Squad. These collaborations entwine the library within its community, as
well as promote library services and create even more opportunities for advocacy.

Stargazer Nights
Skokie Public Library
http://showmelibrarian.blogspot.com/2015/04/stargazer-nights-at-library.html
These programs utilize several Cometron telescopes purchased by the library, and
relate to the flexible STEAM spaces theme of Big and Small focusing on macro and
micro cosmos. Library staff take the telescopes into the Village Green area adjacent
to the library, open to all interested library users, though with a focus on bringing in
school-aged children in grades 3-8. No registration is necessary, and there is a lot of
serendipitous drop-ins. Attendees learn the science of telescopes, basic telescope
usage and etiquette tips, astronomical identification skills like finding planets and
constellations, and changing phases of the moon. Its a unique experience for
children and gives them exposure to the science and technology of stargazing. Local
hobbyists drop by and lend their own expertise, and anyone who gets the astronomy
bug is able to leave with a copy of the Evening Sky Map star chart to pursue
stargazing on their own.

This is an excellent example of best practices in STEM programming. By providing

introduction to tools and techniques not always available in a casual and informal
setting, it allows children with mild interest in astronomy, space, or science to more
fully explore these topics without there being any high bars to scale. Further
exploration is possible for those interested, though - the night sky is always there,
and attendees leave with tools to help them in pursuing those interests. By literally
moving programming outside the library walls, this program simultaneously brings
people to STEM learning and brings STEM learning to its users. It makes STEM
learning engaging, accessible, and provides a path to further exploration and
learning.

Sensory Story Times

Seattle Public Library
http://www.spl.org/audiences/children/chi-for-parents-andcaregivers/sensory-story-times
Sensory storytime sessions are geared towards children ages 10 an under who have
are on the autism spectrum, are sensitive to sensory overload, or are overwhelmed
by large groups. Attendance is limited to no more than 12 families. Each storytime
follows a consistent schedule, which caretakers can access online and present a
visual version of for their child. The four songs sung are also consistent, including
standards like The More We Get Together, If Youre Happy and You Know It, and
Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes. There is also an interactive song about
different shirt colors worn by attendees. The audio of these songs is available to
access in advance on the librarys website, along with the lyrics to print out. In
addition to preschool level books being read, the storytimes include a stretch song,
felt board activities, and play time.

This is an excellent example of quality storytime practice in its own right,

incorporating literature, singing, and playing to facilitate growing literacy and child
development. The changes made are even more exemplary of understanding and
accommodating the needs of a unique group of library users. This is especially clear
in the inclusion of the schedule and song information, where families can prepare
their child for the new situation, a key part of aneurotypical adaptations. Not all
services geared towards diverse portions of a population need to be separated, but
is necessary in this specific instance. Being aware, responsive, and flexible enough
to provide those needed services is always a best practice.

Book Clubs
John Hersey High School
https://sites.google.com/a/d214.org/jhhs-book-club/
There are two student book clubs that meet at John Hersey High School. One meets
monthly after school, and one meets every other month during lunch periods.
Students choose which titles will be read and discussed, with an open invitation to
interested students as well as faculty. Both are facilitated by the school librarian,
with significant support from the public library. This support takes the form of
providing copies of the selected titles purchased or acquired through interlibrary
loan for each meeting, as well as a teen librarian hosts the lunch-time book clubs,
when the school librarian is occupied. Students lead the direction of all discussions
by selecting books and bringing their own questions. Special events are also included
in club meetings, including interactive Skype visits with authors like Paul Volponi.

This book club is an example of best practices on many fronts. While the primary
mission of a school library is support of curriculum, this is an excellent avenue to
support recreational reading, an often ignored goal in schools. This fosters a
personal love of reading, and by allowing students to drive the book clubs, gives
teens agency in driving their own reading, something that is often absent in school
curricula. There is also flexibility in scheduling, so participants can find the meeting
times that work best for them. The collaboration between the school and public
library is also notable, as they have found where their desired outcomes overlap.
The public library has significantly increased its reach, providing services to teens
who dont come to their programs, and the school has found both material and
staffing support to provide significant recreational reading opportunities for their
students.

Healing Kits
Ferguson Public Library
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/11/27/366811650/a-nationwide-outpouringof-support-for-tiny-ferguson-library

After the violence and unrest in Ferguson, MO over the past year, the public library
received a massive influx of financial donations. Creating Healing Kits for children to
check out was one of the first uses for the funds. These kits are only for young
Ferguson residents traumatized or upset by the recent events. Each kit consists of a
bag, as well as books on dealing with feelings and scary events, promoting peace, as
well as a picture book by a local author with pictures of murals painted on
Fergusons boarded up windows. The kits also include associated coloring and
activity sheets, a stuffed animal, and a list of local free or low-cost resources for
counseling, all of which can be kept by the child before returning the books and bag
within the kit.

This is a perfect (albeit tragic) example of a library seeing a distinct need within its
community and fulfilling it. There can be book and resource kits on various topics,
but occasionally there are needs specific to a community at a specific time, and a
library needs to be responsive and flexible enough to respond. Recognizing and
dealing with emotions is a key part of childhood development, which makes
comprehending and absorbing trauma much more complex. Also, while there may
not be a direct partnership or collaboration between the library and the community
organizations they are being directed to, the library is still bridging the gap between
library users and necessary resources.

Statement of Professional Service Philosophy

Libraries create environments and opportunities that foster self-directed and informal
learning for children. This can be accomplished through effective program design.
Library services should be crafted around the interests, passions, and developmental
needs of the intended audience. (Most programs should have an intended audience; if
you everything is for everyone, then it is essentially for no one.) Determining those
interests, passions, and developmental needs, and leveraging the librarys unique
position to fulfill them, is the youth librarians mission.
A library needs to understand how it best fits into its community, both locally and
globally, and leverage its unique strengths. They need to create advocates and
partners within those communities, finding congruent goals and common ground.
Community organizations like park districts or art centers, local businesses like yoga
studios or technology firms, educational institutions like schools, are all potential and
avenues for which the library to deliver its services. By connecting with those groups,
libraries make themselves and their communities stronger.
Library services must embrace and reflect the diverse nature of the world. These
include representation in provided materials, that both reflect the readers personal
experiences, but also in the inclusivity of the programs offered. These services should
be shaped to be accessible to users of varying backgrounds and abilities. In addition to
inclusivity towards diverse races, ethnicities, gender identities, religions,
socioeconomic classes, and sexual identities, library services should also be inclusive
to the broad swath of personal interests, passions, and informational needs of its
young users.
S.R. Raganathans final law of library science is The library is a growing organism. I
believe that, to be effective, libraries must also be a flexible and responsive
organism. As situations and trends change, the library must be able to bend and
adjust to fulfill the growing and changing environment, without losing its core mission
of being the premier place for informal learning and discovery.