LIS 685

10/12/20

Mid-Semester Progress Report

Project Recap: For my project, I am building kits for the Youth Services department at the Orange
County Public Library. The ultimate goal of these kits is that they will be a storytime in a bag for parents
to use with their kits, or Storytime To Go. The reason I wanted to take on this project is initial feedback
from our patrons who expressed that they were missing our in-library services such as storytimes. The
library was putting out virtual storytimes for a while, but their impact with hard to measure and we
received little feedback and viewership on the videos from our patrons. Orange County has no plans of
reopening to the public any time soon, and we have no real idea when we will be allowed to host
programs again. I am hoping that these kits can help to bridge the gap of our patrons storytime wants
and the needs of safety.

How they Fit into the Library: The library currently has Literacy Bags. These bags are 10 books on a
topic, usually grouped by age level, housed in a large green canvas bag. These kits are popular, especially
right now with our families with young children. Even week we have numerous bags going of to our
patrons using our curbside service. I have talked with the Youth Services staff at the library and they
have mentioned that there has been comments from patrons in the past who love the bags, but wish
they have a bit more in them. The library currently has 36 bags and three more are waiting to be
cataloged right now.

It is my intention to store the Storytime bags with the Literacy Bags in-house. Patrons would have the
option to check out either bag type. Ideally, I would also have a sheet or some sort of sign with
information for each item type so patrons can look at the differences and know which bag is for them,
literacy, storytime, or both. Patrons would be able to browse the online catalog for them, click on a link
from the website in our ‘Virtual Branch’, and physically browse through them when we are back open.

Benefits of Storytime: Storytimes promote a love of reading, increase vocabulary, and are ultimately are
the building blocks a child needs to start and be successful in kindergarten. Children learn their letters
learn their letters, sounds, and phonemes through rhymes and songs. Parents might feel at a loss of how
to promote these aspects in their own homes and these kits will help them to learn and be able to
encourage their child’s growth and how to support early literacy at home during this time.

Your Feedback: I appreciated your feedback on the Letter of Intent and in the discussion forums. Make
and take crafts/bags are an interesting idea. However, the library has not yet been successful with take
programs that have an item pick-up component to them. The Youth Services department hosted a
virtual Wings of Fire event, an event that surely would have been all the rage if we were open, but
unfortunately did not have the turnout they expected. The staff in charge of the program remarked that
it was not worth the effort of making and coordinating pick up of the bags for the end result and she
would think long and hard before trying to do another program with a component that has to be picked
up. With that knowledge in mind, I don’t think it’s the most feasible thing for my library or our curbside
setup to try and make a take and make bag at this time. I worry that a lot of effort would go into them
with little reward for the patrons as a whole.
After the Letter of Intent, I sat down with staff of the Youth Services department to gather further and
more narrowed down ideas. They really like the idea of the bags and think they will fit well into the
current climate of the library and beyond when we are back open. I spoke with our main storytime
librarian, Heather, and she said that she rarely gets request for a particular storytime and usually
decides what to base her storytime on based on time of the year, a certain book, or a topic that she
thinks would be interesting.

The Youth Services Supervisor, Beth Hawkey, has been tremendously helpful. Beth has worked in both
schools and public libraries throughout her career. She has suggested that I look at the statistics for the
literacy bag as one guiding factor to the topic of the bags I ultimately decide to make. I looked into Beth
suggestion and found that the literacy bags with the highest checkouts are:
 Oceans
 Weather
 Sun, Moon, & Stars
 Music
 Learn Spanish

Building the Bags: I met with Heather Riegg, our storytime librarian, about the components she feels
would be most important for the bags. As both a mother and an experienced librarian, her advice and
feedback was extremely helpful. She suggested that I include flannel boards in each bag. As she put it,
flannel boards help kids with the comprehension skills and helps them to nail down the concepts of the
beginning, middle, and end of a story. Additionally, if the child is more of a visual learner, they are able
to physically manipulate things without just having to rely on the illustrations in the book to go on.
Flannel boards also help the child recreate and retell the story as it was told or make up alternate
endings which further narrows down their comprehension skills. Heather also suggested that each bag
should have a puppet – regular, finger, or stick. Puppets can be used while reading story but are most
importantly used after the story to reinforce the story again in a different way. Kids have to use their
memory and comprehension to recreate the story with the puppet. Kids can also talk about the story
through the puppet, when they might be shy or unwilling to talk about the story without it.

Additionally, Heather gave me advice on what she would appreciate as a parent knowing the importance
of storytime for development.
 A suggested storytime outline
 Songs and rhymes to go with the theme
 Suggested activities to extend the learning
o Easy science experiments
o Scavenger hunt lists
 If applicable, STEAM vocabulary to help the parent intentionally use the words and help their
child’s comprehension.
 Information on the importance of early literacy and how parents can incorporate easy things
into their everyday lives to promote it. (Such as from Every Child Ready to Read).

She noted that she wouldn’t necessarily use the bag all at one time like the traditionally library
storytime. Rather, she would use the bag ongoing throughout its checkout time. To do this, she would
read a book to her children one day, use a song the next day, and then do an experiment or activity on
the theme and repeats until all contents have been used.
Based off of my research and the advice of the Youth Services staff, I have narrowed down what I want
to be included in the bags.
 5 books on the theme
o Spines will be marked with ‘Storytime Kit’
 Binder
o Table of contents
o Songs
o Rhymes
o Fingerplay
o Vocabulary
o Flannel Board tips and tricks
o Additional activities
o Early literacy tips
 Flannel Board
 Flannel Pieces
 Puppet
 Inventory sheet of kit (for checkin/checkout counting)
 Kit Label with barcode

As for themes, I know three definite themes I want in the bags: Oceans, Weather, and Learning Spanish/
Aprenda Español. The themes for the other bags will be based on supply availability and cost of supplies.

I feel confident in what I want to do and that it will be a valuable contribution to my library’s collection.
The support I have from the library’s Youth Services department has been great and they have been
extremely helpful in helping me to narrow down ideas.

Challenges: Right now, my challenge is the supplies. I want to make sure I buy good quality supplies and
fit the requirements of our space. I am still having trouble locating bags to serve as the kit. I would love
to be able to customize them with the library name and ‘Storytime To Go’ without having to spend a
fortune on them. Everyplace I have found so far charges a lot of the bags or requires a very large
minimum quantity. It is my intention to get extra bags for the collection to grow into, but I do not need
50 bags by any means. If I cannot find bags online, I think I am going to buy blank bags and make them
custom myself. Alternatively, Beth has suggested I look into containers to house the kits – since they can
easily be stacked in most spaces.

Based on my research and through talking with colleagues, I found a site that is great for puppets:
https://www.folkmanis.com/146/home.htm. I am planning on making the flannel boards myself with a
bit of DIY. I have not decided if I will make the felt figures myself or order them online. If I do order them
online, I have found a few good sites: https://storytimefelts.com/, http://www.funfelt.com/.

Another challenge I have is the time allotment to this project. My other classes have honestly been
taking up a lot of my time this semester. I feel though that now that I have more of a concrete plan of
what I want, I will be able to dedicate more of my time to this project because I am excited to see if
through.