Info 260A Blog by Katie McBride
Katie's Kids Korner
Library
Introduction
At Katie's Kids Korner we serve a large community of four cities and sixteen elementary schools. While our library serves mostly middle to upper income families from many cultures and backgrounds, and includes many growing communities with young families, we strive to provide programs that appeal to everyone in our community.
Fasick and Holt (2013) stated that," The library has always been all about learning that focuses on the individual child's interests and abilities." (p. 3). And because we recognize that using Gardner's Multiple Intelligences theory that everyone is their own kind of smart (Loveless, 2023), our goal is to encourage literacy and education in a fun and appealing way that, hopefully, appeals to most kids and adults. We have weekly, monthly, and yearly programs: story times, Lego nights, National Library Week activities, Summer Reading programs and trackers, Spooktacular (our fall event), and A Night in CandyLand (our winter event).
Fasick and Holt (2013) also reminded us that, "As the world changes, libraries must change, too" (p. 16). So we encourage input, ideas, and suggestions from our patrons. Please come to our programs and events and let us know what you think!
DEMOGRAPHICS:
Total Population: 85,041 people
Persons Under 5 years old: 8.54%
Race & Origin: White(Caucasian) 82.59%, Hispanic or Latino 9.4%, Hawaiian & Pacific Islander 0.91%, Black or African American 0.85%, Other (Asian, American Indian, Alaska Native, or two or more races) 6.17%
Photo Gallery
We love our volunteers. If you would like to help at our library, please fill out our volunteer form found at volunteer application.
Volunteering
This is a test
I'm a paragraph. Click here to add your own text and edit me. It's easy.
"The strength of [any] volunteer program will lie in [the] ability to ensure all volunteers receive the necessary support from their superviosrs and adequate on-the-job training" (Dirggers and Dumas, 2011, p. 11). Because we want all our volunteers to feel successful, all volunteers will be expected to receive training including watching a storytime to see how it is run. Those that volunteer as storytime readers will be given additional training on books appropriate for the age, songs, activities, and crafts and will be guided for at least their first 5 storytimes. Storytime readers may also be asked to help with other library programs and services including summer reading activities. Other volunteers will be given on-the-job training for specific tasks including, but not limited to: shelving returned books, cleaning and straightening shelves, clerical work, and help with library programs including summer reading activities.
Weekly Schedule
September - May
MONDAYS
(open hours 10 AM - 9 PM)
Play & Learn @ 11:30 AM Toys available for use. Parents are encouraged to interact and play with their child(ren) and encourage their child(ren) to learn how to play well with others.
TUESDAYS
(open hours 10 AM - 9 PM)
Online storytime. Available for 24 hours on our website
WEDNESDAYS
(open hours 10 AM - 9 PM)
Storytime @ 10:30 AM A toddler group and a preschool group.
Storytime @ 1:30 PM One group for all ages.
THURSDAYS
(open hours 10 AM - 9 PM)
Storytime @ 10:30 AM A toddler group and a preschool group.
FRIDAYS
(open hours 10 AM - 10 PM)
Storytime @ 10:30 AM One group for all ages.
SATURDAYS
(open hours 10 AM - 10 PM)
Family Game Day 11 AM - 2 PM Board games available anytime for families to set up and play.
Note:
Storytimes include stories, songs, fingerplays, and crafts to encourage literacy and help with kindergarten readiness while having fun! Storytimes usually follow a format of welcome song, story, song/fingerplay, story, song or fingerplay, literacy tip, story, and goodbye song with an optional craft you can work on at the library or take home. The crafts are often part of our STEM/STEAM programs.
Crafts from October Storytime
"Adding a craft to storytime offers many benefits to children and their caregivers. Crafts provide opportunities for children to interact with each other and parents, and they can also enhance skillsets and bolster self-esteem. Crafts do not need to be an expensive or elaborate. Many crafts can be created with household materials, such as toilet paper rolls, cotton balls, Q-tips, and construction paper" (Cleveland Public Library, 2024). To see more specific benefits of crafts at storytime check out this website at https://cpl.org/the-benefits-of-crafts-in-storytime/
Firefighter tissue craft -- tearing, gluing, and coloring all build fine motor skills that help with writing. Kids can also build literacy skills by telling about their picture or making up a story.
Handprint witch craft -- tracing, cutting, and gluing all build fine motor skills while creating your own witch helps with creativity. Kids can also build literacy skills by telling about their picture or making up a story.
5 Little Pumpkins clothespins -- crafting everything helps with fine motor skills, retelling the fingerplay "5 Little Pumpkins" helps with comprehension & literacy skills, and the numbered dots help with numeracy.
Monthly Programs
All Year
Lego Night
First Monday of every month @ 6:30 PM
Come each month for a different challenge. Legos are part of our STEM/STEAM progamming and foster creativity and fine & gross motor skills. Regular Legos and Megablocks provided for all ages to come and enjoy!
Second Wednesday of every month @ 4 PM
Book Bunch
A book club for 4th - 6th graders. A new book chosen each month for kids to read and discuss with a facilitator.
Early Literacy Strategies for Parents
Second Thursday of every month @ 7PM
Walk-ins welcome. Learn strategies and ask questions about ways to help your child with early literacy skills.
Sign up here at katieskidskorner.com/readwithatherapydog for 15 minutes of time where you can bring your own book or pick one of ours to read to a therapy dog.
Read With a Therapy Dog
Third Thursday of every month @ 4 PM
.jpg)
the importance of assessment
Assessment
"One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results" (M. Friedman, 1975, "The Open Mind")
data to be collected
tools used
how results are used
Assessment is important to us. We want to know what we already do well and what we can do better. So while we gather hard data like attendance at programs and number of books circulated, we also want to know what we do that you like best and if you talk to friends about the library. We always like to talk with you, but we also use staff and patron surveys to gather important information. We use the data we gather to revise our programming, update our collections, improve our customer service and compare the results with our objectives. These results are also given to our library board to determine future objectives, and evaluate how well we are doing.
Special Programs
We believe everyone needs to have fun! (Rimer, 2024)
the first Saturday of every month from 6:30 PM - 7:30 PM unless otherwise stated
Fall
September - STEM/STEAM Night Apple Stacks! Join us as we explore apples!
October - Spooktacular A fun night filled with spooky stories, games, jokes, and treats! Bring the whole family!
November - STEM/STEAM Night Help us save some turkeys: design outfits to disguise them, invent contraptions to hide them, etc.
Winter
December - A Night in CandyLand Bring the whole family and experience a life-size version of the popular board game: mini-games, crafts, and candy, of course!
January - STEM/STEAM Night Exploring snow! Make salt crystal snow flakes, create marshmallow igloos, and the states of matter.
February - STEM/STEAM Night Weather! Make a tornado, create clouds, and watch lightning!
Spring
March - STEM/STEAM Night This month we will focus on light and rainbows. What happens when we combine a red, blue, and green light?
April - National Library Week activities Join us as we celebrate the magic of libraries.
May - STEM/STEAM Night Make your own "Circuit Bug" that lights up!
Summer Reading
June - August
Summer Reading is our sneaky way of getting you to come for the fun and stay for the books! We are trying to help prevent the "Summer Slide" (Baker, 2017, p. 91) by encouraging reading and holding 8 weeks worth of awesome activities. We hold a program every Tuesday @ 3 PM & Thursday @ 6:30 PM, June 1 - August 1. Every Wednesday @ 10:30 AM we hold storytime for toddlers (0-2 years old) and preschoolers (3-7 years old) and Book Bites for school age kids (8-12 years old).
Donations Welcome
Here's a sample of our yearly budget,
so you can see why we need your help!
.jpg)
In Conclusion
Thank you for your support. While it is a challenge to make a successful children's program, "the underlying goal of all library programming is to connect people with literacy and reading," (Baker, 2017, p. 21). So, we hope you feel connected to all we are doing at Katie's Kids Korner Library. While "we are serious about play... we are not just playing around" (Rimer, 2024).
Also, I would like to take a moment to talk about this website. It was a learning experience for me. It included challenges not only learning how to use the programming, but deciding what should be added and how it should be organized. It included some time spent trying to figure out how to change the menu to reflect these topics, but also time spent bragging to others about how great it looks and what I was going to do to make it look even better. It was (mostly) fun, with just a little stress, but it was wonderful being able to lay out our programming calendar for you. It helped me be more organized in my goals and vision for the library as well as better serving you.
Running a library takes many hours and the cooperation of many willing people, not just the head children's librarian, to make any program successful. While not all of us are as creative as we'd like to be, we strive to have a good combination of detail-oriented and creative types of people so that every dream can be made into a successful program (Lee, 2024).
And we could not do any of this without the support of our wonderful community. If not for your attendance and donations, none of this would be possible. THANK YOU!
References
Baker, R. L. (2017). Creating Literacy-Based Programs for Children: Lesson Plans and Printable Resources for K-5. Chicago: American Library Association.
Cleveland Public Library. (n.d.). The benefits of crafts in storytime. Retrieved November 29, 2024, https://cpl.org/the-benefits-of-crafts-in-storytime/
Driggers, P. and Dumas, E. (2011). Fundamentals of Library Supervision (2nd ed.). Chicago: American Library Association.
Fasick, A. M. and Holt, L. E. (2013). Managing Children's Services (4th ed.). Libraries Unlimited.
Friedman, M. (Guest). (1975, December 7). The Open Mind [TV Series].
Lee, C. (2024, November 6). INFO 260A Zoom with Cheryl Lee [video]. Zoom.
Loveless, B. (2023, April 14) 15 learning theories in education (A complete summary). Educationcorner.com. https://www.educationcorner.com/learning-theories-in-education/Links to an external site
Rimer, P. (2024, October 9). INFO 260A Zoom with Patrick Remer [video]. Zoom.