Tag Archives: Reading

Summer reading 2024 resources

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The year has just begun, but library staff are already looking toward summer reading 2024. The Collaborative Summer Library Program theme this year is “Adventure Begins at Your Library,” and libraries are excited to plan adventures of all types for their communities. I’ve put together several resources to help with public library staff’s summer planning.

Webinar: The best place to start is with the webinar I did in January 2024. This webinar covers updates about the 2024 Adventure Begins at Your Library program and highlights a variety of resources that should help you with program planning. You can view the webinar here.

Resource Website: Speaking of resources, I pulled together some of the most helpful resources for planning your summer reading program here. Included are all of the resources discussed in the above webinar, tutorials on navigating the online manual and planning summer reading, a list of adventure-themed topics to jump-start your creativity and much more.

CSLP Website and Manual: I highly recommend taking a look at the 2024 CSLP Online Manual for a ton of fully developed, ready-to-go program plans revolving around adventure. To access it, visit the CSLP website, go to “Manual Downloads,” and select “2024 Adventure Begins at Your Library!” You’ll be prompted to enter the manual code (Indiana public library staff may request the code here), and then you’ll have access to this wonderful resource!

CSLP Shop: Need shirts, decorations, incentive items and other gear with the trademarked CSLP artwork? Visit the CSLP Shop. CSLP is a nonprofit, and all of the money earned from shop sales go back into what the shop can sell next year. Just note the timelines – you must order by March 1 to receive your items by May 1.

Program Ideas: This winter, I’ve been facilitating workshops across the state about the “Adventure Begins at Your Library” theme, and at each training I collect program ideas from the participants. I post those program ideas under “Summer Program Ideas for Current Year,” so check them out if you need help with your own idea creation. You can also view program ideas from past years here. Of course, you can use most of these ideas year-round! I recommend bookmarking them in your browser for quick access.

CSLP Summer Symposium: The CSLP Summer Symposium is a national, virtual, free mini-conference which takes place in December. The third annual symposium took place on Dec. 7, 2023, and the recordings are now available! There were four one-hour sessions, each worth one LEU, that may be helpful to you; the topics were simplifying summer reading, manual highlights, promotion and outdoor programming partnerships. You can view the recordings and access the supporting materials here.

As you begin to plan for summer 2024, I recommend keeping things simple for you and your patrons. Summer reading programs can be organized in a million different ways, so do what’s best for your community, but try not to over complicate it. You’ll thank yourself once summer rolls around. Happy planning!

Submitted by Beth Yates, Indiana State Library children’s consultant.

A virtual National Book Festival featuring the Road Map to Reading and Indiana’s ‘Wake Up, Woods’

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Like most things in 2020, the National Book Festival looks nothing like it has in the past. Last year, tens of thousands of attendees crammed themselves into long lines to meet their favorite authors. They joined hundreds of other literary buffs in giant halls at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. to watch interviews with Pulitzer Prize-winning writers and famous politicians. They snaked their way through the crowded vendor hall, picking up free bookmarks, posters, and other swag from the hundreds of booths and stages, all catering to the book-loving public who swarmed the festival in droves.

Past National Book Festivals included the crowded Pavilion of the States

None of that is possible in this year’s COVID-19 reality. Instead, the festival has gone virtual. One thing that has always been true of the festival is that it is a free event, open to the public. This year, the public does not only include the people who can make it to Washington, it includes anyone with access to a computer. Virtual attendees will be able to explore nine author “stages” where more than 120 authors will be featured, including many who will be participating in live events where participants can interact with the presenters in real time.

In addition, the 2020 festival will include the Roadmap to Reading feature, a virtual iteration of the beloved Pavilion of the States attraction from years past. In the old days, the Pavilion of the States was one of the most crowded areas of the festival. Each state and territory of the U.S. had a booth where they’d feature a special book, highlight local authors and give away more swag than you could fit in one literary themed tote-bag. This year, each state will be presenting virtual content, including videos and poetry at their virtual booths.

Visit the Roadmap to Reading to experience literary content from all the states

You can visit Indiana at the 2020 National Book Festival by navigating to the National Book Festival’s website. Register to attend the festival, and once you are on the landing page, click on Discover Great Reads to explore as many states as you like, including Indiana.

Indiana’s booth will have lots of content surrounding our chosen book for the festival, “Wake Up, Woods.” Sammy the Interviewing Toucan will do a very special interview with the two authors of the book and there will be plenty of information about Indiana native plants.

You can watch a preview of the Wake Up, Woods interview on Sept. 22 on the Indiana State Library’s Facebook page

The 20th annual Library of Congress National Book Festival will be held online Sept. 25-27. For news and updates, follow the festival blog and subscribe to latest updates.

This blog post was submitted by Indiana Young Readers Center Librarian Suzanne Walker.

Reading outside the genealogy box

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Genealogist and family researchers often use indices, original records or newspapers, in their quest to complete a family tree. However, there are a lot of books of interest to genealogists for the pure enjoyment of the subject. These books might not help locate an ancestor but they will inspire a love of family history research and perhaps get a researcher excited about researching again after taking a break.

With this thought in mind, I decided to buy a few books that are related to the subject of genealogy but were not research materials. When I look for books to purchase to help genealogists research I often come across books that look really interesting, but not super helpful to researchers. Then I started to think outside of the box of traditional research materials.

Perhaps you are stuck in rut with nothing exciting or interesting to read. Well, now is the time to read outside of the box and take a look at some books that might inspire you.  The Genealogy Division of the Indiana State Library now has a small circulating collection for you to check out. These new purchases are kept in the Genealogy Division as part of the display called “Reading Outside The Box.” We are asking you to read outside the genealogy box and give these books a chance. We think you might like them and find them interesting.

The books featured in this blog, “Queen Victoria’s Gene: Haemophilia and the Royal Family” by D.M. Potts and W.T.W. Potts, “Roots Quest: Inside America’s Genealogy Boom” by Jackie Hogan and “The New York Times Book of the Dead: 320 Print and 10,000 Digital Obituaries of Extraordinary People,” are currently in our collection and available for check out via Evergreen.

This blog post was written by Crystal Ward, librarian in the genealogy department. If you would like more information, please contact the genealogy department at (317) 232-3689. 

Which book will win the Indiana Early Literacy Firefly Award?

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The race is on! There are five picture books nominated to win the Indiana Early Literacy Firefly Award. Voting is happening now until May 15, 2019. Libraries all over Indiana are having storytimes, collecting votes from voting stations and making special visits to preschools and child centers to help determine which of the five titles will take home the prize.

The five books were chosen from a list of titles nominated in 2018 by librarians all over Indiana who work with children. A committee of librarians chose these five books from over 30 nominated titles, primarily because the books are really good at getting children to talk, sing, read, write and play.

  • “A Hippy Hoppy Toad” by Indiana author Peggy Archer is written completely in rhyme and gets children to bop along to the beat, while they wait to see where the hippy-hoppy toad will land next.
  • “Jabari Jumps” by Gaia Cornwall is perfect for reading aloud to a loved one, particularly someone who might be afraid of taking that giant leap off the tall, scary diving board.
  • “There’s a Monster in Your Book” by Tom Fletcher is ridiculously fun, and encourages play and interaction with the silly monster at every turn of the page.
  • “Hello Hello” by Brendan Wenzel introduces children to dozens of animals and encourages conversations about animals, unfamiliar words, and saying hello to new friends.
  • “Play This Book” by Jessica Young turns the reader into a one person band, and uses illustrations of instruments to boost fine motor skills in the hands of the children who reach out to play that enticing printed piano in the middle of the book.

Ruth Fraser, the branch manager at the Klondike Branch of the Tippecanoe County Public Library loves the Firefly Award. “I love that it encourages caregivers to engage with the youngest learners, and gives kids the opportunity to have a say in their favorite books. It teaches parents how to nurture the important voices of their children.” Votes can be turned into the Indiana Center for the Book until May 15.

The Indiana Center for the Book is hoping for a record number of votes for 2019, as this is the fifth year of the award. “Five is an important milestone for children, and an important one for us,” said Suzanne Walker, director of the Indiana Center for the Book. “At five children can do somersaults. They can use a fork and a spoon and they can even rattle off their name and address. Now that the award is five, I’m hoping that every children’s librarian in Indiana knows about it and will turn in votes from their community.”

The award will be announced on May 17, 2019. For more information, visit the Firefly website here.

This blog post was submitted by the Indiana Young Readers Center.

Reading is healthy: Introducing the National Network of Libraries of Medicine Reading Club

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Book clubs and reading groups are staples of library outreach and literacy efforts. In these groups, people gather to discuss Oprah’s picks or the New York Times’ best-sellers in an effort to socially engage with literature and current events.

To help grow health-related literacy, the National Network of Libraries of Medicine’s NNLM All of Us Community Engagement Network has announced the launch of the NNLM Reading Club. The goal is to support libraries’ health literacy efforts and address local communities’ health information needs by celebrating important National Health Observances through the fun and intimacy of a book club.

Screen cap from https://nnlm.gov/all-of-us

Screen cap from https://nnlm.gov/all-of-us

The NNLM Reading Club offers a selection of three different book titles along with corresponding free, ready-to-use materials designed to help promote and facilitate a book club discussion on a health issue or topic. It’s easy to download the discussion materials and direct patrons to the library’s book holdings. However, the NNLM is offering an added benefit.

Beginning Nov. 1, 2018, participating NNLM libraries are making the quarterly reading club picks available in a free, handy and portable book club kit. This program-in-a-box format includes eight copies of each of the following items: the selected book, discussion guide, MedlinePlus.gov flier, NIH MedlinePlus Magazine, NIH All of Us Research Program brochure and additional materials in support of the selected health topic. All of these materials are tucked inside a handy library book bag and shipped to the requesting library.

Any U.S. library that is an organizational member of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine is eligible to apply and to receive one NNLM Reading Club book kit from Nov. 1, 2018 through April 30, 2019. The good news is membership to the NNLM is free.  Due to the limited supply of federally-sponsored NNLM Reading Club book kits, libraries that support outreach to vulnerable populations receive priority status.

Click here to browse the November selections and download the ready-to-use materials or to order an NNLM Book Club kit from a participating region.

This post was submitted by Professional Development Office Supervisor Kara Cleveland.

Collaborative Summer Library Program annual meeting report

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By now, you may be aware that the Collaborative Summer Library Program (CSLP) is an organization that works together to develop a theme, slogan, artwork, manual, program ideas and incentives for public libraries nationwide with the goal of making it easier for those libraries to execute a top notch summer reading program, thus combating “summer slide” and bringing communities together.

But who is making all of those decisions? Each year, a group of representatives from all 50 states, plus several U.S. territories, gathers to discuss and vote on themes, slogans and general initiatives for the future of CSLP. The representatives are volunteers – a mixture of public librarians and youth services consultants at state libraries, like me. In April, I had the privilege of representing Indiana at the CSLP annual meeting in Denver, Colorado.

The 2018 meeting was an exciting one. The CSLP board of directors rolled out their strategic plan, which includes taking more control of the program’s artwork, manual development and printing services, among other aspects. Ultimately, this will result in more flexibility in what the organization can offer to libraries, and should result in better quality products.This plan will take several years to roll out and may not be immediately evident, but by the program year 2020 we hope to have made significant improvements.

The meeting this year also saw the announcement of some excellent allies and resources for summer 2019. Most notable was Starnet, who shared information about their STEM Activity Clearinghouse. This database is full of STEM activities and resources for libraries, including full program activity descriptions. Though summer 2018 has barely begun, next year’s space theme, “A Universe of Stories,” looks to be bursting with promise!

Upcoming CSLP themes:
2019: A Universe of Stories; space
2020: Imagine Your Story; fairy tales, mythology and fantasty
2021: Tails and Tales; animals
2022: All Together Now; unifying communities

In personal news, I’m pleased to announce that I was elected to be a member of the Collaborative Summer Library board of directors as a member-at-large. This is a wonderful opportunity for me to bring the voice of Hoosiers to the CSLP membership as we tackle the changing landscape of summer reading. I welcome your constructive suggestions for the program, and hope to see many of you when I roll out my 2019 CSLP trainings around the state this winter!

This blog post was written by Beth Yates, children’s consultant for the Indiana State Library.

1,000 Books Before Kindergarten

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Bourbon PL Director, Heather Barron_webI recently visited with Heather Barron, Director of the Bourbon Public Library. Bourbon Public Library is a lively branch bustling with activities. During the visit, I chatted with Heather about the library and the unique challenges and opportunities of working in a small branch; while talking, I found out about a wonderful program, 1000 books before kindergarten that they are involved with. This program helps to establish reading habits and comprehension for young readers.   Continue reading →