Bored With Bugs

(Suzi Wackerbarth and Susan Claus from Northland)

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Programs and Ideas to Keep your SRC Going

When You've Had it with Bugs!

 

Stuffed Animal Sleepover or How to Have a Sleepover and Still Get Some Sleep 

I've done the "sleepover" two years in a row. Here is a brochure I created for PaLA 2006! --Suzi stuffedanimal.pdf 

 

 

 

The happy animals at last year's sleepover!   

 

Check out more Stuffed Animal Sleepover pictures from Lackawanna County Library!

 

Just the FAQs for the Stuffed Animal Sleepover  (to include in your program handout/brochure)

 

• Can I bring more than one animal?  No. One animal per registrant.

 

• Will I be able to come to the library at bedtime to tuck my animal in? No. [library name here]  advises you to not send your favorite “sleep with every night” animal to the sleepover, as it will be unavailable from the time you drop it off on Friday to the time you pick it up on Saturday morning.

 

• What will happen Saturday morning? The breakfast will be from 8-9 a.m., before the library opens. We will have a light breakfast and a craft. Please enter at the lower level.

 

• How old do I have to be to partipate? You have to be 4 years old or older. But grownups can bring their animals too; they have to register the same as everyone else.

 

• Contact: [your name] at the Children’s Department at [your phone #] or by email at [email address]

 

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"Read & Release" with BookCrossing!

Sue Claus (aka mudlarker)

 

What is it?

The official definition of "bookcrossing" is the act of leaving  a book somewhere for another reader to find, read, and pass along to yet another reader. Bookcrossing is the happy brainchild of Ron Hornbaker. Back in 2001 he was intrigued with sites like phototag.org and wheresgeorge.com that track disposable cameras and dollar bills, and realized the potential for using the internet to track books.

 

How does this fit into the library mission?

Bookcrossing is a way of getting books into the hands of readers. That reader might be one of those super-avid library kids who have read every single book on your shelves and would enjoy the challenge of a "treasure hunt" to find their next read; or it might be a six-year-old who has never, ever been inside a library, but finds a "bookcrossed" copy of Captain Underpants or Charlotte's Web while waiting for the clothes to dry at the Laundromat.

 

How do you launch a bookcrossing program?

To get started, visit BookCrossing.com and create an "entity" for your library. (You will need to have an email address, so you might consider creating a gmail or hotmail account specific to your bookcrossing entity.)

 

Find some books.

Ours come mostly from donations. (Or by buying books at yard sales and at Half-Price Books.)

 

Register these books using the BookCrossing.com website.

Write the registration number inside the front cover of the book so that readers will be able to post comments about the book and where it will be left.

 

Leave the book somewhere for an unsuspecting child to find, or do a "controlled release" to interested readers at storytime.

You might want to create a "crossing zone" somewhere in the children's department.

 

What will the Grumblepants' response be?

Some people are uncomfortable with the thought of losing control of library property. Ideally, once these books leave the library, they will NEVER return. They will make their way from reader to reader until they fall apart. But since these books are not part of the regular collection, and have very modest costs for acquisition and processing, and shouldn't take much staff time (see below) you should be able to overcome this objection.

 

It is important to share the details of bookcrossing with everyone in the Circulation and Shelving departments.

Some people who come across a "Read & Release" book can't take the stress of thinking up a good place to release it, so they bring it back and dump it in the book return.

 

Another good arguement for supporting bookcrossing is the marketing potential.

Glue information about your library and the wonderful things that happen there inside the book) and the heady prospect of getting books into the hands of underserved kids.

 

What was that bookcrossing website again?

www.bookcrossing.com 

 

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More non-bug programs and sites

• Girls Go Tech put out by the Girls Scouts. All sorts of games for girls about science and math
• Preschool Coloring Book Looking for coloring sheets? This site has lots and lots!!
• Reading is Fundamental They have tips for parents, booklists, and games (though you have to sign up to play them.) But there is a lot of stuff on this site!
• Check out the wiki Programming Page too
• Pittsburgh Opera Trunks  Opera Trunks for ACLA.pdf