It has been a while since we had local gatherings for youth services librarians, and now I am wishing we could do them all the time.  After spending time with four thoughtful, creative, and mutually-encouraging groups of librarian, I for one am feeling better about life in general.  And from what I’m hearing as far as feedback, the smaller group setting and the ample time for sharing was really beneficial for all of you.  I’m going to plan to do this at least one time per year, but maybe we can do it twice, depending on feedback and scheduling.  Let me know your thoughts on that.

I wanted to share out some of the great resources people shared at the discussions.  Today’s post is about local resources to tap for free or low-cost programming.  We talked at some of the sessions about ways to help people who may or may not have a lot of skills or experience with children, child development, or group management succeed when they are in front of a group of kids.  Here were some suggestions:

• Talk with the presenter ahead of time about what they plan to do
• Offer to help them come up with activities or books
• Be on hand to help manage the crowd, step in if presenters need help with
  • Crowd control
  • Revving things up a bit
  • Asking a question to get them to expound on an important point

As far as terrific options for local presenters, here are some we heard about at the meetings:

• UW Madison Division of Extension:  look here for resources in your county about
  • Master Gardeners who can do programs with/for kids (and adults)
  • 4-H Clubs as a source of volunteers, kids presenting about their projects (including ANIMALS)
  • Some of the local offices provide STEAM programming for libraries–it is worth checking!
• The Wisconsin Farmer’s Union has groups of students who come and do activities at libraries.  I’m working on finding out more about this to share with you.
• Local clinics are sometimes interested in partnering on fitness and food programs
• WQOW has a Weather Academy
• Police and fire departments are often good to have as presenters
  • Police can come to regular programs just to interact with kids–not to be in charge of a program (Park Falls does this)
  • Police can often do a program on Internet Safety or other topics
  • Fire fighters can come and bring their fire-safe uniform, and kids can observe the fire fighter getting dressed up and taking off the suit so that it is less intimidating if they ever have to be rescued by someone wearing a suit
• Touch-a-Truck events can bring all sorts of vehicles (fire truck, ambulance, school bus, garbage truck, dump truck, etc.) so kids can get up close
• If you are close to St. Paul, 3M has a Visiting Wizard program, demonstrating science concepts
• NASA has Solar System Ambassadors, and Christopher Mick (who works in youth services at the Hudson Library) is one from our area!

Cool, huh?