There are a lot of amazing storytime resources out there for librarians, teachers, and parents. Storyline Online, presented by the Screen Actors Guild Foundation, is a phenomenal place to find celebrities reading picture books (who wouldn’t want to listen to Betty White reading Harry the Dirty Dog?). The International Children’s Digital Library is a great… Read More Picture Book Reader’s Advisory
If you’re going to plan a Christmas party for 100+ librarians, you make it Downton Abbey themed and you put doilies on everything. I was party of a 4 person Staff Christmas Party Planning Committee and we decided to go all out: Downton Abbey style. Like any staff Christmas party, hours of work went into… Read More Downton Abbey Staff Christmas Party
Escape the library! You and your team will have 15 minutes to solve a series of riddles, decipher the clues, and find the key to escape! Do you have the brainpower and teamwork skills needed to win? Recommended for adults, teens, and older children. When? International Games Day, November 21 2015 @1-4pm Where? The Meeting… Read More Escape Room in the Library
Board games and libraries are an obvious dream team. Libraries value literacy, critical thinking, storytelling, community building, and unique experiences – board games encourage all of those things too. But board game events can seem dry and old fashioned to people who don’t yet know how awesome new board games can be. There are so… Read More How to pull off a Library Board Game Cafe on a budget
Hi internet! I worked almost every day in October and this is what I did: Ran a DIY terrarium program, set up a book art maker station, ran another colouring and zentangle program for teens, interviewed Andrew Pyper on stage, attended OLA’s annual RA in a Day conference in Toronto, participated in 2 staff training… Read More What I Loved #14: The Demonologist, Scandal, and Night\Shift
Who doesn’t love a good romp through a YA novel with dragons? I created a basic display for the teen section of the library, highlighting books with dragons in them. To spice things up, 3D flames and swords, or paper dragons could be awesome. As usual I wrote a little blurb about dragon books, and… Read More Dragon Books Display for Teens
I was asked to create a reading list for a grade 12 class of highly appealing, short, non-fiction life stories. There are so many good ones out there! Using NoveList I was able to construct many searches, using terms like “Adult Books for Young Aduts” and “Life Stories.” I divided the list up by category… Read More Life Stories Reading List for Teens
We Were Liars by E Lockhart: Don’t be fooled – even though the cover might make this look like a simple summer romance novel, it’s a psychological thriller through and through. Cadence suffered a traumatic brain injury during her 15th year on her family’s summer island. During her 17th year she struggles to piece together… Read More An Annotated List of My Favourite YA Books
Ice Breakers are a vital, and often overlooked aspect of teen library programs. Any teen librarian knows that there can be a lot of tension surrounding the first 5 minutes of a teen library event. Some teens arrive by themselves, nervous and shy, not sure what to expect. Ice Breakers are a great way to… Read More Fun Teen Ice Breaker Ideas
I created a 30 minute information literacy seminar, aimed at grade 11 or 12 university level classes. It could easily be altered to fit any subject by changing the subject searches and database. The lesson plan includes active learning activities and pre- and post- assessment. I found that very few students had any background experience… Read More Effective Search Strategies: High School Information Literacy Seminar
Ontarian Librarian 