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$25 Million to Free Library
The Free Library of Philadelphia will be the recipient of $25 million from The William Penn Foundation to out towards innovations and renovations, bringing the library into the 21st century library. This is a generous gift that will go far for the 54-branch library, not only renovating the main library,…
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Kids & Listening
I came across this article, Six Ways You’re Unintentionally Telling Kids Not to Listen, from a blog I follow and I think its a great reminder at the beginning of the school year to better teach children in general, but more specifically how to listen which is an essential tool…
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Open a World of Possible
“Finding the right book at the right time can light an emotional spark within children that motivates them to read more, understand more, and read joyfully. When that happens, the world opens. Everything becomes possible.” Scholastic has created a new movement to encourage the love of reading in kids called…
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How-To Guides for Patrons
After meeting with the middle school librarians last week, I gained a few new projects that are things that definitely needed to be done and now we finally have the impetus to do them. Our middle school students (grades 5 – 8) will be receiving Apple iPads this year for…
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Early Literacy Enhanced Storytime
I’m lucky to be a part of another online class presented by Saroj Ghoting, an early childhood literacy consultant. I’ve been lucky enough to hear Saroj speak in public a number of times and this is my second online course I am taking with her, the first being “Early Literacy and…
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#SaturdayLibrarian
Let me just say, if you’re a librarian and you’ve ever worked a Saturday, you need to check out #SaturdayLibrarian on Twitter. Librarians working on Saturdays come together to commiserate, share, and boost each other up as they spend another day hard at work at the library. I don’t work…
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Flannel Friday
I use the flannel board for my story time usually for 5 Little Monkeys, and sometimes I’ll use it for other songs like Old McDonald or The Itsy Bitsy Spider, but I haven’t used it very often for storytelling. I can’t quite figure out how to hold a book, put up…
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"Important Life Lessons We Learned From Children's Books"
When people ask what I do for a living, many people respond with, “Have you read _________?” And that’s where I say, “If it’s an adult book, probably not. I read mostly children’s books.” And unless the person I’m conversing with is a teacher or works with children, they often…
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Sensory Friendly Story Times
I think I’ve finally got my toddler story time plans finished and my yoga plans as well, now it’s on to planning for the sensory friendly storytimes, both here at the library as well as the outreach classrooms. As part of grant for the county, we offered 6 sensory friendly…
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Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie
Jordan Sonnenblick doesn’t skirt around the difficult issues in this book – coming to terms with denial, anger, and bargaining among the everyday and all-consuming world that middle school can be. Thirteen year old, Steven does not only have to focus on getting good grades, but also practicing for the All-Star…