“Every library employee should know three crucial things about the library’s host system: its missions, its structure. and its history. This may mean digging into documents, but it also means listening to their leaders to discern how they believe the system works and why. It’s important to understand the priorities of the city, the university, the institution, or the school. Is the city grappling with an aging population? Is the elementary school struggling to work with immigrant parents? Is a business losing its market share? Again, listening to the leaders builds understanding: so does reading key sources of information such as minutes of the governing board’s meetings, websites, local papers, and crucial reports.”
— “What’s a Library Worth?” By: Rodger, Eleanor Jo, American Libraries, 00029769, September 2007, Vol. 38, Issue 8
1:54 pm • 16 May 2013 • 8 notes
Recommended Literature List - Curriculum Resources (CA Dept of Education)
themugglelibrarian:
Pre-Kindergarten Through Grade Twelve is a searchable database of books for children and teens which helps students, teachers, and families find books that entertain, inform, and explore new ideas and experiences.
Each book has a description called an “annotation” that explains what the book is about. The annotation can help someone decide if the title is interesting and appropriate to read.
Fantastic resource!
Yay resources! *bookmarking*
4:54 pm • 10 May 2013 • 7 notes
thisisaadl:
These photos are from the May 2nd “Take a Hike” event series that the AADL hosted at the Bird Hills Nature Area on the northwest side of Ann Arbor. This park is unpaved, undeveloped, and the largest in the city at 161.66 acres!
Our guide, Dana from the local Natural Area Preserve, taught us a lot about the local nature of the area. We saw and learned about many wild flowers, such as Trillium and Jack in the Pullpit, while also learning about some of the invasive species of plants that Ann Arbor has, which the NAP often tackles with controlled burns. Speaking of controlled burns, we got to see one in action! Well, it was technically pretty fizzled out, but you can see the aftermath in the 3rd photo posted above. The controlled burns that the NAP do are usually not planned because they depend on the weather conditions (which as you know, in MI, can rarely be determined accurately!) to be just right. We arrived at 7:00pm and the walk went until 8:30pm, so we saw it as they were finishing up for the day.
Sound like fun? If you’d like to join the AADL and NAP on future nature walks, we have 3 more coming up this summer and fall! The events are all ages. Please dress appropriately!
The next walk will be Thursday June 13th, again from 7:30-8:00pm, at Mary Beth Doyle Nature Area, which is a little smaller at 81.4 acres. Visit AADL’s events page for more info!
Other upcoming Take a Hike events will be on the following dates; mark your calendars now, but keep an eye on AADL’s events page for more info as the days get closer.
- Thursday August 15th (7-8:30 p.m.) Dolph and Lakewood Nature Areas
- Sunday September 22nd (1-3 p.m.) Take an Autumn Prairie Plant Hike! @Furstenberg Nature Area
Hey everyone! Take a look! This was my first post for the library I work at, the Ann Arbor District Library. Yay library tumblrs! Follow us!!
4:48 pm • 10 May 2013 • 7 notes
Last week I helped host this nature walk through the Bird Hills Nature Preserve in northwest Ann Arbor. Our guide from the Nature Area Preservation, Dana, was awesome at interpreting for our group that was full of a wide range of ages. We even had the opportunity to see the aftermath of a controlled burn! I think everyone had a great time and learned a lot about our local nature ecosystems.
6:36 pm • 7 May 2013
What Can Libraries Do To Survive In The Digital Age?
The future of the library in the digital age.
I need to listen to this after I get home! Eli Neiburger, the associate director of information technology and production at Ann Arbor District Library (where I work!!!!) is interviewed for a portion of this Boston NPR “On Point”. Proud to be from a library with such great resources.
6:12 pm • 7 May 2013 • 1 note
librariesbuildcommunity:
via librarianbyday:
Libraries are Powerful Partners. Now start acting like it.
Powerful partners:
- contribute
- share
- bring something to the table
- show up at the party even when they aren’t the belle of the ball
- realize that there are many stakeholders
- offer support for initiatives and ideas they didn’t think of
- are not defensive or hostile
- are team players even when they can’t be leaders
- contribute to the success of others
- don’t insist on doing things “my way”
(via Libraries Are Powerful Partners)
Shared by one of my library heroes, Bobbi L. Newman! *fangirl moment*
“Libraries are the place where all literacies meet”
Yes! Libraries and librarians empower these literacies through access to resources, instruction and support. <3
10:08 pm • 4 May 2013 • 42 notes
“
Children’s work has always been centered in transformative experiences. Children’s librarians not only influence children in their formative years, they open doors for curious minds. Our future depends upon the children’s room. Our power lies in creating learning spaces, influencing lives, and creating community. Our children are our gifts to the world, and the way we care for them says everything about our values as a culture.
You may not realize it, but you have the power to transform the lives of children, the library, and the community. You have the power to open doors, to nurture ideas and imagination. You have the power to change the shape of our world. You are the architects of dreams.
”
— Pam Sandlian Smith, “Architects of Dreams: Anythink’s Pam Sandlian Smith on the Power of Children’s Librarians” (via schoollibraryjournal)
(via themugglelibrarian)
10:08 pm • 4 May 2013 • 44 notes
amandaonwriting:
16 March 1971
Dear Boys and Girls,
Congratulations on the new library, because it isn’t just a library. It is a space ship that will take you to the farthest reaches of the Universe, a time machine that will take you to the far past and the far future, a teacher that knows more than any human being, a friend that will amuse you and console you—-and most of all, a gateway, to a better and happier and more useful life.
(Signed, ‘Isaac Asimov’)
Isaac Asimov
(via thisisaadl)
9:56 pm • 4 May 2013 • 181 notes
Library helps to make kindergarten’s first day less scary
The colorful alphabet tops the blackboard, just as in real kindergarten. Pint-size tables and chairs fit the “students” perfectly. And helpers with kind, patient voices oversee it all. Everything from the puzzle pieces to the colorful rugs in one busy corner of the Karl Road branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library yesterday had an authentic classroom feel. The Kindergarten Readiness Zone is the first of its kind in Columbus, a pilot project that could be duplicated in the system’s 20 other branches.
4:46 pm • 1 May 2013 • 1 note
“94% of parents say libraries are important for their children”
—
from recent findings published in Parents, Children, Libraries, and Reading, a Pew Internet & American Life Project
We thoroughly enjoyed hearing what the Pew crew had to say about parents, children and libraries! You can read the full report here
(via nypl)
4:42 pm • 1 May 2013 • 144 notes
“And then the public libraries. Without the public libraries, serious writers, unfashionable serious writers like me, really wouldn’t have a chance. Again, I hear from people, “I was wandering around the library and saw the title Plant Dreaming Deep. It caught my attention … now I’m reading everything you’ve written.” It’s wonderful to have this happen at the age of seventy.”
— Paris Review - The Art of Poetry No. 32, May Sarton (via libraryjournal)
(via kellymce)
4:16 pm • 25 April 2013 • 38 notes
thecardiganlibrarian:
As promised, what I and the Artist-in-Residence helped the kids and tweens make at the library out of discarded library books for this year’s Art Week. These were the first programs I ever put on by myself, and while they were a bit sparsely attended, they went really, really smoothly.
(Also, don’t you just love that our library has fresh flowers in springtime?)
love this idea!
12:44 am • 24 April 2013 • 25 notes
