Story Corner Quilts

I got the idea for Story Corner Quilts to create a backdrop to Storytimes and Rhymetimes from the NSW Storytellers Guild. I attend workshops on storytelling with the guild and they have a fabulous large quilt made up of individual storyteller's signature stories, made by the storytellers themselves.

Kogarah Library has a quilting group that meet twice a month. I approached the quilters about the idea of them each making a few different squares depicting nursery rhyme characters or stories, and together making a quilt for Story Corner events. The quilt was revealed last week when the 0-5 programs resumed for the year.


 See how many songs and rhyme characters you can recognise.

Professional Activity 5: Analyse a peer reviewed journal article - Theme- Censorship

How was the activity relevant to your professional practice?

The activity of reading articles on the theme of censorship, young people and libraries made me think critically about how I feel about the issue myself professionally. As a children’s librarian responsible for Collection Management and Collection Development Policy I needed to have a better understanding of this issue.

What did you learn?

I swayed with each convincing pitch from both sides of the debate. I chose the article by Fiona Duthie as it was double peer reviewed and Australian. On first reading everything seemed straight forward. The author had all but convinced me of serious flaws in the rigidity of professional codes of practice, such as ALIA’s Statement on Free Access, ALA’s anti censorship core values, IFLA’s principles of intellectual freedom and uninhibited access to information. It appeared that the Internet had made the moral codes redundant anyway through widespread, generally accepted use of filters in public libraries. (thus restricting access to information). But by taking a critical review approach I became less convinced of the out datedness of the codes despite Duthie’s compilation of academic writing on the subject.

Were any gaps in your knowledge revealed?

I had always been aware of ALA codes on access to information but I had not really thought deeply about this issue. Duthie's article did succeed in summarising the issues  but I also enjoyed reading  some historical context that Duthie’s work lacked. Examples of ridiculous censorship attempts I read about in other articles, made me start to have a sense of the real importance of the ethical standpoint of intellectual freedom to our profession.

 I agree with keeping books with disturbing, violent, really scary content away from very small children, and books that contain extreme bad language, drug use, sociopathic, or psychopathic behaviours away from  children. 
I admit I have removed a book from shelves once because of the graphic depiction of animal abuse and suffering. The Great Bear by Libby Gleeson is such a dark story. I didn’t realise that other Librarians had also reviewed this picture book as inappropriate for little ones till I looked it up now.  I wasn't the only one who had found this book, although classified as a picture book, to be too disturbing for small children to be confronted with such human cruelty, sadness and violence. 

Obviously children do rely on adults, librarians and teachers to shield them from harmful content and inappropriate material. Anne Scott Macleod asks if the concept of intellectual freedom even compatible with the concept of childhood (Macleod, 1994, p 174) Childhood is a time of innocence and vulnerability where adults make serious decisions on matters of child welfare.

Another things I discovered in this process is that as much as I enjoy learning and reading about a topic relevant to my work, I am not a happy academic and have not enjoyed referencing and regurgitating information succinctly. My motivation to learn is lessened by the necessity to aim for marks in an assignment, working in the industry already means my motivation is strictly for knowledge and to better myself, not to gain employment. I will need to have a more disciplined approach in the next subject if I am to begin to enjoy working towards my masters.

How might you fill those gaps?

I think that after this activity the issue is now on my radar. If someone now asked me what was my view on censorship it would depend on the item and the motivation to have it censored.  My idea of what is appropriate and not appropriate is subjective. The codes remove subjectivity and say it is not up to an individual or library to decide what people even children should read or not get to read. This scenario leaves children to develop their own opinions and belief system by being exposed to a range of ideologies. 

I have concluded that most Children and School Librarians do make censorship decisions all the time but they may not be overt. They may be hidden in selection decisions or even in refusal to recognise subject gaps in collections. As an example close to home, I came to this role after 2 very religious children’s librarians lead by another outspoken religious Team Coordinator.  A bias had clearly formed in Junior Non Fiction Collection during that 8 year period. There was not a single book on evolution or Darwin when I joined the staff, but yet there were a disproportionate number of books (around 20 titles) in the section on Saints, Christianity and Western religions. I believe that if Junior books on evolution had been consciously omitted that it was absolutely unethical.
The ALIA Statement on Professional Conduct encourages 'intellectual freedom and the free flow of information and ideas". All Public Library staff should follow this code.

References

ALIA Statement on free access to infomation (2007). Retrieved from www.alia.org.au/about-alia/policies-standards-and-guidelines/statement-free-access-information

ALIA Statement on Professional Conduct (2001). Retrieved from www.alia.org.au/policies/

American Library Association (n.d). Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/ 
 

Duthie, F.(2010). Libraries and the Ethics of Censorship. Australian Library Journal

IFLA Statement on Libraries and Intellectual Freedom (1999). Retrieved from www.ifla.org/publications/ifla-statement-on-libraries-and-intellectual-freedom

Macloed, A. (1994). American Childhood: essays on Children's Literature of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1994.

Professional Development Activity 4: Interview a Youth Services Librarian and describe and reflect on the experience - PART 3 - Youth Publicity by Justin

Professional Development Activity 4: Interview a Youth Services Librarian and give a desription and reflection of the interview - PART 2 THE REFLECTION

I formulated questions from issues and ideas that had come up for me during working through subject content and readings on library services for young adults.

I was interested in the ability of a librarian to be successful in the role of Youth Officer/Librarian and what were the components aided that success.

 I was also interested in the importance of a designated youth space to successful events and the attitudes of other library staff to young adults in the library, as in were there negative attitudes towards youth meeting in the library after school, using computers for gaming and personal social networking. I wanted to learn about the importance of Outreach in the community in high schools and other institutions. One of the things that particularly caught my eye was that Justin had great success with his marketing and promotion of events and programs because of his ability to tap in to teen vibe through personal artwork and drawing, so I formulated questions to assess how significant it had been in establishing rapport with his demographic.

My impression had been that having a special space just for youth to hold events and meet was at one point the big trend. But as Justin asserted having a flexible space that catered for all types of events is equally valid as long as it is welcoming. “When young people have the impression that the whole of a library is a welcoming space, then they are on their way o attaching ownership and positive values to the space” (Derr & Rhodes, 2010 p 2).

When asking about the importance of staff attitudes towards young people in providing relevant services, Justin made an important point that as people working not only in information, but also in customer service, stereotyping youth or any other group is bad practice. “It cannot be the responsibility of just the YA staff to be the representative staff....all staff who have a service role need to be on board” (Derr & Rhodes, 2010, p 4).

Most of the readings emphasise the difficulty in getting teens involved as they are so unpredictable and it is hard to know what they want to do (Macchion & Savic, 2011, p 4). Justin’s focus was on the social aspect of all his events, even HSC lock in and his ability to market his events contribute to success by giving a human face to the library institution, and having a personal touch that kids so that can talk to him about his art. “Promotion: build it and they will come” (Shay, 2011, p 2).

Youth services as a whole are completely different demographic to my 0-5 year olds and is one big knowledge gap however Justin’s balanced approach to library services as a whole and providing good service according to all library users and needs was refreshing and inspiring. It was an absolute given that keeping up with latest technology trends were an essential part of Justin’s work as Youth Officer, but as he pointed out, it is now important for any professional working in the information sector.

References:

Derr, L., & Rhodes, A. The Public Library as Urban Youth Space: Redefining

                Public Libraries through services and Space for Young People for

               Uber Experience. Australian Public Libraries and Information Services

              23(3).

Macchion, F., & Savic, N. (2011). Youth: An Exchange of Ideas for Public Libraries.

                Australian Public Libraries and Information Services. 24 (1).

Shay, C. (2011). The Twilight Zone: Bringing Youth into Libraries (2011).

                Australian Public Libraries and information Services. 24(1).

Professional Activity 4: Interview a Youth Services Librarian and give a description and reflection of the interview. PART 1 - THE INTERVIEW

Justin is the Youth Services Officer at Kogarah Library.

Does not having a designated youth space make providing youth friendly services more challenging? Not necessarily, the ethos is to have an open accessible space to adapt to different needs of different community groups.

How important has it been in your experience to have an advocate for youth needs?

Very important. It helps build rapport with young people, build networks with other youth services and as a point of education for other staff who have less confidence dealing with young people.

Have good/bad attitudes towards young people had a positive/negative influence on youth who use Kogarah Library? Like all customers, young people need to feel that they are being heard, understood and that they have access to services that are appropriate to them and designed with their needs in mind.

Would you encourage training staff to be youth friendly? Yes it is important to break down stereotypes wherever possible. All customers need to be served in an appropriate way. We need to be flexible and respond according to need.

Do you have a regular youth program? Yes monthly book club, school holiday programs, HSC support, Homework Help, monthly Youth Advisory Council.

Have you targeted special groups such as disadvantaged or troubled youth in your area? Can you describe the projects? Kogarah Intensive English Center has regular orientation to the Library and its resources (ESL students). We had a Graffiti Art program and exhibition for at risk young adults. We also have the Storyworx program for Children and Young Adults with intellectual disabilities.

A lot of the Libraries Publicity has amazing graphics for the teen pages? Do you do that art yourself? I produce a lot of art and give direct feedback on graphic design. Documents and Publicity have to be appropriate for their intended audience. Making youth promotions stand out from general publicity helps emphasise that the services are especially created for young people and makes things more cool.

That must make a real difference to the marketing and success of your events and competitions. Can you comment on this? My personal involvement in art and publicity helps build rapport with young people. It helps provide a more friendly personal service. It gives a human face to the library institution.

Summer Reading Challenge is pitched mainly at Primary aged children, what sort of ways can you get youth participating in SRC? Separate, appealing promotional material helps but this is not always possible with uniform graphic design rules.

Offering prizes that appeal to teenagers works, and offering cool ways to get involved, such as pizza parties and social networking. The social aspect of youth events is really important.

What part of the Youth Collection has the highest turnover? Probably Graphic Novels, (mostly Manga). Fiction has a high turnover as do DVDs. DVDs are not youth specific so their popularity with teenagers specifically is hard to assess. But it would be very high.

Do you purchase for Youth Collection? Yes 80% outsourced 20% discretionary purchase. I contribute to purchase profiles and Collection Strategies.

Do you have a dedicated School Resources/HSC Collection? Yes years 7-12 supported. HSC Collection is separate.

You were one of the first libraries to hold HSC Lock In events, was that your brain child? And can you tell me how many participated last year? It started the year before I took the youth role. I have refined the program in consultation with young people and professional peers over the last 6 years. We have an average of 60 students each night.

Do you do regular Outreach? Yes - to high schools, to teacher Librarian networks and to Council Youth Advisory Committees.

“Young People use technology in different ways to adults- staying abreast of technology is vital”.  (Youth Services Strategy Framework) Can you discuss this statement from the perspective of your experience? It is not always useful to point out difference and put young people in the different category. All customers have needs that we (being in customer service) need to assess and respond to if possible. My personal interest in technology does help me follow and respond to tech trends. But this also applies to children and adults customers.

Professional Activity 3 - Observe and document a program delivered for children or young adults at a local library. Reflect on the experience. Theme – digital materials and emerging technologies

Activity - LEGOMATION

The flier said come along to build some scenes in LEGO and with some photographic an App magic, we’ll show you how to make your own comic strip. So I went along to LegoMation  with some ideas for stories and was ready to build.

LegoMation was targeted at children years 3-6 as a January school holiday event.

Were any gaps in your knowledge revealed?

I have recently had a little experience with the Samsung Galaxy Tablet as we have just introduced it at Kogarah Library as our roving tool. But no experience with the Comic Strip it! App. The Children’s Librarian facilitating confessed at only having mastered the app herself the night before.

Being a librarian for 0-5 age group is advantageous in the sense that I get to focus on one demographic, however it does also mean that I miss out on working with youth and primary aged children very often and finding work time to learn new technologies can be hard.

How might those gaps be filled?

Exposure to new technologies and accepting any training opportunities will help me gain experience and keep abreast of evolving trends in children’s programs. Partaking in this event gave me confidence and showed me what a great result I could get with a little step outside my comfort zone.

How was the activity relevant to your professional practice?

The activity was important in addressing the imbalance in my role and to keep up with the way Public Libraries changing in order to stay relevant. The latest advances in technology for children and young people are bringing new opportunities to target groups. Media rich software brings new challenges and patrons. (Juan Suarez, 2010, p 34).  LEGO programs in Public Libraries have succeeded in fostering inclusion and bringing in an unusually diverse range of children. Many have introduced LEGO with a mindset for engaging children in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) skills in young people (Wolf, 2013, p 15).

Kogarah Library has created a number of innovative LEGO programmes in particular Olympic type events based on three different tasks run in heats and then a final. There are also free-play events for younger K-2. The LegoMation events target an older group who at the “beginning of independent academic and complex reasoning, and are ready for a full range of library programs” (Cerney, Markey & Williams, 2006).

What did you learn?

The Children’s Librarian first talked first about story -building as a concept and showed us examples of previous children’s attempts. We then all got a base boards or mat and made a scene. We could make a specific scene or let the creative process evolve with what we found in the LEGO pit. There were books on display such as storyboarding and comic books as well as general LEGO construction books.

Once we had built our scene, one of the two librarians came to show us how to use the app. There were 6 tablets to 15 children (me included). This part was interesting as it showed more experienced and confident children helping others. This demonstrated to me the importance of social roles in learning development. Social skills are equally important as academic endeavours “that will help them initiate, understand, and maintain positive relationships with other children and adults” (Pound, 2012). The event had recreational and educational value.

We took photos of our scene with the tablet and then used the app to create our comic strips. Many of the kids found it intuitive. We opened the app, gave the storyboard a title, and took the photos, added new frames, manipulating the picture before we set it as a frame. When then chose a layout plan. There were special FX, but we didn’t use them. We then put captains on the bottom and gave them speech, thought, whisper and scream balloons. Lastly we added POW feature which gave   colours and styles for fancy text. We then save it and view our finished product.

 The process was creative and hands on. Piaget’s theories of development in the concrete operational stage suggest that logical thought develops when working with tangible items (such as Lego bricks and computers.) Activities such as the LegoMation event I attended encouraged such independent construction of knowledge (Pound, 2012).

References:

Cerney, R., Markey., & Williams, A. (2006). Outstanding Library Services to Children: Putting the 
       core competencies to work. Retrieved from Ebook Library.
Pound, L. (2006). How Children Learn: From Montessori to Vygosky- Educational Theories and 
         Approaches Made Easy. London: Andrews UK. Retrieved from Ebook Library.
Romero, J.S. (2010). Library Programming with Lego Mindstorms, Scratch And Pico Cricket: Analysis of
          best practices for Public Libraries. Computers in Libraries. 30(1).
Wolf, S. (2013). East lake Community Library Uses Lego to support life skills of young patrons. Florida 
          Libraries. 56(1).