Media Mentorship in Libraries Serving Youth

Media Mentorship in Libraries Serving Youth (Up to age fourteen)
Presenters:

Vicky Hays, Poudre River (CO) Public Library District

Claudia Haines, Homer (AK) Public Library

Darrell Robertson, Carroll County (MD) Public Library

Dorothy Stoltz, Carroll County (MD) Public Library

The presentation consisted of four presenters from different public libraries who each gave valuable tips and advice on how to help children and youth use different platforms of technology to find information. The presentation also encourages all library staff to be an active media mentor, which in turn helps children and teens learn literacy skills through fun and engaging programs and activities.

A quote that stuck out to me the most:

"Learning isn't always just reading. There are many ways to learn. 'Pokemon Go' is discovery learning. It is engaging and it teaches you vital learning skills that players sometimes don't realize they're learning because they're enjoying the game." -Heather Owings, Finksburg Library Branch Manager

So why be a media mentor? 

The presenters suggested the role of a media mentor is much more than helping children find information; more so, its the process of teaching them how to practice critical thinking skills, how to analyze information, discuss questions, evaluate, process, and understand content. Skills like these are highly integrated across several subject matter being taught in schools as they go through the new Common Core standards. Instead of focusing on the answer, teachers want to shift their curriculum to teach students to understand the process, recognize the problem, discuss the issues or problems and explore answers.

Their take-away: Problems & solutions happen every day, and it's our job as adults to foster a welcoming and learning environment so they can ask "why". We also want to teach them that the process is just as important as finding the solution.

3 Ways to be a Media Mentor

1) Access to curated content
- Provide different avenues of media readily available for them to browse and check out. Some examples include: Ebooks, audiobooks, and other online resources.

2) Media Advisory
- Suggest librarians to use social media outlets to promote early literacy tips, promote app suggestions on the library website 

3) Programming
- Various presenters suggested utilizing online resources to help track programming information. In their case, they used a program called "The great reading adventure" to track stats from their summer reading program. This programmed not only helped keep reports of several different kinds of patrons on their summer reading progress, but also utilizes badges and points to "level up" when they accomplish a certain amount of reading. I thought this would be interesting, and maybe something to consider for future SRP programming. The website can be viewed here: www.greatreadingadventure.com

The Great Reading Adventure Video:

  

How can you be the best Media Mentor?
Looking at research and resources. 
The first article discusses the nature of digital exposure and patterns of use in young children in different communities. If interested, click on the link below:

Exposure and use of mobile devices by young children by Hilda K. Kabali, M.D. et al.

The second article discusses five ways that libraries and museums play important roles in addressing our children's digital learning needs:
Lessons from Museums and Libraries: Five ways to address families’ digital learning needs byMarsha L. Semmel

Some other suggested resources:

Research and Resources for Media Mentors

ALSC Virtual Institute September 16, 2016

Compiled by Vicky Hays – Early Literacy Librarian and Media Mentor –

Poudre River Public Library District vhays@poudrelibraries.org

App Selection Criteria http://read.poudrelibraries.org/readers/pdf/app-selection-criteria.pdf

Center on Media and Child Health http://cmch.tv/

Children’s Technology Review http://childrenstech.com/

Common Sense Media https://www.commonsensemedia.org/

Erikson Tec Center http://teccenter.erikson.edu/

Exposure and Use of Mobile Media Devices by Young Children Hilda K. Kabali, MD, Matilde M. Irigoyen, MD, Rosemary Nunez-Davis, DO, MPH, Jennifer G. Budacki, DO, Sweta H. Mohanty, MD, Kristin P. Leister, MD, Robert L. Bonner, Jr, MD

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/pediatrics/early/2015/10/28/peds.2015-2151.full.pdf

Lessons From Museums and Libraries: Five Ways to Address Families’ Digital Learning Needs by Marsha L. Semmel

http://hfrp.org/complementary-learning/publications-resources/lessons-from-museums-and-libraries-five-ways-to-address-families-digital-learning-needs

Media Mentorship in Libraries Serving Youth

http://www.ala.org/alsc/mediamentorship

Never Shushed Blog by Claudia Haines https://nevershushed.com/2016/07/27/a-media-mentors-reading-list/

Putting Education in “Educational” Apps: Lessons From the Science of Learning

By Kathy Hirsh-Pasek

http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/publications/educational-apps.html

Technology and Interactive Media as Tools in Early Childhood Programs Serving Children from Birth through Age 8

A joint position statement issued by the National Association for the Education of Young Children and the Fred Rogers Center for Early Learning and Children's Media at Saint Vincent College  http://www.naeyc.org/content/technology-and-young-children

Book suggestions:

The takaway message: Staying up to date on children's use of technology and resources in the library will help children improve not only on their digital learning skills, but foster other important skills that will prepare them to problem solve and come up with solutions on their own.

Stories Speak Louder than Numbers: Making the Case for Youth Services

As a publicly funded institution, a public library makes the majority of its money not by selling products or services, but through the allocation of public funds based on the support and the needs of the community it serves. Simply put, if a library isn't well-supported by the community and those who dictate the budgets of that community, it may be one of the first services to be cut. On the other hand, if a library is well-supported, then a library and its services thrive. In other words, the way a public library makes its money is through support at all levels, from government officials to community members and this can only be done through making sure all stakeholders know about not only the numbers, but the heartfelt impact of library services.

How can make sure others know about the real impact of what we do as librarians and specifically Youth Services? Well, this session is all about supplementing statistics with real stories that give heart to those numbers. There were three presenters who represented a small-sized library, a medium-sized library and an Everyday Advocacy Member Content Editor.

Hanna Lee from the Batesville Public Library spoke on valuation and advocacy in a small, rural library. In terms of valuation, her library is moving towards incorporating outcomes in addition to outputs. Outputs are numbers such as circ stats or program attendance, and outcomes are the changes in knowledge, skills, behavior or status. For advocacy, she built relationships with the local government officials and council members, along with doing outreach to community groups that served youth. By building these relationships, they were able to get those groups to also advocate for the library. Telling a good story that shows the value of the library while in the language of the overall municipal goals was very successful for her.

Nina Lindsay from the Oakland Public Library spoke about her experience from a mid-sized library. She gave some examples of personal stories from patrons about their experiences with their services. Stories are a great way to leverage funding in addition to outputs, and relationships. These stories can communicate value and worth.

The last presenter was Jenna Nemec-Loise who presented on everyday advocacy. She got philosophical with it and spoke about Aristotle's rhetorical Triangle.

A good story should take into consideration these three points, as we must considered who are are speaking to and this will change the way we speak and the message we convey. Stories should also be real, relevant, and resonant. Ineffective library stories are static, one-dimensional, and identical.

Here are also five tenets of everyday advocacy that can help when crafting a library story:

• Be informed (know your audience and why you are telling the story)
• Engage with your community (collect impact statments, build a database of stories like Wess is doing)
• Speak out (have an elevator speech and use value-based language)
• Get inspired (Generate excitement by inviting participation of staff, board, adminsitration, volunteers, etc)
• Share your advocacy story (Tell the story of your story, show others how you did it)

All in all, this session was a great reminder of how much of an impact a good story can be when making the case for Youth Services and Library Services in general. If there is one thing I've learned working here at RCLS is that branding is very important! Stories are a great way to create that feeling behind the brand and it's much like what Maya Angelou said, "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."

Serving ALL Families in Your Library

Serving ALL Families in Your Library:

Inclusive Library Collections and Programs for LGBTQ Families & Children

Allie the Ally

Presented by:

Jamie C. Naidoo, Ph.D., Associate Professor, University of Alabama – SLIS, jcnaidoo@slis.ua.edu

And

Megan Roberts, LGBT Center of Raleigh Library (NC), mroberts@lgbtcenterofraleigh.com

This session presented information that encouraged us to think about how we serve LGBTQ families in our library. 

Are we doing enough to ensure that our collections, programming, and environment are inclusive and welcoming for ALL families and children?

Although, the information here focused on Rainbow Families, all of the suggestions, and ideas for increasing inclusivity can be applied to other members of our community- families whose children or adults may be immigrants, biracial, of varied socioeconomic status, or have special needs, for example.

How inclusive and welcoming are our libraries to ALL families and children in our community?

What makes up a Rainbow Family? 

·      A single or partnered LGBTQ parent or caregiver

·      A child or tween with an LGBTQ parent or caregiver

·      LGBTQ children or teens

·      Gender nonconforming children, tweens, or adults

·      LGBTQ Relatives or extended family (ie. aunt, uncle, grandparent)

The term Rainbow Family is meant to be all-inclusive.

*It’s important to never assume that a family in the library is a Rainbow Family, even if they are, they may not be comfortable with or feel safe having it pointed out to others.

Why is it important that libraries serve Rainbow Families?

According to research presented, currently over 110,000 same-sex couples are raising children and teens, and approx. 2 million children are being raised in LGBTQ families in the US.

What role does children’s literature (specifically LGBTQ lit) serve in the lives of Rainbow Families?

·      To provide opportunities for children being raised in Rainbow Families to make important literacy connections, thus helping to develop positive self-efficacy and self-esteem.

·      To assist ALL children and ALL families in understanding themselves and the world around them.

·      To help normalize Rainbow Families, making them less “other”.

What are the informational needs of Rainbow Families that libraries can help fill? 

·      Families need developmentally appropriate, high-quality, print and digital materials that normalize the experiences of LGBTQ families. These need to be available throughout all areas of the Youth Services/Children’s Dept.’s collection.  Not only in the Parenting section, but also in the easy readers/beginning readers, picture book, and chapter books sections of the library.

·      Families need current, accurate info about local organizations serving Rainbow Families.

·      Materials (books, etc.) need to be easy to find within the collection and library catalog. Librarians should edit MARC record subject headings to make sure the materials are findable!

·      BUT, NEVER label books with LGBTQ stickers!!! 

o   Why? An example given was a teen who is not “out” in his community may not be safe if his LGBTQ labeled book accidentally falls out of his backpack at school.

o   Alternatives to labeling: booklists, finding guides (LGBTQ 306.76 or Parenting 649.176), displays, difficult topics booklists that mention the option of using the self checkout machine if a patron prefers.

Considerations when planning storytimes and other library programming:

·      Know your community! This does not mean you shouldn’t include materials with LGBTQ characters in programming simply because your community is considered conservative. It does mean that in some communities gradual change may be a better option over a Drag Queen Storytime.

·      Always have a well thought-out plan for responding to children’s, caregiver’s and administrator’s questions.  Always assume there WILL be questions. Be ready for them and have answers!

·      Have clear policies for

o   the selection of materials used in programming,

o   for collection development choices, and

o   for handling complaints about materials- protect yourself, your workplace, and avoid having to remove materials you believe should be in your library’s collection.

How to start? 

“My community is very conservative. How do I shift towards a more inclusive and welcoming environment and programming?”

·      Try not to use pronouns- avoid he/she/her/him. Use books with gender non-confirming characters, i.e. ambiguous animals or a female firefighter. Maybe blend these books into something that is already popular (a banned books display). Make gradual changes.

·      Train and encourage staff to use inclusive language when describing programs/events. Move away from “bring your mom to our Mother’s Day celebration”. Instead use, “Bring your family to a mother’s day celebration, or even better, Celebrate Special Person’s Day.”

·      Reconsider the books being read in storytimes. What are you reading? How do you describe it?

·      Be careful of older nursery rhymes or songs that may be insensitive, racist.

·      Remember to maintain confidentiality and discretion with patron info/records

·      Use person centered language: avoid labeling people

·      Provide opportunities in the library to learn about LGBTQ patrons through inclusive displays. For example, a Family Themed book display that includes books with Rainbow Families, biracial families, extended families, single parents, etc.

·      Train staff to NOT review items being checked out

Examples of successful program and partnerships:

·      Author events

·      Librarians conducting outreach visits to organizations/ centers that serve Rainbow Families and taking part in events they organize such as festivals, picnics, workshops, play dates, etc.

·      Using Allie the Ally logo/ image to show that your program is welcoming and inclusive of ALL families:  http://allietheally.tumblr.com/aboutallie

Collection Development:

Questions to ask when reviewing material.

·      How do the children in the book react to learning that someone is LGBTQ?

·      How is sexual orientation explained, is it age appropriate, is it even necessary?

·      How are LGBTQ families portrayed in the illustrations?

·      How is gender identity and gender diversity addressed?

·      How does the narrative describe the lives of the characters? Is it dev. appropriate?

Have copies of these books not only in parenting sections, but also in picture book sections, chapter book sections, etc. Be mindful of the placement of these materials. Avoid shelving them separately or any placement that rather than normalize them, instead point them out as being different from the norm.

Balancing act???

If we have pro-gay materials, should we have anti-gay materials to create a balanced collection? NO!

*Remember that having a balanced collection does NOT mean you have antigay materials.

A balanced collection includes heterosexual materials (which already fill our shelves) and LGBTQ materials…. ALL families are represented.

Resources: (coming soon!)

The PowerPoint presentation:

Recommended book titles/ resources/ book awards:

Serving ALL Families in Your Library: Inclusive Library Collections and Programs for LGBTQ Families & Children

Serving ALL Families in Your Library: Inclusive Library Collections & Programs for LGBTQ Families & Children
Jamie Campbell Naidoo, University of Alabama- SLIS
Megan Roberts, LGBT Center of Raleigh Library


This session began by reminding viewers that even though we may think our communities do not include a large number of LGBTQ+ patrons, the incidence of diverse families occurs more frequently than many expect. As librarians offering access to information and resources to all, it is important to keep in mind all of the populations we are serving and to work towards being inclusive.


Presenters shared some eye-opening statistics and information regarding diverse families, which they refer to as “Rainbow Families.”
The criteria for the rainbow family description is-
o Single of partnered LGBTQ parent/caregiver
o Child/tween with LGBTQ parent/caregiver
o LGBTQ children/teens
o Gender nonconforming individuals



It is important to keep in mind that these are our patrons, even if we may be unaware of it. In 2014 UNICEF affirmed universal rights for child & caregivers in Rainbow families. As information professionals offering access, it is important to address the needs of our population in an inclusive, accepting way. In the time that I’ve been here at the library, I’ve heard time and again that we treat everyone like a VIP when we provide service. It seems as though this can be extended to the more passive services that we offer—for instance, making sure relevant materials do get to make their way to the collections and that we mainstream those materials, rather than hiding them away.
In order to provide the best service to rainbow families, presenters highlighted some of their needs that libraries should be aware of:


o Developmentally appropriate high quality print & digital materials that normalize experience of rainbow families (available across all Youth services collections)

o Current, accurate info re: local organizations serving Rainbow families
o Make materials readily available/included in regular handouts, displays, etc.
o Inclusive language in library programs (avoid bring your mom to our “Mother’s Day” celebration)

o Opportunities to learn about LGBTQ individuals via inclusive displays, collections & programs.
o Confidentiality in patron records & discretion when helping rainbow families locate materials
o Ability to locate LGBTQ materials within the library’s catalog and collections


There were some great tips shared to help make sure that we are being intentional as we strive towards full inclusion-
Inclusive Language DO’s
:
o Remain neutral & non-judgmental
o Use words like parent, caregiver, grownup (I hear “grownup” all the time in storytimes & from children’s reference staff—great job!)
o Use language that reflects what people call themselves
o Use person centered language
o Avoiding labeling—see people as individuals



There are so many ways in which we can work towards inclusion in both our programs and our other library services. This is a significant action because when we do this, we are not only striving for inclusion for rainbow families, but towards greater understanding and acceptance for all. Our library environment is often the first educational experience that parents and young children experience together. When we promote acceptance and positive attitudes towards diversity and differences it creates opportunities for children to learn about all kinds of families and fosters their development of positive understanding of both themselves and others. This can lead to increased empathy and compassion—all warm, fuzzy things that can help make the world a better place!

Why Inclusive Storytimes/Programming
o LGBTQ+ patrons live in every community
o Everyone benefits! Examples of ALL different families, celebrates each patron
o This is not limited to rainbow families

With that in mind, some further tips were offered. Many of these can be incorporated into children’s programs. In my experiences, it can be a struggle to adjust language that you are so accustomed to using, but it can be done! It definitely takes time to be intentional in your speaking, especially if you are very used to specific phrases.  Practicing the language you would like to use can be very helpful :)



How to Be Inclusive in Children’s Programs
o Incorporate gender neutral names
o Feature ambiguous animal family books/incorporate single parent families
o Use names; avoid gender pronouns when telling stories, using puppets, flannel board, etc.
o Avoid making assumptions about family dynamics
o Be aware of older nursery rhymes & songs that may be inappropriate (this is so true! There are many violent nursery rhymes & rhymes that send negative messages to children. However, that are many adjusted version that promote a kinder perspective—if you are interested in seeing them, please stop by my desk or ask me! I have fantastic book at my desk, called “I Love You Rituals,” which has many adapted nursery rhymes. Feel free to take a look through the book—it is from my personal collection, just let me know if you’ve borrowed it, please!)

The presenters raised an interesting point regarding balance as well—if inclusive materials are part of a library’s collection, should anti materials be also? No! Rather, the use of inclusive materials for rainbow families is offering a balance to the materials that feature mainstream heterosexual families. Both presenters were very clear that as librarians, our emphasis should be on building children’s understanding, not on promoting intolerance.

This session provided a lot of food for thought in how best to serve as many patrons as possible. It was very lively and incredibly thought-provoking. It is great to see how far we’ve come in a fairly short time span—it makes any additional progress seem attainable :)

Storybooks for Revolution: Using Children's Literature to Lead Children's Understanding of Social Justice

It began bright and early at 7 am on a Thursday where most of the Children's staff traveled to the VG Conference and gathered for the start of the two day ALSC virtual conference! After fumbling around with the tech for a bit, we were able to log on a bit late to our first session. Ahh the joys of online workshops and presentations when dealing with tech issues, which may seem frustrating, but there was a very good reason for holding this conference online.

Originally, the conference was supposed to be held in the beautiful state of North Carolina, but in the wake of their ruling on transgender bathroom usage, ALSC pulled the conference in protest and thus gave us the 2016 ALSC Virtual Conference, so I like to think that our technical difficulties proved to be a form of protest and contributed to the cause of equality and social justice for all, which was the topic of the first session: Story Books for Revolution  Using Children's Literature to Lead Children's Understanding of Social Justice presented by a Child Development expert, Kathleen Gallagher from the University of Nebraska at Kerney.

This session highlighted tools and ideas for working with families in our diverse communities and how we can strengthen our communities by overcoming biases that may divide our communities and by building a healthy awareness of these differences, we can build a brighter future for the children of our communities. This goal can be achieved through an anti-biased education and an understanding of how children and adults understand social justice, and how adults can support children's understanding.

As public librarians, we are in an inherently anti-bias profession in that we work to serve all of the members of our community equally and this lends itself to incorporating anti-bias education approach to early childhood education in the way that we connect children with books and resources. 

Which aim towards the four goals of anti-bias education for children:

• Demonstrate self-awareness, confidence, family pride and positive social identities
• Express comfort and joy with human diversity
• Recognize unfairness
• Demonstrate empowerment and the skills to act against prejudice or discriminatory actions 

This seems like lofty goals for early learning, but early childhood is the most important time in a child's development to recognize and learn about these differences. This approach is bolstered by an understanding of the way children understand social justice through brain development, emotional literacy and social cognition. 

Children's brains are wired for relationships and there is rapid neural development in children's brains when they are very young, so it is extremely important to expose them to diversity and differences in a positive way before they are three years old. Stress and trauma can lead to stunted brain development, which means if they experience bias and a negative experience of diversity, children are under the risk of experiencing this as a trauma.

Emotional literacy is where the child gains emotional experiences of how emotions feel and how to express them, emotional recognition of self vs others, and emotional responding where children learn that there is a cause and effect for different emotions. 

Understanding how their actions cause different emotions in themselves and others is essential in developing ethics later in life. It is usually encouraged to teach children empathy where a child can understand how another feels, but Gallagher suggests to take it a step further and teach compassion, where one is motivated to act to lessen the suffering of others. 

Social cognition consists of where children notice differences and if adults don't talk about differences, it can project that there is something wrong with differences. If a misunderstanding of differences arise, it can lead to a negative bias against those who are "different." Here are the stages of social conditioning:

• Infants and toddlers (birth to 3) Big question is WHAT? 
• Language learning, pattern recognition, motivated by safety and security

• Preschoolers (3-5)Big question WHY?
• Curious, problem solvers,classify/order everything - spend entire day describing things on characteristics then they see the difference (we must talk about it or they don’t know what the difference means) They put things in order so they begin to have bias (boys don’t play this game etc.) We should talk about differences

Primary Years (5-8) Big Question HOW?

Meaning making, rule following, equality seeking - fairness 

By taking these stages into account, we can support children's understanding and increase cultural competencies in several ways:

• Develop children's identities and self-esteem
• Helping children feel comfortable with difference
• Create awareness of bias and stereotypes
• Providing children with tools to respond appropriately to bias

We can do these things through culturally responsive programming where it is child and family centered, having diversity in our collections, and storytimes. By choosing books where the focus is a good story, but also has diverse characters and family situations, it can bring awareness to differences.

As librarians, I see much of our work is to provide equal access to our resources and facilities to all people regardless of income, religion, sexual orientation, and any other thing that divides humanity. This means that we as librarians should be unbiased in the terms of the resources we develop and who we serve and it is only natural to uphold this philosophy in all that we do, especially when serving children and their families.

Welcome to Reading: Amp Up Your Services for Beginning Readers

In this presentation, two of the main questions that were asked were:

• What is the public library's role in supporting children who are learning how to read?

          and

• What can we do differently or better to serve patrons with children learning to read?

This topic was especially interesting to me since I am one of the new selectors of the Beginning Reader easy books (along with Megan). One thing in particular that they mentioned is that it can be helpful to develop relationships with the schools and teachers so you can hear what their and their students' needs are. The kids who are in early elementary grades are really important to reach because there is a high percentage of kids (more than 80%!) that don't reach the benchmark of being reading proficient by 3rd grade (being proficient by that grade is a big predictor of academic success later).

Multnomah County Libraries conducted research before developing a pilot program so that they could revamp their beginning readers collection and services for beginning readers. Some important findings that they heard directly from the teachers: 

• Teachers find it difficult to provide materials to support early reading (1st & 3rd grade teachers struggle the most in finding ways to support the parents in helping their kids)
• Teachers want the guidance, and libraries are crucial in reaching parents
• But only 1 in 10 of the teachers had used a librarian for help 
• Teachers want the libraries to participate in school events like open houses, back to school night, etc. 
• Teachers sould like to see a winter reading program (see the benefits already of SRP)
• also would like downloadable leveled booklists 
• Beginning reader sets 
• 95% of teachers said library had the "unique role of making reading fun"

Other things that the librarians noted were that parents coming into the library looking for books for their children had difficulty because of the way the books were arranged. This is definitely something that I see at the reference desk because a lot of parents expect to be able to go directly to the shelf with all the "level 1.9 AR books," and are dismayed to find the Beginning Readers section has all of the levels intermingled and arranged by author. It can also be frustrating for them because different publishers have their own criteria in determining what they might call a Level 1 book, vs. what another publisher will call a Level 1.

Multnomah County Library ended up developing a couple different programs to try out. One was called the Books 2 U program, where they made multiple site visits to the schools and brought books and gave book talks to encourage reading for pleasure. It was originally done with grades 3-6, but they modified it to work with 2nd grade, with great success. They also experimented with giving the teachers "booktalk scripts" to talk up the books, instead of the librarians coming in person, but both the teachers and students preferred the in-person book talks (allowed for a "special guest" librarian to come and create excitement). 

Another successful program they implemented was the Golden Ticket program. They distributed 1600 golden tickets to all the 2nd graders (through the teachers) at 2 elementary schools, which were actually invitations to come to the library and receive a free book. Parents would also be entered in a drawing to win a family smartphone. They ended up having about a 17% response rate, and got a fair number of students coming in who had never been to the library before. The tickets also included tips for parents to help create strong readers. Because of the success of the program, they ended up expanding it the following year to include distribution to 1st graders at all of the schools in the county!

Changes in library service needed to happen as well. 124 staff members received training (90 min workshops, recorded and archived) in how children learn to read, along with monthly mini workshops for Youth services staff on special topics. 

Another thing they did was level the beginning reader books with a color coded system to make them easier to find for the parents and children. 

I thought the display with the sample pages was great because the parents could see more easily what the different "levels" looked like, so they could begin to distinguish for themselves what a "blue" book would look like vs. an "orange" book. 

"Welcome to Reading" kits were another idea that they implemented, which are book bags similar to our current Storypacks, except they are filled with beginning reader books all at the same reading level, along with tips and recommended reading for parents. They started out with a small number of them, but now have over 1250 bags in circulation throughout their branches. Each of the colored bags corresponds to a different reading level based on their color coded system, so it is easy for patrons to pick out the correct ones. Some of the bags are based on one theme, and others are called "Five to Try," which is a mixture of different themed books all at the same level. I could see something similar to this being popular, since the Storypacks are already so popular!

Overall I felt this session gave a lot of great info on how to make things easier and more accessible for beginning readers and their parents. One thing in particular that stuck with me that they said was that it is our job to make things easier for our patrons, not necessarily easier for us. So something like leveling the beginning readers might seem like a very cumbersome project at first, but if it could help get the correctly leveled book in a child's hand at the right time, then it's all worth it. There is such a small window of time to really make a difference for beginning readers, so it is important to do all we can.