Shareables from Share-o-Rama!

Submitted by Brooklyn Cave, Amina Gueye, Signe Madson, and Sarah Grace Moses

Henry County Library System hosted a two-day Share-o-Rama event in February that covered both children’s services and young adult services. Several of the Youth Services staff attended to share and learn about programs and more! 

On day one, Brooklyn Cave from Denmark Library headed out with her audiobook playing, to learn and take part in Share-o-rama topics focused on children’s programming.

The day started with presentations from PBS and GPB featuring PBS kids resources and the new GashaGO! GPLS’ Evan Michael Bush finished the morning with a presentation. One of the things he touched on was children’s poetry. Check out the new book he mentioned, Words with Wings and Magic Things. He also talked a bit about Summer Reading Program information and allowed an exchange of ideas. Decor became the main focus; lots of dino footprints, vines and leaves, and Jurassic Park-inspired ideas were shared.

The latter half of the day featured open discussions and round tables, covering a variety of topics:

• Planning and Organization: The shared drive linked at the end of this post contains a document with built-in, searchable "tags" to help locate appropriate songs and fingerplays.
  
  
• Transitions During Storytimes: Attendees shared methods for grabbing children's attention, such as using songs, clapping, or bringing out a puppet.
  
  
• Passive Programming: Ideas discussed included scavenger hunts, word searches, and Mad Libs games.
  
  
• America 250: Many branches are currently planning Fourth of July celebrations. A particular highlight was Denmark's exciting plan for a "choose your own Oregon Trail Adventure."

Speakers also presented on successful programs from the past year. Shared ideas included a Toddler Prom, simplified D&D for upper elementary and middle school students, and various STEAM programming concepts.

The second day crew, Amina Gueye from HP, Signe Madson from CU, and Sarah Grace Moses from DE, braved the early morning drive to continue the learning and sharing, this time with a focus on young adult services.

The first half of the day was divided similarly, with presentations from PBS and 4H. Sometimes we might rule out partnerships, especially with teen programming, but both of these presentations were excellent at helping us think about different and unique community partnerships, a topic that was repeatedly brought up during open discussions and roundtables. Some different partnership ideas included local gaming shops for D&D/RPG or reaching out to local businesses to provide workshops for life skills.

Speaking of open discussions and roundtables–they were the highlight of the Share-O-Rama! Our open discussions about Summer Reading really highlighted the importance of sharing ideas. One of the program ideas that came out of this discussion was a dino nugget ‘Hot Ones’–a popular game show where contestants attempt to eat wings with hot, hotter, and EXTREMELY hot sauces–challenge. This is something that teens would adore and fits in wonderfully with the theme.

The roundtable discussion ranged from conversations about marketing, how to get teens into the library, and middle school programming to how to make D&D accessible to both patrons and employees interested in running it as a program and outreach how-tos. It was really wonderful to share how different FCPL libraries run programs such as TAB and VolunTEENS, which one librarian was eager to talk about as she was just starting a TAB at her branch. Equally rewarding was hearing all about the success libraries had in programs that we might not have ever thought of without these roundtable discussions. 

Some rapid-fire program ideas that came from this event are:

• Robot battles
• Emphasizing teen led programs
• Art therapy
• Homeschool Prom
• Cooking classes
• Rage Rooms
• Cat Cafés
• Homeschool art hours
• Slime programs
• Passive programming
• D&D

This was an excellent opportunity to share tips and tricks, program ideas, and just general library ideas. If anyone is interested in reading through some of the presentations or the guided roundtables from both days, the link for them is here.