Blog Posts - Children's Services Division, OLA

Children's Services Division, OLA

Job Opportunity

2/3/2022

Job Opportunity: Hood River County Library District
Children's Services Assistant
Closing Date: Open until filled. First review begins Friday, February 4, 5pm.

Job description
The Hood River County Library District seeks applicants interested in developing meaningful community relationships and dynamic, ever-expanding outreach programs that identify and address the literacy needs of children and youth in Hood River County, with special emphasis on meeting the needs of Spanish-speaking families.

The Children's Services Assistant provides services directly to patrons of all ages at the public service desks at all three library branches and outside the library buildings in the community. The Children's Services Assistant provides programming for children and families, and promotes children’s services and programs in the community.
The individual in this position must enjoy working with people of all ages, especially children, have excellent customer service skills, and have the ability to learn to use integrated library system software. The successful candidate preferably will be fluent in English and Spanish. The position reports to the Library Director.
Application packets, together with the job description and job announcement, are available online at https://hoodriverlibrary.org/employment

Author

Tara Morissette
CSD Communications & Web Editor
Library Assistant, Tigard Public Library

OR Mock Caldecott Announces Winner

1/6/2022

The Children's Services Division of the Oregon Library Association is pleased to announce the winner for the 2022 Oregon Mock Caldecott Workshop:

Victo Ngai for "wishes."

The Mock Caldecott Workshop recognizes two honor books:

Mel Fell by Corey R. Tabor

Watercress by Andrea Wang, illustrated by Jason Chin

Many thanks to Stephanie Goodwin of the Jackson County Library and Molly Sloan of the Portland Jewish Academy for their work to coordinate and organize the Oregon Mock Caldecott. Thanks to all the library workers throughout Oregon who participated.

Author

Tara Morissette
CSD Communications/Web Editor
Library Assistant, Tigard Public Library

Mock Caldecott

11/26/2021

Oregon Mock Caldecott Committee announces short list for workshop

The Oregon Mock Caldecott committee is excited to announce the short list of books for the Mock Workshops on December 9th and January 6 from 3:00 to 4:30 pm. Please try to read as many as you can in order to vote on January 6th. Click on the button below to register for the workshop.

Here is the list of mock Caldecott nominations:

Wishes by Muon Thi Van and illustrated by Victo Ngai
Wonder Walkers by Micha Archer
Milo Imagines the World by Matt de la Pena and illustrated by Christian Robinson
The Rock From the Sky by Jon Klassen
Mel Fell by Corey Tabor
Dear Treefrog by Joyce Sidman and illustrated by Diana Sudyka
Is Was by Deborah Freedman
The People’s Painter by Cynthia Levinson and illustrated by Evan Turk
I’ll Meet You In Your Dreams by Jessica Young and illustrated by Rafael Lopez
Bear Island by Matthew Cordell
Nina by Traci Todd and illustrated by Christian Robinson
Outside, Inside by LeUyen Pham
Carpenter’s Helper by Sybil Rosen Illustrated by Camille Garoche
Watercress by Andrea Wang Illustrated by Jason Chin
Spin a Scarf of Sunshine by Dawn Casey Illustrated by Stila Lim

Click here to find them in a bibliocommons list.

For more information about the Oregon Mock Caldecott Workshop, check out our webpage.
Questions? Contact csdpastchair@olaweb.org.

Author

Tara Morissette
CSD Communications, Web Editor, and Co-Incoming Chair
Library Assistant, Tigard Public Library

Nominations Needed

11/17/2021

Do you know a person who has made a significant contribution to benefit the children of Oregon in the fields of literature and/or librarianship? Please consider nominating them for the Lampman Award!

The Evelyn Sibley Lampman Award is presented annually by the Children's Services Division of the Oregon Library Association. The award is given in memory of Evelyn Sibley Lampman (1907-1980), noted Oregon teacher, journalist, and author of children’s books.

Nomination eligibility requirements are as follows:

The person shall reside principally in Oregon.
The award shall be given for personal accomplishments to recognize the individual's contribution and shall not be conferred upon an individual representing the accomplishments of many.
Only living persons may be considered for the award.

Please include the following in the award submissions:

Nominee's name
Nominee's title, address, and phone (if known)
Description of the nominee's significant and lasting contributions over the years that have benefited the children of Oregon
Letters of support optional, but welcome and helpful

In the past, nominations were only accepted from OLA, CSD or Lampman committee members, and so not all nominations received were eligible. In an effort to be more inclusive, CSD members approved an amendment to the bylaws; nominations are now accepted from any Oregon resident.

Please email questions and nomination materials to csdlampmanchair@olaweb.org

Deadline for submission is Saturday, January 22, 2022.

For more information, click here .

Author

Holly Campbell-Polivka
2022 Lampman Chair
Youth Services Librarian
Tigard Public Library
Pronouns: She/Her/Hers

Joint Meeting

11/5/2021

CSD/OYAN Joint Meeting: November 19, 2021 from 12-2 pm

Join us for a joint CSD/OYAN meeting on November 19th from 12-2 pm. Meredith Farkas, the presenter of Slow Librarianship at the OLA 2021 conference, will be present for discussions around this topic. If you were unable to attend the OLA presentation or would like a refresher please watch her presentation on YouTube. Want a short informational article about slow librarianship instead? Try this blog article she wrote.

OYAN will have a meeting at 1 pm.

Topic: Joint CSD/OYAN
Time: Nov 19, 2021 12:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86200629185

Meeting ID: 862 0062 9185

Meredith Farkas' presentation on slow-librarianship:

Author

Tara Morissette
CSD Communications/Web Editor
CSDwebeditor@olaweb.org
Library Assistant, Tigard Public Library

SRP Office Hours

10/21/2021

It’s October, so naturally it’s time to start thinking about 2022’s Summer Reading Program. (See, this is the kind of thing that makes people who work in normal fields think we’re weird.) For many of us, our professional lives revolve around a few hectic, sunny weeks when we blow most of our budgets and energy reserves in an effort to keep young brains from atrophying. I exaggerate. Sort of. Anyway, it’s fun! Summer Reading is fun, and that’s why we’re excited to launch our monthly, SRP-focused office hours:

Wed, Nov 3rd at 1pm
Tues, Dec 7th at 1pm
Wed, Jan 5th at 1pm
Tues, Feb 1st at 1pm
Wed, March 2nd at 1pm
Tues, April 5th at 1pm
Wed, May 4th at 1pm

We’ll be meeting monthly, alternating the first Wednesdays and Tuesdays of every month at 1:00. The Zoom links for the office hours will come through both the OYAN and Kids-lib listservs. If you’re not already registered for those lists, you can do so here: https://bit.ly/orlists. Look for Greta’s invitation for the meeting on Wednesday, November 3, when we’ll be focusing on debriefing about last year’s program and looking ahead to what’s next! In the meantime, we’ve created a Jamboard to get the conversation started. Please take a look and add your thoughts: https://bit.ly/SRPjam

If you have any SRP-related questions or suggestions, you can reach out to us, Lisa Elliott (Tigard Public Library) at lisae at tigard-or.gov and Dena Chaffin (Silver Falls Library) at dena.chaffin at ccrls.org. Check out the CSD Summer Reading webpage.

Author

Lisa Elliott
Tigard Public Library
OYAN Summer Reading Representative

The Best Recent Titles

10/13/2021

You May Have Missed

Librarian, author, and editor Angie Manfredi wowed Youth Services Summit participants with her lightning-fast book talking skills during her “2020 in Books ICYMI” presentation. Covering a range of titles for readers birth to eighteen, Manfredi strategically highlighted books outside the obvious award-winners and bestsellers. Books that are worth librarians’ money and should be in collections everywhere. Manfredi’s reminder: your collection matters. Your collection “tells the story to your community about who is welcome and who is seen.”

I encourage you to check out the whole presentation, as Manfredi’s enthusiasm is infectious and had me placing all sorts of holds and orders. Covering it all would be a very long blog post, so here are some highlights. See her entire presentation and her slide deck at the end of this blog post.

Board & Picture Book

According to Manfredi, “nobody does board books better than poets,” which makes Curls by Ruth Forman, illus. Geneva Bowers (Little Simon) and the rest in the 4-book series must-buys. Another must-buy that is perfect for a storytime refresh is Bedtime for Sweet Creatures by Nikki Grimes, illus. Elizabeth Zunon (Sourcebooks Jabberwocky).

Noting that holiday collections should include “all holidays for all children,” Manfredi recommends Binny’s Diwali by Thrity Umrigar, illus. Nidhi Chanani (Scholastic) and Alex’s Good Fortune by Benson Shum (Penguin Workshop) as two that might help fill gaps in collections.

“It’s okay to acknowledge scary things and collective trauma,” reminded Manfredi as she talked about All of a Sudden and Forever: Help and Healing After the Oklahoma City Bombing by Chris Barton, illus. Nicole Xu (Carolrhoda Books). This nuanced and careful introduction to one of history’s worst tragedies shows how sometimes bad things happen but healing can come from that.

Here is a bibliocommons list of board books and picture books that Manfredi recommended in her presentation.

Readers & Chapter Book

Manfredi shared tons of great comics suggestions, including highlighting the recent trend in early reader comics. For those looking for the next Gerald & Piggie, try the Fox & Rabbit series by Beth Ferry, illus. Gergely Dudás (Amulet Books) or the Bunbun and Bonbon series by Jess Keating (Graphix). Raina Telgemeier fans should dive right on into Twins by Varian Johnson, illus. Shannon Wright (Graphix), Stepping Stones by Lucy Knisley (RH Graphic), and the Shirley and Jamila series by Gillian Goerz (Dial).

Another publishing trend Manfredi shared was the boom in 80-112 page, highly-illustrated chapter books. She specifically called out three publishing imprints: Aladdin QUIX (Simon & Schuster), Acorn (Scholastic), and Harper Chapters (HarperCollins). Smaller publishers like Capstone are getting in the game as well, with series like Astrid and Apollo by V.T. Bidania, illus. Dara Lashia Lee (Picture Window) and Sadiq by Siman Nuurali, illus. Anjan Sarkar (Picture Window).

For older readers, Manfredi’s seeing a lot more horror and science-fiction. Two highlights: Hide and Seeker by Daka Hermon (Scholastic) and Cleo Porter and the Body Electric by Jake Burt (Feiwel & Friends).

Young Adult

Take Manfredi’s word for it: vampires are back in YA publishing and anthologies are coming in hot. For both, Manfredi recommends Vampires Never Get Old: Tales with Fresh Bite edited by Zoraida Córdova & Natalie C Parker (Imprint). But the two books from 2020 Manfredi says she was thinking about all year were Not So Pure and Simple by Lamar Giles (HarperTeen) and Parachutes by Kelly Yang (Katherine Tegen Books), both realistic fiction. Manfredi’s highest praise, though, went to The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen (RH Graphic), a graphic novel she calls “one of the best YA books ever.” (I 100% agree with her on that assessment!)

Watch the session from 9/25/2021

Manfredi's Slide Deck

Click here to see Manfredi's slide deck. You will need to log into Google in order to view it.

For More Information

To wrap it all up, Manfredi shared some tips & tricks for keeping up with publishing:

Read Children’s Book Council Hot Off the Presses (free)
Read PW Children’s Bookshelf Newsletter & on sale calendar (free)
Let publishers market to you (if you want, how you want) by reaching out to them

If you liked Manfredi’s presentation and want more, her series of similar talks for the State Library of Iowa can be found here: Check It Out! (2021) and Check It Out! (2019). You can also find her on Twitter @misskubelik, her blog Fat Girl Reading, or connect with her via email.

Author

Alec Chunn
Eugene Public Library
CSD Secretary

Summer Reading: What's Next?

10/12/2021

This year’s CSD Youth Services Summit provided much needed collaboration and motivation! Greta Berquist, our SLO Youth Services Consultant for Oregon library workers, lead the Summer Reading: What’s Next for Summer workshop. Greta began the workshop with Judy Brown’s poem called Fire. Take a moment to read an excerpt:

For the complete poem, click here.

The poem enabled workshop participants to take some much needed time to reflect on our previous past two years of summer reading endeavors. Greta asked, "What will we keep for upcoming summer reading programming, and what will we stop?" The workshop gave participants the space to not only reflect, but to problem solve and most importantly to be reminded of our why for summer reading:

Every kid in our community can access reading materials they enjoy.
Every family member feels like the library matters to them and that they matter to the library.

Youth services staff were up against many challenges during the pandemic. We consistently tried to provide the best summer reading experience to our youth patrons and their families. Much of what we provided was successful. However, there were still challenges. During our workshop we had time to reflect and evaluate what worked well for summer reading and what did not. Some examples of the many challenges included:

My teens don’t have transportation to the library
We have a lot of new parents and babies in our neighborhood. We don’t see them accessing our services.
The nonprofit down the street wants to combine forces to support families next summer. I have no idea what to do.
Some of our families don’t see themselves reflected in our library spaces and services. They don’t feel that the library is their library.
Our summer lunch site coordinator says they want to work together to keep kids reading, but they never communicate with us.

Greta lead us through a few meaningful activities that enabled us to reflect, evaluate and collaborate with other youth service staff. We discussed significant summer reading challenges and had the opportunity to create tools and techniques to address these challenges. If you were unable to attend the workshop, try the following activities for yourself and with other youth services staff in your library. See what tools and techniques you come up with that could solve your key summer reading challenges.

Activity 1: Storytime Share Time

Think of a story about the last activity you tried for the very first time.

Was it exciting or scary?
How did being a beginner help you?
Share and discuss your answers or journal about them.

Activity 2: Why do we do summer reading? What is the purpose of it all?

Does what we do, and the events we offer meet the needs and requirements of our youth patrons and their families?
Does what we collect, track, report provide a clear snapshot of what we provide?
What might we keep and what might we try differently to address the following: Doing things in our specific community to help kids access reading, and to help families feel like they matter to the library and the library matters to them.
Re-read poem excerpt from Judy Brown. Are we focusing on what matters? Are we remembering the big picture and reminding our colleagues that the mission is what matters. Are we doing too much, not enough, are we helping kids access reading in the summer? Are we helping families feel like they matter to the library and does the library matter to them?

Activity 3: Brainstorm Interview Groups

Choose a person to present and share one summer reading challenge that your library needs to address.
Ask the presenter to shift the challenge into an ACTION question. Ask: "How might we...(say challenge here.) For example, "How might we transport teens to the library next summer?" Then read the action question to the group. Discuss with group.
Other participants in group now interviews the presenter. Ask questions about the challenge. What does your presenter wish were different, what makes the challenge unique, continue to ask why, why, why, dive deeper.
Interviewers offer brainstorming ideas/solutions for that challenge. Sketch out 4-6 ideas that could be solutions to the challenge.
Make a prototype of the solution that your presenter agrees would be the best solution to the challenge.
Remember to share your solution with others outside of your activity group. Share with other staff for their input, share with library users, community members, etc for their input.

Taking the time to complete the above activities could provide some very helpful insight on your summer reading plans for next year. Are you giving your fire enough space to burn? Is your library focused on the summer reading mission? Are you doing too much, not enough, or just the right amount for summer reading programming? We hope that these activities provided you with some much needed breathing space to reflect and evaluate and to keep your summer reading fires burning!

Your Summer Reading Representatives

Greta Bergquist is our State Youth Services consultant. The Summer Reading Chairs are Dena Chaffin (CSD) and Lisa Elliott (OYAN). Feel free to contact them with your summer reading questions.

Please look out for Zoom links to the Summer Reading office hours:

Wed, Nov 3rd at 1pm
Tues, Dec 7th at 1pm
Wed, Jan 5th at 1pm
Tues, Feb 1st at 1pm
Wed, March 2nd at 1pm
Tues, April 5th at 1pm
Wed, May 4th at 1pm

Author

Emily West
North Plains Public Library
CSD Incoming Co-Chair

Summer Reading 2022

10/6/2021

Read Beyond the Beaten Path . . .

Next summer, Oregon libraries will again have access to materials from iRead to help with summer reading. The theme is Read Beyond the Beaten Path. Four artists have created artwork that embraces the theme, included Dav Pilkey and Dragon. Head over to https://www.ireadprogram.org/ to check it out!

The iRead store is up and running for next year. Orders placed in December will be received in March, so it’s not too soon to starting thinking about next summer! Billing options include being invoiced to pay when the items ship if you don’t want to use a credit card now. Greta Bergquist also announced that libraries that only get the minimum Ready to Read Grant will also get $250 to use in the iRead store.

The Resource Manual is still in production and will be chock full of program ideas and art ready to use. Each Oregon library will receive an e-mail with a code to use to download the manual. It will download in two parts. Remember, iRead artwork can be used to create your own reading logs, buttons or stickers or whatever you want to create for your library. Rights to the art do not expire at the end of summer reading.

And if you’re really ready to look into the future, the theme for 2023 is Find Your Voice. Since the iREAD program is created by librarians and for librarians, there are opportunities for you to get involved with the 2023 Resource Guide. The broad theme for 2024 is Conservation.

Watch the Youth Services Summit session on YouTube:
Summer Reading: Read Beyond the Beaten Path, with Diane Foote

If you have questions or concerns about Summer Reading for next year, drop in to Summer Reading Office Hours. Look for more information coming with Zoom links. The Summer Reading Chairs Dena Chaffin and Lisa Elliott will join Greta at the following dates and times:

Summer Reading Office Hours

Wed, Nov 3rd at 1pm
Tues, Dec 7th at 1pm
Wed, Jan 5th at 1pm
Tues, Feb 1st at 1pm
Wed, March 2nd at 1pm
Tues, April 5th at 1pm
Wed, May 4th at 1pm

Author

Susan Cackler she/her
2021-22 CSD Chair
Banks Public Library

Youth Services Summit

9/10/2021

Saturday, September 25, 2021

Join us for the 2021 Youth Services Summit on Saturday, September 25th for some fall camaraderie on all things youth services! We especially hope to see you in the morning for discussing what Summer Reading looks like next. Feel free to join us with coffee and snacks in hand. You are welcome to attend just one session, or stay for all topics. Most sessions will not be recorded due to the participatory nature of the presentations. Please tell us in advance here if you plan on coming!

Link to registration
Link to schedule

Need more information? Check out our Youth Services Summit webpage.

Oregon Library Association
Children's Services Division
Oregon Young Adult Network
Public Library Division

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