Go Outside & Play Day was a launch event to promote our new Sport Port equipment-sharing collection of circulating youth sports equipment.
YMCA mobile programming, Y on the Fly, provided outside games, activities and snacks on the library lawn to celebrate and promote Sport Port.Â
Library-led tours can be a highly engaging — and surprising — addition to your programming lineup.
This event was a large-scale (approximately 140 people), 10-mile bike ride through Chicago's South Side neighborhoods, where violence erupted during the Chicago Race Riots of July 1919.
Facilitated by Blackstone Bicycle Works, a community-based nonprofit, and in partnership with other community-based groups, the tour started at the only marker of the riots in the city — at 29th Street and the lakefront — and then moved through the neighborhoods of Bronzeville, Bridgeport, the Stockyards and back to the lake.
New research by a San Jose State University scholar finds that most health programs offered by a major U.S. public library system are developed through community partnerships. San Jose Public Library not only works with partners to develop programs offered at the library, they also participate in regional health campaigns. Keep reading to learn how they do it, and to get inspired to try something new at your library!Â
The Unicorn Party was planned in response to the growing fandom associated with unicorns, particularly among children, tweens and teens. The program lasted 90 minutes and comprised several unicorn-based activities, unicorn snacks, a unicorn book display and a "live unicorn" (i.e. decorated pony).
In June 2017, the Mechanicville District Public Library kicked off a community farmers market on the library’s front lawn. Throughout the summer, on Mondays from 4 to 7 p.m., hundreds of people came to stock up on vegetables, pasta, eggs, honey and other goods from local farms.
For a community with a 16.3 percent poverty rate, a market delivering fresh, local goods at affordable prices was a game-changer, and it also gave local farms an opportunity to sell their products.
Trucks! Trucks! Trucks! is a food truck-meets-touch-a-truck festival. Local food truck vendors come to the library to sell a variety of sweet and savory foods while people explore the many trucks brought by local government, businesses and military departments.
In 2017, we held the event on a Saturday in mid-June from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in our library parking lot. Roughly 2,300 people attended.Â
Hubbard Public Libary's (HPL) new, permanent StoryWalk® enhances and builds upon other ongoing outdoor initiatives and resources to serve library patrons and all members of the Hubbard, Ohio community and beyond. Pages of books featured in this StoryWalk® can be changed so that different books can be featured year-round.
Bookish Trailblazers is a monthly outdoor book club dedicated to bringing nature and adventure to patrons. Through the program, we seek to encourage patrons to spend more time outdoors, to appreciate and learn about nature through books, and to exercise.
The Unlazy River was the kick-off event for our summer programming and gave families the opportunity to choose a fun pool floatie to wear as they completed a chalk obstacle course outside the library. Attendees could also play lawn games and eat thematic snacks.
StoryWalks® are a creative way for children and adults to enjoy reading while spending time outdoors. Using laminated pages from a children’s book attached to wooden stakes, they are typically installed along trails and sidewalks to create an interactive storytelling experience.
Remember summer reading as it used to be? When your library was packed to the gills with kids clamoring to see a magician? Or your book clubs, ca. 2019, when everyone shared food and gossip and germs, all stuffed inside your tiny meeting space?
The LP Fisher Public Library in Woodstock, N.B., Canada has had a running club for a number of years now. In addition to our annual summertime Kids Kilometer Fun Run, we also hold a yearly Reindeer Run in partnership with the River Valley Runners (our local run club) and the Salvation Army.
Join us for a webinar with Charlotte Mecklenburg (N.C.) Library, Gail Borden Public Library District (Elgin, Ill.), and Let’s Move in Libraries! to learn how libraries of all sizes can incorporate walking into programs for all ages.
Meredith McGovern is a librarian at the Free Library of Philadelphia's Falls of Schuylkill Library and a participant in Cohort 3 of the Skills for Community-Centered Libraries trainings.
Summer is just around the corner. While we might be looking forward to the warmth, fear not — we'll be clamoring for some air-conditioned activities soon enough. Keep your out-of-school teens (and everyone else) busy with these fun and easy DIY activities.
Active Kids is a program designed to get elementary-age kids moving. Once a month, a volunteer comes to the library to teach the kids different ways of getting active through activites such as yoga, karate and softball.
Summer is nearly upon us. It’s the season where life slows down, vacations happen, students joyfully turn off their early morning alarms and teachers can catch their breath for a few moments. It is also a time when students are less likely to read.
Inspired by the idea that loving and caring for oneself is essential to well-being, the Brooklyn Heights Library Youth Council presented a self-love event called I’m Perfect. The event was held at the nearby Brooklyn Bridge Park in May 2017, and featured music, arts and crafts, food and guided meditation.
At the height of Summer Reading Club (SRC) or during an autumn back-to-school heat wave, sometimes the best thing to do is take the kids outside and hose them down — that will get the fidgets out! (Kidding!)
But seriously, throwing water balloons at people or targets is extremely therapeutic. I asked my SRC leader, Ebony Scott, to come up with a program called Water Games. My only stipulations were (1) that it not wet any of the books and (2) that it have a reasonable budget. (If only we could afford giant Nerf Super Soakers for everyone.)
