tips

Amanda Klenk was looking forward to a fun, successful event hosted by a local drag performer, Aurora Divine. As the teen services coordinator for the Downers Grove (Ill.) Public Library, she strives to connect teens to new experiences in age-appropriate and accessible ways. Klenk’s upcoming Drag Queen Bingo event, designed for teens in seventh through twelfth grade, was scheduled for National Coming Out Day.

The event was turning out to be one of the largest teen programs in her four years programming with the library. The registration list was full and the waitlist was growing.

As a librarian, you may face stressful or potentially harmful situations on the job. Maybe you’ve recently had a run-in with a patron asking you uncomfortable questions or had a program that was met with protests. What are the best ways to de-escalate these situations? Luckily, they are techniques you probably already have in your librarian toolbox.

“I was quite cynical about young people,” says Joy Robinson, senior adult services librarian at Piscataway Public Library in New Jersey. “But I was totally proven wrong. Interns bring a readiness to tackle the issues of the day — they gave me a sense of relief for the future of libraries and society.”

You don’t need expensive gadgets or software to make your virtual story times a hit. What makes your story times really shine are the low-tech ways you connect with your audience, says Matt Mazur, a children’s entertainer with a graduate degree in autism intervention and early childhood development, and co-founder and director of Turtle Dance Music.

Read on for seven low-tech ways to make your virtual story times engaging, or watch Matt’s full 15-minute video below.

Since COVID-19 struck, many libraries, like mine, have moved their author visits to virtual spaces. Cuyahoga County Public Library in Ohio has hosted about 50 virtual events since April, about three per week on average.

These have included major ticketed events for Hank Green, Jodi Picoult, Christopher Paolini and Connie Schultz and dozens of events for bestselling and award-winning authors such as Ibram X. Kendi, Jason Reynolds, Karin Slaughter and Meg Cabot, just to name a few.

Here are a few things I've learned in the process.