Kids are Customers 2007

Since Beth Isaacson did such a good job summarizing the whole day, I think I will just post some highlights of it for me. I am new (9 months on the job) to children's librarianship, so going to Kids are Customers was a great opportunity to gather with other J staff, and learn about some things going on in children's services in Maryland. In particular, the preview of next year's summer reading program was an excellent heads up and info source for what to expect of the new program we'll all be using in Summer '08. Also the Blue Crab committee's presentation really helped me to better understand what characteristics to look for when evaluating beginning and transitional books. I was intrigued by this year's winning titles and will definitely be checking out Pirate Mom for my son!



While the International Children's Digital Library session was going on in the afternoon, I went to "Making the Shoe Fit--Discussing difficult situations and creating policies to address them." This was basically a really handy brainstorming session. The presenters had come up with a variety of problem scenarios with which many of us are familiar, and we sat in groups of 6 or 8 at tables discussing them and coming up with ways they might be handled. Each table had a different set of scenarios and a representative from each group got up after the discussion period to present some of the solutions his or her table had come up with to the larger group. I thought this was really useful and, like many other attendees, I went around at the end gathering the extra copies of scenarios discussed at tables other than my own. It was interesting to hear that libraries vary widely in whether they require registration for events and, even if they do, if they stick strictly to their registration policy. It brought up a thorny question about equal access and the question of whether it's fair to people who take the time to register if in the end we just take any and all comers. There wasn't really time to get into anything in too much depth, but it was definitely interesting and provided some food for future thought that I might bring back to my own branch.



I've probably said enough at this point, but also wanted to mention that the Caldecott presentation and the talk by Emily Blumental from the Walters Art Museum were both fascinating. It was amazing to hear how the Caldecott winners are chosen, and it really sounds like a grueling process. I will pay more attention now to the lists of winners and honors as almost equivalent things, and encourage customers to take a look at honor books as well. There are a lot of great picture books out there, and, as our own mock voting session proved, which books ultimately win is a bit of a capricious thing. Finally, being a relatively recent Maryland resident, I had not heard of nor been to The Walters, and came away from Ms. Blumenthals' presentation thinking that it sounds like a really phenomenal museum for kids. She emphasized how much they have incorporated books into their exhibits, from small racks of them in the galleries to their "art carts" that have craft materials for the kids as well as books on different topics covered in their exhibits. She also recommended some good books for kids on the basic concepts of art such as color, line, and form. I can't seem to find the list right now, but will post it if I do. Visiting The Walters is now definitely on my list of things to do, and will hopefully turn out to be something I can recommend to customers.