INLS
733 – Administration of Public Library Work with
Children and Young Adults
(Spring 2014)
Manning Hall,
Room 307
Mondays,
12:30-3:15pm
Dr. Brian Sturm
Office: Manning Hall #215-A (962-2460)
Office Hours: Drop-in or by appointment
This course is designed to
expose graduate SILS students to the multiple facets of services to youth
(children and young adults) in public libraries. Each week, the class will address a
particular issue and explore how it interweaves with related concepts of
service. The class is a service-learning
approach, so each year we “adopt” a local library and use that context as the
focus of our work. This year we have
adopted our own SILS library, so our tasks will all revolve around their needs
and related issues.
There are no pre-requisites
to this course, though it may be more useful during your second year as a SILS
student.
This is your chance to learn
“how to be a children’s/YA librarian. By the end of the course you should:
1. Understand the overall job of the youth librarian in
all its dynamic aspects
2. Be confident in designing and presenting
age-appropriate and engaging youth programs
3. Understand how public library services to youth have
evolved
4. Understand how context and physical setting influence
library services and success
5. Be able to assess a user community as evidence in
providing relevant services and collections
6. Be confident in interviewing for your next position
and/or hiring someone to fill a vacancy
Class
Schedule
Articles listed in the
Readings section of the syllabus are either hyperlinked or on the class Sakai site in the Resources section.
There is no textbook for this class.
January 13th (Our
Beliefs)
Topic: Personal introductions, course overview and
expectations; Competencies, policies, mission statements, personal
philosophies; divide into “consulting” groups for the semester (by 1st/2nd
year students and child/YA focus), sign up for January 27th history
decade to research.
Readings:
Sturm 20 Years Later article (Sakai)
Review YALSA competencies for young adult librarians
at:
http://www.ala.org/yalsa/sites/ala.org.yalsa/files/content/guidelines/yadeservethebest_201.pdf
January 20th
NO CLASS: Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday
January 27th
(Our History)
Topic: Seminar on history of library services and
spaces for children and young adults
Readings: Maack article at: http://www.faqs.org/childhood/Ch-Co/Children-s-Libraries.html;
History timeline; YA Services
Chronology; Future of
Library Services for and with Teens: a Call to Action.
Assignment
Due (ungraded): Find two (2) articles in Library Journal from your chosen decade (browse the print editions
in the SILS library) dealing with youth services and be prepared to share their
main points in class.
February 3rd (Our Employees)
Topic: Scheduling,
job descriptions and interviews, management styles and communication patterns
Readings: Explore the
101 library job interview questions at: http://www.citehr.com/92131-101-commonly-asked-interview-questions.html
Assignment Due: Personal philosophy; bring to class the URL
of one library design you like (either entire public library or just a youth
services area)
February 10th
(Our Programming: Children)
Topic:
Designing exceptional library
programs for children
Readings: Dowd/Dixon 1996, MacLean 2008, Peck 2009, and
Stippich 2012 articles (on Sakai), and explore the
many youth services books in the SILS library.
Do a subject search in our OPAC
on “children’s libraries--activity programs” for a list of the 164+ books we
have in our UNC libraries on this topic (or browse the Z718.3 area of the
stacks). As you look at these various kinds of programs in these books and
articles, ask yourself, “Do they really
fit the mission and goals of public library youth services, and why/why not?”
February 17th
(Our Programming: Young Adults)
Topic: Library programs for young adults
Readings: Bostian 2010, Shay 2011,
and Wallace 1993 articles (on Sakai); Do a subject search in our OPAC
on “young adult libraries--activity programs” for a list of the 55+ books we
have in our UNC libraries (or browse the Z718.3 and Z718.5 areas of the
stacks).
February 24th (Our Space)
Topic: Building Design
workshop
Readings: Mulaney 2013 article; Skim Lushington,
Nolan (2008) Libraries Designed for Kids
on SILS RESERVE. See Black
and Rankin history of library design.
§ There are many books on library design (search UNC
OPAC under: s = “library architecture” as a place to start your
exploration.
§ Have a look at a retail layout approach to design for
libraries at: http://www.infotoday.com/MLS/jan05/koontz.shtml.
§ Examine some floor plans (Sakai:
hollyspringsfloorplan.pdf) and at:
·
http://www.williamsburg.lib.ia.us/library-information/NewLib
·
http://www.mymcpl.org/_uploaded_resources/mcw_final-plan_0.jpg
§ Look at the furniture examples at: http://www.librarydesign.com/products_children.html
§ Search the web for library youth services homepages to
see photos of what they look like. A web
search on “library design” should yield some interesting URLs for further
study.
March 3rd (Our
Community)
Topic:
Child and adolescent development;
reading preferences; Community Assessment Workshop
Readings: Nespeca 1994, Sturm
2003 “Dogs and Dinosaurs” articles (Sakai); Sturm’s “Reading
Preferences” article
Review the Youth Development websites below:
http://childdevelopmentinfo.com/child-development/normaldevelopment/
(Normal child development: birth -5 years)
http://www.aacap.org/App_Themes/AACAP/docs/facts_for_families/57_normal_adolescent_development.pdf
and http://www.aacap.org/App_Themes/AACAP/docs/facts_for_families/58_normal_adolescent_development.pdf;
http://childdevelopmentinfo.com/child-development/teens_stages/
(Normal adolescent development)
http://faculty.plts.edu/gpence/html/kohlberg.htm
(Kohlberg’s theory of moral development)
Assignment Due: Draft Program (use template)
March 10th
NO CLASS: SPRING BREAK
March 17th (Our
Collections)
Topic: Collection evaluation and management & Community
Assessment
Readings:
Work through the Collection Development
Training website at: http://www.lib.az.us/cdt/. How do the issues discussed here apply
specifically to work with youth? Pay
particular attention to the “Collection Assessment and Mapping” section. Examine SILS Library Annual Report 2011-2012
and 2012-2013 for trends (Sakai). Also
see MCPL Collection Development Policy for Children (Sakai).
Also
Read Conducting
a Community Assessment. Read Community
Profiling handout. Explore
the US Census site related to children: http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/children.html & the NC State Data Center site: http://sdc.state.nc.us/. Look at State Library of NC public library
statistics webpage. What is the “community” of users for the SILS
library? How could we assess their
needs?
Assignment Due: Building Design
March 24th (Our
Finances)
Topic: Budgets and
grant-writing
Readings: Bayley 1995, Deerr 1995, and Devlin 1990 articles (Sakai). Read the short overview of budgeting essentials from Wisconsin
DPI. See the Wisconsin Library program
budget guidelines at: http://pld.dpi.wi.gov/files/pld/pdf/sysbudgetguide.pdf. Look at the old – but still useful –
line-item budget at: http://www.dixonlibrary.com/Policies/budget2003.htm
as an example. See examples of line item
and program budgets at: http://www.scls.info/management/general/budget/index.html
March 31st (Our
Marketing)
Topic: displays,
signs, digital presence, transmedia storytelling
Readings: Biggs & Calvert 2013, Block 2001, and Young 1984
articles and Grant Resources.docx (Sakai).
See the Marketing
– Library Success wiki; Read an overview of transmedia storytelling for marketing. Work through the self-training in marketing from the
Ohio Library Council.
Assignment Due: Draft Community Assessment
April 7th (Our
Legislation and Advocacy)
Topic: Legislation relating to youth services and
advocating for your library
Readings: Laws Affecting children’s librarians (Sakai). ALA’s advocacy webpage (http://www.ala.org/everyday-advocacy/);
LibraryLaw.com; Search Google for
“library laws” and explore some of the state library hosted (usually) legal
information pages for librarians; look at the Best
of the PubLib listserve
on laws and ethics affecting libraries (scroll down on the left for
state-by-state coverage, but remember this is a compilation from a listserve, so judge the authenticity accordingly).
Reminder (not course related): Master’s Papers are due today
April 14th (Our
Interactions with Youth)
Topic: Reference
interviews, youth information seeking, and reader’s advisory
Readings: Bishop and Salveggi
2001 article; Searching Problems spreadsheet; Searching study summary (Sakai)
Assignment Due: Draft Collection Analysis
April 21st
(last class)
Consultant
groups’ final presentations (no more than 15 minutes)
Assignment Due: Final presentations
Assignments
Individual Assignments:
Personal/Professional
Philosophy 10% due: February 3rd
Building
Design 10% due: March 17th
Live Program
Performance Write-up 10% due: to be determined
Class
Participation 10% due: ongoing
Group Assignments:
Your
other assignments this semester are designed to help your “consultant group”
create a portfolio to present to the Chapel Hill Public Library, including:
Draft
Program (use template) 10% due: February 24th
Draft
Community Assessment 15% due: March 24th
Draft
Collection Analysis 15% due: April 14th
Final
Group Presentation 20% due: April 21st
Assignment Descriptions (by due date):
Draft Personal/Professional
Philosophy of Service
This is your chance
to express your feelings about who you are as a future youth librarian. Include such issues as: priorities of service (which are your most
crucial and why), things you feel a library should NOT do, how you feel about
freedom of access to information and/or privacy for children, why you decided
to serve children/YAs and how you feel it is best to serve them (and their
parents?), your stance on the role of technology in a youth library, your
belief in the kind of collection you should offer, and any other personal
stands on pressing issues in the field.
What do you believe in (go ahead and use the words “I believe that….”)?
What are you willing to stand up for?
What are your values? What do you
want to accomplish as a librarian? Focus
on philosophical issues more than practical concerns (i.e., “I believe the
library is the place to build children’s imaginations,” instead of “I want to
have romance novels in the collection”; this latter statement is actually fine
IF you use it as an example of a philosophical argument, for example, to
provide what the public wants, or to offer a balanced collection).
Draft Program
Your program should
follow the Template for Thinking
about Programming. This is
your group’s opportunity to build an effective, fun, and age-appropriate
program that should work well with your target audience.
Live Program Performance and Write-up (whenever you complete the event
you’ve designed)
The idea of this
assignment is that your group takes the program you designed for the assignment
above, and performs it live the SILS library (or an outreach location of your
choice) to see whether it actually works, or what parts of it are successful,
and to gain practical experience working with children/YAs.
Draft Building Design
This will be a
visual representation: a large poster diagram, a graph paper diagram, or a
computer-generated diagram of your dream,
pie-in-the-sky youth library with labeled shelving, furniture, and
accessories. You need to include a brief
description of the setting/context of your dream library as part of your
diagram. I’ll be looking for youth
appeal, functionality, good sight lines, good traffic flow, consideration of
special audiences, and other building design elements we discuss in class. Be creative!
This is your chance to move beyond what we are currently doing and think
about what’s BEST for children and young adults in terms of library and
information spaces!
Draft Community Assessment
For this piece of
the assignment, I want you to collect as much pertinent data about the
clientele of the SILS library as you can.
Find out the actual demographics and statistics of the university (who
lives where on campus), Chapel Hill and the area; see what it looks like from
the air to get a sense of topography; explore schooling, crime rates,
ethnicities and where they are located; and any other information you can find
that describes the community who might use the SILS library, then put together
a presentation that best summarizes what you’ve found. This can be a webpage, a video, a PowerPoint,
a Prezi presentation, a digital storytelling project, etc. Your job is to describe the uniqueness of the
community in as much detail as you can, but in a presentation format that is
easily accessible and provocative. We
will examine the SILS library’s annual reports and explore ways to market the
library to increase use by various groups (i.e., the School of Education,
married student housing).
Draft Collection Analysis
For this assignment,
your group needs to collaborate with Rebecca Vargha at SILS to define a portion
of the collection to analyze. You are to
do a circulation study of that portion of the collection as well as (if
possible) a list-checking study. The
final written product will be: 1) a short summary of your process and methods,
2) an evaluation of the existing part of the collection you have chosen
identifying gaps, and 3) recommendations for acquisition and weeding. Kenny Jones, the SILS library assistant, will
run the circulation reports for you, but it takes a while to get them, so
please plan ahead so he has time to fit this in. Rebecca has already identified some specific
collections she would like assessed: graphic novels for very young children, pop-ups/movable
books, Dewey 500s (this can be split into multiple projects), and Dewey 800s
(also can be split up).
Final Presentation
This will be your group’s
presentation of your semester’s study to the class. You are to design a NOT MORE THAN 15-minute
presentation to share – in encapsulated form – all the work you have done as
consultants to the SILS library. Please
dress professionally (for most youth positions, this is casually dressy) and
present your ideas concisely and incisively.
Your desire here is to perform in such a way that the listeners find
your portfolio appealing, and the information included, interesting and
useful. Your grade will evaluate both
your content and delivery.
Grading
Grading
for assignments will follow the H, P, L, F scale for graduate students.
Course
Policies
Attendance
Class
participation is vital to your learning in this course, so I expect you to
attend class each week. While I
understand that life can get in the way of your education, this class needs
your participation and input each week, so that you can build on prior
knowledge, share your experiences, and help your classmates learn and grow.
