Reflection LIS 567: Youth Services in the Public Library

When I saw that Youth Services in the Public Library was offered through the UW ischool I just HAD to sign up. I’ve worked in children’s and young adult departments of public libraries for four years, and I intend to work as a children’s librarian for many years to come.

In LIS 567 we covered aspects of what a youth services librarian does that are not directly related to collection development (covered in LIS 565 and 566) or storytelling (LIS 561). We did observe and reflect on librarian’s storytimes, and interview current youth services librarians about aspects of their work. Here is the final presentation for Internet Explorer and here it is for Fire Fox I created outlining the work that the Children’s librarians do at The Beaverton City library, where I work as a reference assistant.

We also tackled programming for youth, both special programs and clubs. I chose to create an Alice in Wonderland themed program for children, as the Alice in Wonderland movie was set to come out in the spring 2010. I gave my program to one of the children’s librarians at Beaverton, and she used a couple of my ideas in an Alice in Wonderland program she developed in the spring.

As the freedom to read what ever you like is a tenet of libraries, we spent a lot of time in LIS 567 discussing how to handle challenges to books. I chose to review The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things. Here is the assignment.