Attending:
Ginger Armstrong, Katy Caron, Jane Ferguson, Ann Fondren, Pat Muller, Lisa
Payne, Sherry Pearson, Lorry Risinger
Sherry
called the meeting to order with regional reports.
Lorry
reported on events in Region II. The
Bedford Public Library system hosted “Little Big Band” and storyteller Mary
Veverka at all six branches. Petersen’s
Puppeteers and a paper-making artist will visit during the summer.
Reading logs will resemble bingo cards this summer with separate cards
for children and teens. The Danville Public Library will hold the second annual Teen
Reading Contest. Teens can submit a
chance to win prizes for each book read up to and including 15 books.
Gift certificates from the local bookstore and the shopping mall will be
among the prizes awarded. The
Lynchburg Public Library will offer the C-Shells, Fish the Magish, Slinky Scaly
Snakes, Barefoot Puppets, and an Ice Cream Sundae Finale during the summer.
Monday Movie Matinees will feature a “G” rated film at 10:00 a.m. and
a “PG” rated film at 2:00 p.m. Teen
programs will include Creative Lettering, Pop-Up Cards, and Origami.
Teens will also read to raise money for the local Humane Society.
Lorry highly recommended offering large floor puzzles for use at the
library. The puzzles are about 4 to
5 feet long and are kept behind the desk at the library.
The kids ask for them and must return the one they have before getting
another one. The puzzles are made
from durable cardboard and come in a variety of themes. Adults enjoy them as well.
The puzzles usually cost about $15.00 and some can be found in the
Lakeshore Catalog. Lorry
recommended that anyone interested sign up early for the “Bookless
Storytelling Encore” program for which she has already had great response. A flyer should be forthcoming in the VLA Newsletter.
Sherry
Pearson welcomed new Region IV Representative, Lisa Payne to the group. Lisa
reported on Region IV activities. Richmond
Public Library will be offering a Theatre IV production of The
Little Red Hen at all branches. Richmond is working with the Richmond
Times Dispatch to encourage reading the newspaper as well as books.
Participants receive a special certificate at the end of the summer if
they read 10 newspaper articles as well as books.
The Richmond Times Dispatch and Pizza Hut will be sponsoring pizza
parties at all branches at the end of the summer. The Motheread/Fatheread program will be held in August.
Richmond Public Library and Petersburg Public Library will offer Tyrone
and Tilford and storyteller Jim Weiss this summer.
Petersburg will also offer a kickoff party sponsored by Old Country
Buffet and a performance by the Fort Lee Brass band.
Other programs include a martial arts program, storytimes by Mother Goose
and Mr. Bee, and a reptile program. Henrico
County Summer Reading Program highlights include systemwide performances by
magician Michael Chamberlin and a “Super Snakes” program by Reptiles Alive.
A summer safety program, a science museum program, C. Shells, and Amazing
Jason will also be offered in the county. One
of the summer reading prizes will be free baseball tickets and a chance to meet
the Richmond Braves at “Library Night at the Diamond.”
A successful Ellison Die Workshop was held in Henrico yesterday. Ginger reported on events in Chesterfield County.
Chesterfield will host Betsy Q in Concert and Barefoot Puppets.
“The British Are Coming: Journey to 1781 in Chesterfield County” will
be a two-hour living history experience. Other
highlights include juggler Jonathan Austin, Sue Hartzler with live animals,
Snakes Alive, storyteller Megan Hicks with stories and origami, a storytime with
members of the Chesterfield County Fire Department, a visit by a canine artist,
a Teddy Bear and Friends picnic, a Harry Potter program, a Dance Odyssey
program, and a “Once Upon a Pocket Puppet Show” of music, puppets, and
folktales. Chesterfield will also
offer its first Adult Summer Reading Program.
Jane
Ferguson reported on events in Region V. Alexandria
Public Library will offer puppet shows, magicians, and musicals for children of
all ages this summer. Ready Readers
for kindergarten through first Grade will offer children an opportunity to keep
up their reading skills as well as enjoy reading for fun this summer.
“Stories in the Park” will be offered as the children’s librarians
travel to Ft. Ward Park to tell stories. Arlington
Public Library will offer programs for preschoolers through sixth graders and
programs will also be delivered through the Arlington Public School sites and
county outreach centers. “Cool
Reflections,” an individualized reading program will offer teens an
opportunity to read books, attend programs, and win gift certificates.
Fairfax Public Library will offer the very popular Reptile Man, Under the
Sea with various sea creatures and the Cool Clips video contest (teens film a
movie and enter it into a contest) with their “Treasure Your Library” summer
reading program theme. Read to Me
programs will be offered by the Falls Church Public Library.
Also several challenge games centered around the Travels of Odysseus
including a Fantastic Voyage will be offered to 3rd graders and up.
Teens can participate in the Books Zone and programs offered include a
free presentation by the Society for Creative Anachronism.
The Fauquier Public Library will offer the Shooting Stars Club for
toddlers through kindergartners, the Cosmic Comets Club for first graders and
older and the Sherlock Holmes Mystery Club for middle schoolers. The Sherlock Holmes Club will be offered in a partnership
arrangement with the Friends of the Fauquier Library and the Fauquier county
Sheriff’s Department. Highlights
include a tour of the detention center, a visit by forensic scientists, a ghost
tour of Warrenton, and a program presented by a former CIA museum curator.
The King George Library will offer programs including Viva Robotics,
storytellers Pam Bomboy and Jim Weiss, a “Digging Up Bones” program about
fossils in cooperation with the Caledon Natural Area Rangers, and Backpack
Puppets. Jane announced that her
new co-representative will be Indira Dholakia.
Indira sent information from the Eastern Loudoun Regional Library.
The summer reading theme in Loudoun will be “Many Voices, Many
Stories.” The grand prize for
teens and for the elementary school children will be a camera.
The library system is gearing up for the opening ceremony for the new
web-based catalog system, Horizon, in June.
For this event, the library will open at 6:00 a.m. and close at 9:00 p.m.
with door prizes, etc.
Katy
reported on the news from Region VI. The
Augusta County Library will hold a Child’s Celebration Day in collaboration
with the Parks and Recreation Department that will feature a juggler, cloggers,
face painting, and balloon animals among other activities with teens staffing
some of the booths. A weekly book
discussion group for fourth and fifth graders, a coffeehouse featuring teens’
original poetry and prose, a teen read-a-thon, a visit by Appalachian
storyteller Kathy Coleman as well as a program about rain forests presented by
Keith Folsom will be held this summer. In
Culpeper County, the last bedtime storytime will feature a puppy theme with a
visit from Freddie the puppy. The
Garden Club will hold a special storytime during National Garden Week.
A “For a Child’s Health” program will be held as well as a visit
from a Latin band. Katy recommended
the Motheread/Fatheread program to all attendees.
Visits from The Rainbow Company (interactive children’s theater),
storyteller Jim Weiss, and Snakes Alive with Ron Cromer as well as Barefoot
Puppets will be held this summer. Fourth
graders and up will have a party at the local skating rink if they achieve grand
prize level. In addition to the
usual selection of prizes upon completion of the summer reading program, readers
can opt to select a book from a binder of book selections.
The library will pay to purchase this book for the library’s collection
and will include a special bookplate stating that the book was donated by the
reader for reading a certain number of books for the summer reading program
2001. The Fluvanna County Library will use “Catch a Dragon by the
Tale” as its summer reading program theme.
Programs will include magician Mark Fuller, animals from May’s Emu
Farm, a safety program with county deputies and firemen, juggling by Karen
Lyles, folktales by Pam Bomboy, and Barefoot Puppets.
The Jefferson-Madison Library will feature an ice cream social for its
kickoff. Summer performances
feature the Kahela Dancers, storytelling by Jim Weiss, music by C. Shells, West
African music and games by Anansegromma of Ghana, a rainforest program featuring
live animals by Learning Safari, skyviewing with the Virginia Discovery Museum,
music and stories by Eve Watters, music from the Blue Ridge Irish Music School,
and music by Barb Martin. Kids and
teens will “Read for a Cause” to help support the rebuilding of a library in
Panajachel, Guatemala that was destroyed in a fire last fall.
The Cheap Thrills Teen Summer Reading Program will kick off with a 50’s
evening featuring a DJ, games, and prizes.
Book discussion groups as well as a creative writing workshop presented
by the Charlottesville Writing Center, a mehndi workshop, a magic workshop,
comedy improvisation by the Whethermen (student comedy group at UVA), a Mayan
history program, a calligraphy workshop, a tie-dye workshop, a flutemaking
workshop, and a tae kwon do demonstration will be offered.
The Orange County Public Library offers once-a-month school-age craft
time and for the summer programs will include Nicolo Whimsey (a
renaissance-style minstrel show), juggler Jonathan Austin, and Tangerine the
Clown. The Samuels Public Library will hold a Library Lock-In for
young adults as well as a children’s book creation contest. The Shenandoah County Library will offer a puppet show
entitled “All Creatures Great and Small,” storyteller Mason Talespinner
(telling Viking stories), The Fairytaler, a cartooning workshop with Jim
Sizemore, and singer Ray Owen. The
library will charge fifty cents for summer reading program registration and
registrants will receive a bag of goodies with their reading logs.
The Staunton Public Library will hold a three-day summer day camp
celebrating childhood in the 18th, 19th, and 20th
centuries (admission fee) at one branch and will offer programs featuring
authors Kathy May and Alexandria LaFaye as well as a puppet show with Kathleen
Jacobs. The Waynesboro Public
Library will hold “library time” with book reading divided by grade 1-2,
3-4, and 5-6, and a booktalk for grades 7-8, where the librarian will booktalk
about five titles each week by theme and perhaps read a chapter to the audience.
Katy
also distributed information about the Eddie Albert Seed Corps as well as
information regarding the bookmarks we may order for the VLA Conference as
discussed at the previous meeting.
The
minutes from the April meeting were approved.
Sherry
reported on VLA Council news. VLA
discussed the budget cuts to the Library of Virginia and stated that VLA would
support the state library in its decisions.
The Conference Committee extended the deadline for session proposals.
The puppet workshop, Managing Computer Use program, and the Problem
Parents program ideas were all submitted. Final
decisions about these programs will be made within the next two weeks. The
Jefferson Cup breakfast and the Jefferson Cup Overfloweth programs will be
offered at the VLA Conference.
Ann
reported that Jim Murphy will attend the VLA Conference for the Jefferson Cup
Breakfast. She is also on the
Planning Committee for VEMA and is working on hosting Walter Dean Myers for its
Saturday brunch and Diana Gabaldon for the Friday banquet. Penworthy Books has given $500 for the Jefferson Cup
breakfast at the VLA Conference. All
are encouraged to stop at Penworthy’s booth at the conference to thank them
for donating and for helping to promote the Jefferson Cup and youth services.
Rebecca is currently working on a Jefferson Cup web page.
Sherry
stated that our business meeting will be held on the Thursday of the VLA
Conference from 5:15 p.m. – 6:15 p.m. Location
will be forthcoming.
The
group discussed offering a table talk for conference attendees with a joint
Youth Services Forum, Jefferson Cup, and Library of Virginia Youth Services
table where participants would discuss the opportunities for professional growth
within these areas.
Pat
reported on Library of Virginia news.
She has been working with Noreen Bernstein and Caroline Parr to come up
with a proposal for the VLA 2002 Preconference on Family Literacy/Early
Childhood Development. The Youth
Services Forum will think about how it wants to become involved once the
proposal is complete. Pat would
like Virginia to be a part of the Libraries of Promise program. Currently other
states participate in this program that recognizes the role of libraries in
youth development and libraries pledge to provide five basic resources for
youth. She would like to create
this commitment to youth and their needs in Virginia. She distributed handouts explaining the Libraries of Promise
campaign. Pat is currently working
with the Department of Education to promote Read Aloud to a Child Week in
Virginia. Pat is currently working
on a promotional packet for the week of October 21-27. Teen Read Week will be held October14-20 and the theme will
be “Make Reading a Hobbit.” ALA
materials will be tied to this theme and the new Lord
of the Rings major motion picture. The
Library of Virginia will hold a Summer Reading Program 2001 kickoff on June 7th
with storyteller Jim Weiss. For the 2002 Summer Reading Program, the Library of Virginia
will work with a commercially produced product line. The theme for the 2002 Summer Reading Program will be “Pets
and Books: Our Friends for Life” and will be produced by K-Read, a Texas
company. The Summer Reading
Workshops are scheduled as follows: Friday Nov. 2, Sheraton Virginia Beach,
Friday Nov. 9, Doubletree Charlottesville, and Friday Nov. 16, Wyndham, Roanoke.
Pat would like to offer a Youth Services track at the next VLA
Paraprofessional Forum with concurrent sessions of nuts and bolts training.
She can market this training to the directors so they will know about the
availability of it. If anyone has
any program ideas, please contact Pat.
Sherry
stated that the Paraprofessional Conference was a success and that VLA Council
was pleased with the number of attendees this year.
The
Youth Services Forum is in need of a chair next year. All members are strongly encouraged to think about serving in
this capacity.
Youth
Services Forum regional programs this year include the Bookless Storytelling
Encore and Ellison Die programs. Ideas
for regional programs include the Capitol Choices program, a marketing program,
and a puppetry workshop. Sherry
asked that all representatives who have not yet offered a regional program to
think about program ideas.
Sherry
will obtain additional information from Pat about Janway for the VLA Conference
registration packet bookmarks promoting the Youth Services Forum.
The
next meeting will be held on September 7th at the Gordon Avenue
Library at 12:30 p.m.
The meeting adjourned.
Respectfully Submitted,
Ginger
Armstrong
Youth Services Forum Secretary