19. April 2012 · Comments Off on Final Reflection on PLA Conference · Categories: Uncategorized

April has rapidly been passing by and I wanted to write one final reflection on the PLA Conference. One of the things that I heard at the conference was the need to have library staff perform story times and the basic duties of a children’s librarian. Apparently library managers are finding that not enough people are ready, willing, and able to handle those duties. Some libraries have having their staff wear multiple hats with one of them being a children’s librarian. I would imagine that the babies in bloom and other story times are very popular in most branches so the need to have staff that can perform those duties is important. I believe that these story times are important because they are examples of popular programming. You cannot digitize a program like story time so those programs will probably form the foundation of successful public libraries in the future. In one conference I was in there was discussion about a librarian who did not perform story times, but at least supported the story time by creating a bag full of story time materials such as puppets, felt birds, song sheets, etc.

 

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