Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki - User contributions [en]

Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki:Help

2005-08-01T04:05:40Z

Alison:

'''Building a Bridge Between the Oral Tradition and English Literacy.'''

At the Little Priest Tribal College (LPTC) and Winnebago Public Library, in Nebraska, we do a number of innovative things. At least one of the programs we offer I have not heard of anywhere else. We call it "Reading on Request". It comes out of our experience with story time failure. People just did not want to come to the library with their preschoolers on Saturday for a story time. Now, whenever a child comes to the library, they can ask to have a story read. In a month's time, our children's librarian reads from 200 to 250 books aloud both in and out of the library.

We began to think about this when we noticed that students entering our college could not read or write at college level. One of the reasons was that most children in Winnebago were not read aloud to at home. We began to heavily promote reading aloud as a way to encourage school success. This is just one of the programs we are doing. We also have a liaison with the prenatal program at the hospital where we promote reading to infants, even prior to birth. We are developing a program where each new mother gets a packet of gifts and information from the library including a gift certificate for a free board book, a baby t-shirt that says, "Read to me!", and a pamphlet explaining all the good reasons for reading to your baby.

Today's 11th graders are the first ones who ever benefitted by these programs, and we are looking forward to seeing if our hard work is paying off.

Another service is building an audiobook collection. We have approximately 500 titles in this collection now. It helps students and others build a listening vocabulary, a necessary precursor to reading. Our children's librarian also takes books to all the day care and preschools in town and reads aloud once a week to each group. Another program we developed is taking reading aloud and library books to the teens at the Youth Center, which houses young adults in court-ordered detention, a substance-abuse treatment group, and a shelter for abused or neglected children. This program circulates as many as 20 books or magazines every week,in addition to the ones read aloud.

We read some research that shows that the more print there is in a community the higher the literacy level, and the more success there is in school. We started soliciting donations of books so that we could do book give-aways. We also have low-cost book sales frequently. We have donated boxes of books to day-care centers, schools, family literacy programs and other public libraries in Thurston County.

You can check our progress on the Nebraska Report Card web site by looking up Winnebago Public Schools.

Wiki User List

2005-07-31T05:46:17Z

Alison:

User:Alison

2005-07-31T05:44:14Z

Alison:

Hi, I'm an MLS student at UNC Chapel Hill. I'm currently working in the East Asia Collection, specifically on Japanese Studies, at Duke's Perkins Library, and in Fall I'll be a reference and instruction intern at Duke's Lilly Library. I've also ventured into govt libraries, having worked at the LC, Veterans' History Project, for a summer, and into corporate libraries, being currently employed by SAS's library as a researcher and analyst. I'm hoping to combine Japan, research, and teaching in my future employment.

User:Alison

2005-07-31T05:36:35Z

Alison:

MLS student at UNC Chapel Hill, I'm currently working in the East Asia Collection, specifically on Japanese Studies, at Duke Univ.'s library.

Subject Guides

2005-07-31T05:33:26Z

Alison: /* Japanese Studies Resources, Perkins Library, Duke University */

= Success Stories =

= Subject Guides We Like =

'''Japanese Studies Resources, Perkins Library, Duke University
''', http://www.lib.duke.edu/ias/eac/japan/japanesestudies.html.

This site provides a comprehensive guide to resources for Japanese studies, from Anthropology through Women's Studies. It focuses, naturally, on resources available at Duke Univ., but also has links to web resources for different subjects, study abroad, funding resources, culture, etc. It gives researchers, students, and librarians a good starting place regarding key reference materials for social sciences or humanities subjects. Remember that you might be able to access the resources via ILL if you cannot get to Duke.

The site is undergoing some revision to make it more navigable and less dense. Suggestions welcome!

----

= Tips for Developing Good Subject Guides =

= Blogs/Websites to Watch =

= Specific Blog Posts/Articles to Check Out =

[[Category:Reference Services and Information Literacy]]

Subject Guides

2005-07-31T05:32:20Z

Alison: /* Subject Guides We Like */

= Success Stories =

= Subject Guides We Like =

== Japanese Studies Resources, Perkins Library, Duke University ==
http://www.lib.duke.edu/ias/eac/japan/japanesestudies.html.

This site provides a comprehensive guide to resources for Japanese studies, from Anthropology through Women's Studies. It focuses, naturally, on resources available at Duke Univ., but also has links to web resources for different subjects, study abroad, funding resources, culture, etc. It gives researchers, students, and librarians a good starting place regarding key reference materials for social sciences or humanities subjects. Remember that you might be able to access the resources via ILL if you cannot get to Duke.

The site is undergoing some revision to make it more navigable and less dense. Suggestions welcome!

= Tips for Developing Good Subject Guides =

= Blogs/Websites to Watch =

= Specific Blog Posts/Articles to Check Out =

[[Category:Reference Services and Information Literacy]]