Children's Services Fundamentals

Instructor: Penny Peck

Format: Online

Fee: $75 for those in the California library community and Infopeople Partners, $150 for all others.

(An Infopeople Online Learning Course)
January 5, 2010 – February 1, 2010

Does your work in the library include service to children and their families? Are you new to your responsibilities for children's services or returning after a long absence? Do you want to do a better job in providing homework assistance, readers' advisory, library tours, or family programs?

Expert children's librarian and author Penny Peck will help you to acquire knowledge and skills to make you more comfortable and confident about providing fundamental children's services. As a result of the course you will be able to:

• Conduct a reference interview to match grade-appropriate resources with children's information needs
• Determine children's reading interests, including those of reluctant readers, and find books to meet those interests
• Plan and host entertaining programs that attract families to the library
• Conduct a book discussion group for school-age children
• Promote books and reading through booktalking, library tours, and displays

Whether you are new or not-so-new to children's services, you'll come away with resources, best practices, and useful tips and techniques that can be applied immediately in your library.

Because the topics of children's storytime and collection development are covered in other Infopeople courses, they will not be covered in this course.

Course Description: This four-week online course begins with the basic services of reference, homework help, and readers' advisory, then builds on those skills with library tours, booktalks, and basic youth programming. You will develop a booklist, record a booktalk, plan for a library tour, and do other assignments to practice the skills learned. The instructor will provide a variety of online resources and handouts as a toolkit to use whenever you are serving children and families in the library. You will also participate in discussion forums and online meetings as part of the online learning process.

Preliminary Course Outline: Using your web browser and your Internet connection, you will log in to the Infopeople online learning site and complete the following learning modules:

• Week 1: Children's Reference and Homework Help
  • What is reference? How a child's developmental level affects reference
  • Reference interview questions and techniques, including body language
  • Homework: finding what children need, which may not be what they ask for initially
  • Math questions and homework
  • Useful online resources for information and homework
• Week 2: Readers Advisory for Children
  • What is readers' advisory? Overview of recreational reading for children
  • Recreational reading by grade level and by genre of fiction
  • Readers' advisory interview questions and techniques
  • Finding read-alikes and books for reluctant readers
  • Online resources to assist with readers' advisory
• Week 3: Programming for School-Age Children
  • Overview of library programming for youth (excluding storytime)
  • Entertainment programs from planning stage to delivery
  • Book discussion groups for older children and "tweens"
  • Summer reading programs
  • Do-it-yourself programs and films
  • Online resources for planning library programs
• Week 4: Tours and Book Promotion
  • Conducting exciting tours for classes visiting the library
  • Booktalking as a way to promote recreational reading
  • Other forms of book promotion including booklists and online book promotion
  • Simple library displays.
  • Online resources for tours, library instruction, booktalks, and book promotion

Time required: To complete this course, you can expect to spend 3 hours per week. You can work on each module at your own pace, at any hour of the day or night. However, it is recommended that you complete each week's assignments within that week to stay in sync with other learners.

Who Should Take This Course: Any library staff who provide service to children, including reference librarians or other staff who substitute at the children's desk; new children's librarians or other library staff who are relatively new to serving children. This course is particularly valuable for support staff whose work includes children's services responsibilities.

Online Learning Details and System Requirements may be found at
http://www.infopeople.org/training/learning_details.html.

Course Start: This 4-week-long online learning course starts on January 5, 2010.

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