Chandra Jones
Service to grades 4-12
Speed Dating with a Book
In an effort to relieve the monotony of the traditional booktalking format, Meghann Henry and I implemented Speed Dating with a Book.
Setup: six tables, each featuring a different book genre and six to eight books. Stickers of three colors are on each table, to be used by students to indicate LOVE, meh, and hate. Students come in and seat themselves at the tables.
Hosting:
5 minutes welcome and introduction to how to "meet" a book
15-20 minutes students spend two minutes at a table, meeting as many books as possible. At the end of two minutes,
students are giving a ten-second warning to give them time to rate the genre and then a buzzer or bell sounds, indicating
that it is time to rotate to the next table.
5 minutes librarian leads short reflection on the experience. Depending on the group, this might be prompts that students answer by raising their hands, or, preferably, students are asked to quickly move to the table that they loved the most and then indicate by holding up or pointing, which book they most liked.
5 minutes students may check out books as they leave.
video courtesy of JPS-TV
Roving librarian
Recharge Yourself station
The idea for the roving librarian at public events sprang from the models of beer vendors at ballgames, cigarette girls in old movies, and Jeffco Library's own roving service model. By being mobile, librarians are able to meet event-goers at their point of need, as well as to be able to reach the most popular spots at the venue without dragging our table in front of someone else.
Recharge Yourself was created to fulfill event-goers needs. Based on the idea of "show, don't tell," we thought it was a good idea to provide library services rather than handing out fliers telling people about how awesome the library is.
Recharge Yourself offers shade or rain protection, water, and a place to rest, as well as a solar-powered recharging station for your cell phone.