Connecting to this year’s summer reading theme, On Your Mark…Get Set…READ, Dan will take kids on an adventure as they compete against cosmic aliens during the Intergalactic Olympic Championships! Plus, every child attendee will receive a commemorative “space orb” for their efforts. Join us at the Drake Public Library meeting room at 1:00pm for fun with Dan Wardell of IPTV!
Children's Library
Dancing with Buffy and Haddie Hurley!
Have you ever wanted to learn how to dance? Maybe you already love to dance! Come to Drake Public Library and join local dancers and dance instructors, Buffy and Haddie Hurley as they lead the Summer Reading Program group in some cool dance moves. Maybe you’ll learn something that you can show off on the dance floor!
Scholastic Book Fair – Hard Work Pays Off!
Our Scholastic Book Fair was held Monday, March 9th through Saturday, March 14th. After weeks of planning, scheduling volunteers and publicity, we can now say that it was a great success.
This year, our Book Fair was “manned” through a combination of volunteers and employees. I couldn’t have done it without all of these wonderful people! Hailey Harbour, Tori Brown, Mindi Blizek, Mike Barth, Julianna Barth, Miles Starr, Jeff Livingston, Shawn Dekker, Dana Moritz, Nicole Cox, Lottie Wilson, Mary Beth Thomas, Lois Hays, Deanna Allen and Winona Whitaker all volunteered their time to set up, work and tear down the fair. Library Employees Jami Livingston, Beth Burgin, Theresa Liford and Pam Reed also put in time to help the project run smoothly. Theresa and Pam were especially important in keeping the fair room supervised and assisting volunteers as they came in to work throughout the week. I am so grateful for all of their help. Thank you so much!
Now to the results of our efforts! When you purchase items through the Scholastic Book Fair, the Drake Public Library receives 40% of each purchase in Scholastic Dollars. At the conclusion of this year’s book fair, we totaled $1,717.41 in sales. After purchasing what was left from our wish list book selections, this brought our Scholastic Dollars earnings to $579.57! Speaking of our “wish list selections”, patrons were especially generous this year in purchasing books that I had selected for our wish list and donating them back to us. 31 books were purchased as a donation to us! More might come back to us through our online book fair that will continue through March 24th. The link is on our website as well as the Drake Public Library and Drake Public Library Kids Facebook pages. These books came directly to us and they still counted toward our Scholastic Dollars earnings. Pretty neat!
Storytime featuring books from the Scholastic Book Fair.
This year, Scholastic also sent a “gift basket” of free books, valued at $100, for us to use as prizes for our summer reading program. They also let us pick out any of the leftover posters from the fair display to keep for our library, at no cost. This is a pretty nice gift from our Scholastic friends.
Scholastic Dollars allow me to purchase books, bookmarks, posters and program supplies through the online resource catalog, at no cost to the library. Even shipping is free. I have used our Scholastic Dollars to replace damaged books, update Children’s Library decorations and even provide interactive items (like our new hand held white boards and our book character plush dolls) for our program activities. I also purchased books for our very popular Toddler Time group participants. Every child that attended Toddler Time during the Book Fair was able to choose a book from the fair display to take home with them for free. It’s a gift that makes them smile with pride, as they hold their brand new book. And really, isn’t that what this is all about? It was a joy to see the excitement that our kids and families have for reading and for supporting the Drake Public Library!
Books donated to the Drake Library by shoppers at the Scholastic Book Fair
Kid’s Library News
Dogs and readers enjoy visting during Doggie Days
As Children’s Librarian for Drake Public Library, one of my favorite jobs is the outreach program. I visit Zylpha Price group home for disabled adults twice a month to read books to them and color or create crafts. I visit the Preschool and 3-4 year old classrooms at Kids World Childcare once a month for story time. I schedule Reading Night events here at the library and visit several classrooms for the Centerville School District throughout the school year. I have recently begun an outreach relationship with the Parents as Teachers program through our local SIEDA office, doing story times and hosting events for them here at the library on occasion. I am always excited to attend to these outreach opportunities, getting to know the children of our community and helping them gain an appreciation for reading.
A local preschool group visits with JeNel Allen Barth in the Children’s Library
As we move into the holiday season at the Children’s Department, things are getting busy. We are looking forward to our American Girl Christmas Tea Party, which has become very popular. I will also be participating in the Breakfast with Santa event, sponsored by I Am Main Street by doing a Story time with the children in attendance. In January, we will be holding another of our Doggie Days so that the kids can read to our local “celebrity dogs”.
I will continue to host our programs each week throughout the school year. School Age Story time is on Mondays at 4pm, Toddler Time is on Wednesdays at 11:30am, and Game & Craft Group is on Thursdays at 4pm. Children are always welcome at these events without needing to pre-register.
Pancake Day Queen 2013 Maddison Lange attended our American Girl Tea to talk with the attendees about her Queen experience
I am also eager to chat with our kids about the books that they enjoy reading, books that they need to find for school and books that they would like to see here at the library. It is through these conversations that I realized how much our Board Book interest and circulation has increased in the last year. With that in mind, our Director, Jami, and I were inspired to request funding from Friends of the Drake Public Library to purchase $1,000 worth of brand new Board Books and an additional storage display for these new books. How exciting is that! The books have started coming in and they are already flying off the shelf!
So, come see me at the Children’s Library for a program, a special event or a book. It’s a fun place to be and we look forward to meeting you.
JeNel Barth
Children’s Librarian
Drake Public Library
