Children and YA Newsletter
November 2023
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November! Let the holiday season roll...
Somehow candy corns have come and gone and the season of pumpkin spice is upon us. No fear, we have things to support you: New England Teen Summit, All CT Reads 2024, iREAD updates, Take Your Child to the Library Day and oh-so-much more. Read on to learn all about it.
| Kymberlee Powe | Children and YA Consultant | |
Teen Summit: A Collaborative Effort of the New England State Library Youth Consultants
Friday, November 17
10 am-4 pm | Register
Teen Summit is a free, virtual, daylong event full of presentations, trainings, and the occasional author visit!
We invite you to join us for the live sessions that fit with your schedule. Don’t worry about missing anything – all sessions will be recorded and shared to our Teen Services LibGuide page. You can also find recordings of past Teen Summits on this page.
This year, we want to thank Little, Brown and Company Books for Young Readers; Lee and Low; Penguin Young Readers; and Simon and Schuster for sharing digital ARCs with our Teen Summit attendees! They will be available along with presenter slides in your Virtual Tote Bag.
Check out our schedule of events to begin planning your Teen Summit day!
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All CT Reads 2024 Virtual Author Launch
with Kelly Yang, Nick Brooks, and Daniel Black
Friday, January 19
11 am-12:30 pm | Register
Join us for an extra-special virtual launch with the authors of the 2024 All CT Reads primary selections. Each author will discuss their work and answer questions from our community.
Recording & Slides: Recordings will be available on the All CT Reads website.
Who should come? Everyone! Please share this with your patrons - they're invited to join the event too! You can add it to your library calendar and newsletter.
Accessibility: This webinar will be captioned. If you require another access service to participate fully, please use the Accommodation Request Form at least 7 days prior to the event.
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Stay in the loop!
About All CT Reads
All CT Reads is a year-long initiative to promote lifelong reading, learning, and connection that uses a rotating community committee structure to select one main book title and three shortlist book titles, each calendar year for three age groups: children (ages 8-12), teens (ages 13-18), and adults. In addition to the books, All CT Reads provides a supported programmatic structure built around the titles with room for individuality and creativity.
Why All CT Reads?
We want a way to read together. We want continuous conversations across Connecticut. We want to offer avenues of participation for spaces big and small to talk about inclusivity, cultures, acceptance, mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors. We want adventure, mystery, and relationships, too. We wanted a line-up of books that looks just like this one.
Our Partners and Sponsors
All CT Reads is an initiative of the Connecticut State Library Division of Library Development and partners with the Connecticut Library Consortium (CLC) and the Connecticut Association for School Librarians (CASL).
All CT Reads is supported by a generous grant from EBSCO Information Services to the Connecticut Heritage Foundation.
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iREAD
iREAD Resource Guide codes were emailed to one email address at every library who signed up to request an access on Tuesday, November 14th.
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Codes are to be used once per library system which includes departments, branches, and bookmobiles.
- Please be sure to check in and communicate with your colleagues for access code information as codes were only sent to one email at each library.
- Libraries that did not sign up to receive access to an iREAD Resource Guide code can purchase their own copy directly from the iREAD store.
Embrace more iREAD in lots of ways!
All of this is available on the iRead LibGuides page and you can always refer to the iREAD FAQ's with your questions.
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Take Your Child to the Library Day
Saturday, February 3
On the first Saturday in February, thousands of libraries across the world celebrate Take Your Child to the Library Day by offering free, fun, fabulous activities for families. Your local library is an ideal place for children to play, discover, make friends, and have fun. And Take Your Child to the Library Day is the perfect time to discover some library magic. From magicians to craft programs, ice cream socials to storytimes, each library offers something unique and delightful.
Do you need ideas and resources as you plan for your Take Your Child to the Library Day programs? Explore all the offerings we have at the Middletown Library Service Center! You can borrow puppets, storytime resources, STEM kits, and so much more.
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New CT Pages!
Watch the new CT Pages and meet Stephanie Rush, Youth Services Librarian at the Russell Library, who shares the experience of running the "Find Your Voice" Summer Screen Printing Program for Teens with support from a CT State Library Summer Enrichment Grant. Partnering with local small business Cinder + Salt, Russell Library ran a series of screen printing programs, including two design basics workshops and two process workshops for young people ages 12+ and a grown-up of their choice. They also worked with the Solnit Center and the Middletown Youth Services Bureau to provide access and space for their young people to participate in the program with their accompanying adult staff members. The goals? Provide more teen programming based on feedback, fit the summer reading theme by creating space for finding their creative voices, and reaffirm Russell Library as a safe, welcoming space for teens.
CT Pages is a channel for sharing community engagement success stories by libraries with and for their communities. We partner with CT libraries to create and release short video conversations with the library staff who make things happen.
Do you have a creative program, service, activity, partnership, or project that you want to share with your library neighbors? We are always seeking submissions for consideration – Submit your idea!
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READsquared
Summer might be over, yet folks are still reading and libraries are still programming! And the Connecticut State Library is pleased to provide READsquared (at no cost!) to all public libraries. You can plan your winter reading challenge, or program of you choice, and build your customized site, engagement features, content, and activities to specifically appeal to your community of all ages.
Learn more about READsquared.
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Creating Inclusive Collections
While it’s important to ensure our collections are diverse, what does it mean to ensure they are truly inclusive? In this session, we discussed why moving toward inclusive library collections is a crucial step in advancing equity and justice at our institutions. You’ll learn from an expert how to assess your collections as they are now, and hear what considerations to make when ordering and weeding. We also touched on how to address some of the challenges to materials in your collection and how to advocate for underrepresented voices that must be included.
Watch the Creating Inclusive Collections Webinar Recording
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New Storywalk® Books!
The Middletown Library Service Center (MLSC) has many collection items worth knowing about, exploring, and of course, borrowing! We lend resources to public, school and academic libraries throughout the state of Connecticut to help supplement collections or provide access to resources that otherwise might be out of reach. We lend Picture Books, Non-fiction, Book Discussion Sets, and more!
We recently added StoryWalks® to our collection! A StoryWalk® is a fun activity that engages families in literacy while being physically active through walking or hiking. Pages from a children’s book are placed along a walkable path. Families have fun reading aloud together and building children’s interest in reading while enjoying the physical and mental health benefits of the outdoors. While StoryWalks® are traditionally outdoor activities, we encourage you to use these materials wherever works for your library, including indoors.
Laminated pages can be mounted according to borrowing library's preference. Please do not puncture the laminated pages. Please remove tape, Velcro, and other adhesives before returning. The loan period for StoryWalks® is 45 days.
The StoryWalk® Project was created by Anne Ferguson of Montpelier, VT and developed in collaboration with the Kellogg-Hubbard Library. StoryWalk® is a registered service mark owned by Ms. Ferguson.
Titles available as StoryWalks®:
View all available StoryWalks®.
Not sure how to request items? Don’t worry, we made a video on how to request items!
Do you work in a school? Have your MLSC items sent to the public library of your choice - either the town your school is in or the town you live in! Not sure of your library's deliverIT CT number? You can find deliver IT numbers here!
And remember, you can book items up to 365 days in advance and there are NO LATE FEES! Happy Browsing!
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Niche Academy
We created Niche Academy categories for youth librarians! You can now explore these sections for self-paced, on-demand professional development tutorials focused on these areas of library services:
Happy learning!
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Stay Connected! Join our Email Lists
Our many email discussion lists for the library community help you connect with your peers. Conntech has the greatest reach across the state, and both Goodnightmoon for children's services and Speak for YA services have lively discussions and professional interchange.
Browse the full email list and subscription information.
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Kymberlee Powe
Children and YA Consultant
kymberlee.powe@ct.gov | (860) 704-2207
Connecticut State Library | Division of Library Development
Middletown Library Service Center
786 South Main Street | Middletown, CT 06457
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