We’ll Link to That: Winter 2018

Hooray, the Winter 2018 edition of YAACS is here! The YAACS newsletter is written by youth services staff from across British Columbia, and we’ve got a column called We’ll Link to That! where we feature cool stuff we’ve found online. Our column this quarter features some of our top professional resources. Check it out!

We recently received an email from an MLIS student asking us for our favourite resources that have made a lasting impression on us. What a great question! So this quarter we thought we’d share the websites, books, and toolkits that have helped us on our journey as children’s librarians.

Blogs:

• Mel’s Desk: Mel has been blogging for years and shares her storytime plans and reflections on her blog. She’s pushed us to think critically about early literacy and how we can model and support it in our programs. One of our great models for sure!
• The ALSC Blog: The Association for Library Services to Children has an excellent blog where people from all over share ideas. Every post is different and it’s a great way to stay up-to-date with the professional world of children’s librarians.

Professional Development Books:

• Reading Picture Books with Children by Megan Dowd Lambert: Lambert changed the way we read books aloud in storytime. Her book is written in an accessible style which helped us slow down and focus on the child’s experience of picture books as works of art. Great for anyone working with school-age kids too!
• NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman: This book covers a wide range of child development topics with each chapter focusing on a different topic. This book changed the way I talk about race with small children.

Organization Websites:

• Colorado Libraries for Early Literacy: Not only do they have an amazing collection of song and rhyme videos in different languages, but they also give away an award for picture books based on the 5 early literacy practices every year.
• Zero to Three: Our go-to resource for anything related to early brain development and language acquisition. Research-based!

Tools of the Trade:

• The Community-Led Libraries Toolkit: This toolkit provides a framework for how to implement the community-led model at a library which aims to reach underserved and marginalized communities.This framework guides our community outreach efforts as children’s librarians and also supports our values as social justice advocates.

What resources have had a lasting impact on you? We’d love to hear about them! Shoot us an email anytime at jbrary@gmail.com.