This is a Canadian Children’s Librarian Blog that primarily focuses on providing Programming and Storytime resources. This includes posts like book lists, craft and display ideas, as well as other articles sprinkled throughout that highlight other tools for youth services librarians.
Target Audience – The target audience is clearly adult librarians. Even though it discusses storytime, songs, and other fun subjects, it is written from the perspective of an educator having discourse with other educators, not the final product being shown to children and parents. The resources it shares however, are ready to be implemented in the reader’s library!
Strengths and Weaknesses- In my search for a blog that catered to today’s children’s librarians, Jbrary had the most diverse list of resources and a running archive of posts since 2013 all the way up as of 2022. It was hard enough to find a blog that was still active and updating, but this meant that Jbrary had considered more recent issues in their posts, such as restrictions imposed on library programming since the pandemic and other more hands-free ways librarians could interact with patrons. One great example is the recent post entitled “Self-Directed Library Programs” that details scavenger hunts, interactive walking paths, Spot-it challenges and more that librarians can set and let young patrons encounter on their own. While the blog is very much still active, it does not have a regular posting schedule – this is its weakness. You cannot always expect a weekly update from the blog, or fully rely on it for a steady stream of ideas for your library (although you can always skim the backlogs for older ideas). However, it is likely from the blog’s track record that there will be a post or two (at the very least) every other month.
Creative Uses- One of their multifaceted posts was an adaptable Virtual Family Program centered on Drew Daywalt’s The Day the Crayons Quit; this program guide offered multiple ideas on take home crafts for families to follow along (with printable instruction sheets), live Zoom storytimes with props, and different science experiments that related to concepts of the story (for example, color) that a librarian could perform for the audience. It also provided display options for librarians, including building a “What my Crayon did While it was Away” shoebox diorama and encouraging patrons to bring in their own to add to it. I also have already found use in the blog myself, as I was recommended a thorough children’s librarian storytime planning podcast called Storytime Out Loud through one of their posts that gives a great list for library-centric podcasts, with links! Why not find a new podcast of your own on Jbrary for more programming ideas?
The Bookworm's Reading Blog 