Carnegie updates children’s room
April 3, 2014
,
The Mining Journal
ISHPEMING - More kids in Marquette County's west end are checking out
books and taking part in special programs at the Ishpeming Carnegie
Public Library children's room, thanks to recent interior upgrades and
an ambitious and invested children's librarian.
The children's room has a new stage for puppet shows built as a wood-framed window in the west wall and a number of pieces of new furniture, including some sized for parents who want to stay and interact with their youngsters.
And Roger Junak, whom Library Director John McNaughton called a "local artist and local legend" for his handful of murals throughout the area painted a mural featuring a doe and her fawn and a few other fauna in the midst of a forest on the west wall.
"We're really, really happy with it," McNaughton said. "(Junak)
wanted to do it free of charge. I guess the story goes, when he used to
come to this library when he was a kid, one of the librarians here at
the time gave him his first set of paints."
Heather Lander was given the librarian job in the children's room last June, and has since improved program attendance and doubled the children's circulation numbers.
"She has a lot of ties to the community, she added a lot more programs and I think she's been really listening to the public and trying to bring new and innovative ways to get people in - and her programs have been really popular," McNaughton said. "It's been great."
"I really try whenever patrons come in to talk to them about what they're looking for ... and finding out what kinds of things they like," Lander said. "If children come in and they're, for instance, looking for books about trains ... then I'll not only point them to picture books of trains, but then nonfiction books about trains, and then they check out a lot more, because they see how many different things there are to offer."
Lander is planning an upcoming "LEGO Storytime" special program at 5 p.m. April 24, where, after reading stories, kids will build things out of LEGOS that fit the stories' themes. If successful, she said, it will become a regular event.
For more information on the children's room programs, visit the blog at www.ishpemingpubliclibrarykids.blogspot.com.
Zach Jay can be reached at 906-486-4401.
The children's room has a new stage for puppet shows built as a wood-framed window in the west wall and a number of pieces of new furniture, including some sized for parents who want to stay and interact with their youngsters.
And Roger Junak, whom Library Director John McNaughton called a "local artist and local legend" for his handful of murals throughout the area painted a mural featuring a doe and her fawn and a few other fauna in the midst of a forest on the west wall.
Heather Lander was given the librarian job in the children's room last June, and has since improved program attendance and doubled the children's circulation numbers.
"She has a lot of ties to the community, she added a lot more programs and I think she's been really listening to the public and trying to bring new and innovative ways to get people in - and her programs have been really popular," McNaughton said. "It's been great."
"I really try whenever patrons come in to talk to them about what they're looking for ... and finding out what kinds of things they like," Lander said. "If children come in and they're, for instance, looking for books about trains ... then I'll not only point them to picture books of trains, but then nonfiction books about trains, and then they check out a lot more, because they see how many different things there are to offer."
Lander is planning an upcoming "LEGO Storytime" special program at 5 p.m. April 24, where, after reading stories, kids will build things out of LEGOS that fit the stories' themes. If successful, she said, it will become a regular event.
For more information on the children's room programs, visit the blog at www.ishpemingpubliclibrarykids.blogspot.com.
Zach Jay can be reached at 906-486-4401.
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