Daisy Porter, Manager from Youth Services for the San Jose Library System presented this. She said SJ Main was the biggest lirbary west of the Mississippi, SJ city was the 10th largest in US (i've heard this about other cities as well - so maybe this is recent?), and 3rd largest city in CA. They have 20 branches, most only open 4 days a week, with the exception of main - open 7 days. 50 % of population speak a second language at home.
Background - the library system needed to shut down branches / hours / and do layoffs. They wanted to maintain a high quality level of programming to combat this tough situation. They werte doing 466 types of programs, 2,6-4 events per quarter. 51 % were re-occuring, 9 % were system wide. 44 hours a month were going to programming for each full timer [18 hrs of planning, 13 presenting, 8 marketing).
They felt the answer was to go to "centralized programming" - or have a team of programmers plan and create all of the programs offered. By all of the programs - that means all - storytimes, tech, adult, literacy, etc.
They have several t ams within the library (it seems like this is a side job) - innovation team, etc. However, this programming team seemed to be a full time job. The team consisted of a manager (Daisy), 2 full time librarians, and two part time librarians. All appeared to children's librarians or versed in children's services.
They started this team in July and were given the goal to create 40 pre-packaged boxes of pre-planned storytimes by Sept. 1st. These boxes were sturdy routing tubs (about $100 a bin) that would be filled with 15 books appropriate for storytimes for abby, toddler, preschool, school age all on a certain theme. Each bin would also contain fingerplays, flannel board pieces and flannel board, puppets, stickers for a giveaway. The bin was designed to be a complete package to be circulated throughout the year (ie - 2,000 stickers).
The program team had a total budget of $40,000 for whole system, all programs, and program kits. The majority of the funds went to creating the kits. The kit creation required pulling children's librarians from all the branches to order puppets, pull and order books, and assemble kits.
The team also had to design a menu fo rlibrary's to order what programming they would like on what dates. The team desgined a spreadsheet that was devided into the areas of programming required - storytime, tech program, etc.
The program team used zoomerang surverys to track library staff's feedback on qualtiy of kits, how the public responded to the kit, and how they felt about the kit. Staff were givent he chance to offer feedback at anytime through email or phone, as well as their representative. Manager's were also able to offer feedback at meetings.
Overall - they love it. It did not go over well at all at first. A year later, people liked it. They said it required more staff then they thought it would. They also created virtual storytime box kits onlines for holidays, and had an intranet for staff where fingerplays could be watched.
My impression - an ok idea. It seems like a waist of time to have someone else plan a program for you. You may hate bok sand activities in box. Nw the budget is paying for two people to plan. I think having several standard kits for our library could be helpful (someon calls in sick and anyone can pull the pets storytime theme box). I like the idea that the qualtiy of programming is "controlled" and ensured by these boxes. I think presenters would hate this because an important part of presenting is feeling passionate about what you've selected (which I think ties int o the creativity and planning). This would alos be a handy training tool for new staff starting to just present this pre-selected material.
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