Losing Sleep » Chicago

Children’s Program at Chicago Public Library

Chris — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 13:40:58 +0000

¹ A couple of weeks ago I had to go observe a children’s program at a public library for one of my grad school classes. I originally wanted to go see a young adult program but because of time and travel restrictions I settled on going to the Harold Washington Library to watch a program at the Thomas Hughes Children’s Library. I was happily surprised by how good it was. The presenter was a woman named Katie and she had a program prepared about things that move. She had a crowd of 20 to 30 children (2-5 yrs. old with a preschool group) and she presented in the small theatre in the children’s library.

She really had the kids attention right from the beginning and they all seemed to be enjoying it. Katie would read a picture book and intersperse it with finger plays, action activities and sing alongs. It was a good mix of activities because it kept the kids from zoning out and then would draw them back in when it was time for more focused attention. It was really nicely done.

The one critique that I would make is that it was too long. The entire program was 40 minutes and at about the 35 minute mark the kids really started to get restless. It wasn’t too crazy but you could tell that the program was running too long.

All in all it was a great activity and I would recommend it to anybody with young children. It would make a great morning activity, you could take the train down, go to the program, eat lunch and then take the train home (that is if it doesn’t interfere with nap time). The programs are at 11:00am and are supposed to run about 40 minutes. At some point I’m going to bring my own children down but I’ll wait until I can get the Mommy to come with me so I don’t have to wrestle the kids on my own.

For more information you can look at the Thomas Hughes Children’s Library Calendar of Events.

Photo by Paytonc

New ILS at CPL in the Spring? (Spring of what year?)

Chris — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 19:26:30 +0000

Don’t be scared by the acronyms (ILS = Integrated Library Service). I’ve been reading the Chicago Public Library strategic plan lately and I was especially interested in this part (found on page 17, 2nd column about half way down).

The Chicago Public Library will launch a completely redesigned website in conjunction with the 2006 introduction of our new Integrated Library System. We envision that chicagopubliclibrary.org will be our “virtual branch library” for accessing the rich and varied resources available online through CPL….
The redesigned website will offer an improved online catalog of the Library’s collections (including a children’s catalog), enhanced patron services, general information about the Library, programs and events, increased digital journals and collections, reference assistance and links to additional Internet resources.

I can’t wait. The current CPL site drives me crazy. The site feels like 1995. I emailed CPL asking about the new ILS and this is the response that I received.

The vendor working on our new ILS is TLC (The Library Corporation).

Both the ILS and our newly designed website will debut this spring.

The current ILS was designed by CARL and was implemented in 1995. (I knew it)

Our new ILS will offer library users more convenience and will include online patron-placed holds, online renewal and telephone renewal.

Additionally, patrons will have more options when searching the CPL catalog. The Chicago Public Library has spent a great deal of time researching patron’s needs and the features that will be provided are in response to what our users tell us they want. The result will be a robust, dynamic system.

Thank you for your interest.

Greta Bever
Assistant Commissioner

I received the email in mid February of this year. Spring has come and gone. I hope we see the new site soon.

More on the Great Kids Museum Passports…

Chris — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 01:09:24 +0000

A reader left a comment about the Great Kids Museum Passports. Her local branch has a sign that lists all the museum passes and which ones are available and which ones are out. I can’t tell you how many times my wife and I have had to ask the librarians which passes were in and we had to go down the list to find out. I’ve heard other people doing the same thing other times while I was waiting in line. Putting out a sign listing which passes are available would be a great way to save everybodies time.

Next time I go to my local branch I think I’m going to suggest that.

Get into Chicago Museums for Free Thanks to Chicago Public Library

Chris — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 18:36:43 +0000

I’m constantly surprised by the fact that people don’t know about this, and it seems like A LOT of people don’t know about this. Chicago Public Library and Kraft foods have partnered together and created a program called The Great Kids Museum Passports. Each library has passports for almost every museum that will get you into that museum for free. My wife is constantly going to our local branch looking for these to bring our kids to the Shedd Aquarium (and other museums). They can be hard to come by sometimes but when you can get one, it is well worth it.

The library has passes to all the major museums:
• The Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum
• The Art Institute of Chicago
• The Brookfield Zoo
• The Chicago Children’s Museum
• The Chicago History Museum
• The Dusable Museum of African American History
• The Field Museum
• The McCormic Tribune Freedom Museum
• The Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum
• The Museum of Contemporary Art
• The Museum of Science and Industry
• The Notebaert Nature Museum
• The John G. Shedd Aquarium

The passes are good for 5 people (adults or children) and can be checked out for 1 week. Late fees are $1 per day (with a $10 max). I’ve been told by librarians that each library has 5 passes for each museum. Be warned, if you lose the pass it is a $30 fine on your card and it takes the library 1 month to get a replacement.

The Great Kids site is a little confusing. They list Museums in the Park which includes most of the museums in the list above. They also include The Chicago Public Library. I spoke to a librarian on the phone about this and I was told that there are no passes for CPL (because it’s free anyway) and that there are no additional passes for Museums in the Park, just the passes they have for the individual museums. The librarian I spoke to was a little confused about that also.

Maybe I shouldn’t be blogging about this. Now it will be harder than ever for my wife to get the passes she wants.