Event Calendar

Date(s): October 23, 2023

Time: 10:00 AM  EST - 3:30 PM  EST

Develop and refresh your storytime skills at Storytime Bootcamp! This in-person half-day conference is an opportunity for library staff to develop their storytime knowledge and skills through presentations and practice with experts in the field. Due to a large turnover in library children’s services staff in the past 2 years, many staff doing storytime are relatively new to this unique form of early literacy programming. Storytime is an essential library service for families with children birth to five and can be the entry point for library use and lifelong support of public libraries. Therefore, it is important that staff doing storytime programming provide exceptional experiences for the adults and children attending. Dr. Betsy Diamant-Cohen (Mother Goose on the Loose, LLC) will present a two-hour session about brain basics, early literacy, and how to create developmentally appropriate storytime programs. Attendees will practice proven techniques for joyfully selecting and presenting books in storytimes. Kathy MacMillan (Stories By Hand) will present an hour storytime showdown full of fresh ideas, practical tricks, and easy flannel boards, fingerplays, sign language rhymes, and other activities. Participants will learn how to keep an audience’s attention, transition smoothly between activities, and keep kids and parents coming back for more! Elaine Sarlo (Queen Anne's County Library) and Nicole Wilson (Baltimore County Public Library) will present an hour session on how to best add caregiver tips into storytime. Attendees will explore different ways to design a storytime around Every Child Ready to Read early literacy practices, use materials in storytime to demonstrate those practices to caregivers, and add tips to predesigned storytimes.
Register early; space is limited. Lunch is not provided, so bring your own or go out to lunch.