HomeMy WebLinkAboutAugust 21, 1985August 21, 1985
Last September, several of the northern suburban Hennepin county children's
librarians were invited to our library for a sharing workshop. Each librarian
was asked to share one special way of telling a story, t chose to perform a one-
man puppet show~ something I do with each of my storytimes. Several weeks later,
I was asked by the Hennepin county library program coordinator if I would be
interested in participating in a two week exchange program with their library
system to perform some of my puppet shows. I was interested.
After Becky received approval from the library board and the city manager~ the
exchange program was set up for the first two weeks in August.
Ruth Harris, the St. Anthony Village librarian~ replaced me for the two weeks.
She was a guest storyteller for two pre-school story hours, and also shared two
Hennepin county films with our children. Ruth also shared many good ideas that
I hope will be implemented in the future at the Columbia Heights library.
During my two weeks with the Hennepin county library system, I performed thirty-
one puppet shows in twenty-five different Hennepin county libraries. I also
performed puppet shows in s school in St. Bonifacius~ a museum in Long Lake, and
the Maple Grove shopping center as part of the Bookmobile program. I performed
three different plays: Little Bunny Fop Foo~ The Singing Dragon, and The Three
Little Pigs. ~y total audience for th~s two week period of time was approximately
three thousand people.
Ridgedale library has their own television studio, and as part of the exchange
program ! was asked to make a video tape of my show for cable television. The
video tape will be edited and distributed sometiv~e this fall.
The volunteer coordinator for Hennepin county arranged transportation for me with
drivers that were familiar with the location of the different libraries. The
volunteer drivers picked me up each morning at the St. Anthony library.
The Hennepin county library system is one of the best and most ~rogressive systems
in the state~ and I found it very interesting to be a s~all part of it for two
weeks. When I was not performing my puppet shows~ setting up, taking down, and
traveling between librarJes~ I had specific tasks to perform and some time to
tour most of the libraries. I was able to pick up many new and different ideas
that we could possibly implement here in Colun~bia Heights.
It ~as very interesting to observe the use of computers in their libraries knowing
that we will also be using computers in the near future.
Hennepin county libraries vary a ~reat deal depending on the size of the community
they serve. Many of their libraries that serve heavily populated areas are large
and beautiful, and offer a great variety of services. Some of the libraries that
service smaller areas; and areas farther away from the cities~ are quite small,
but still offer many services and any book owned by the system is available to
any patron in the county no matter how ~ ail i~i~e ]ib~-v~ry is.
The entire experience was ~ great opportunity for me and I considered it an honor
to have been asked to share my little puppet plays with all of the other libraries,
great and small, but I must admit~ I am very happy to be back home where I belong.
Jo Scudder
Cl~ildren's Services Specialist