Erinn Batykefer's Blog, page 13

Our Favorite Things: Art & Activism

It’s time for a few Favorite Things posts, an annual series where we pull together a set of posts from the past year under a specific topic. To our minds, libraries are (and should be) activist spaces and we see the arts and creativity programming as one way to engage communities in meaningful, thought-provoking, and yes, even uncomfortable dialogues and conversations. While there are many many projects and programs that we’ve featured that could fall under the umbrella of Art & Activism, I’m...

The Upper Worlds by Sue Willis at Mid-Manhattan Library

Today’s feature comes to us from visual artist Sue Willis, whose work titled The Upper Worlds is installed in The Corner Room at the NYPL’s Mid-Manhattan Library. Thanks to Curator and Art Librarian Arezoo Moseni for her help in assembling this feature!~Laura

by Sue Willis

Located in The Corner Room, my exhibit is an expression of The Upper Worlds, where our energies are accumulated and mirrored back to us, causing harmony or destruction. The large site-specific exhibition is installed in the...

“A Place Free of Judgement”: Youth Taking Over UK Libraries

by Bryan Voell

On Saturday, October 29, 2016, something very cool happened in three British public libraries. Capping off several months of ambitious partnerships, teen-centered workshops and arts-based collaborations, the late October event was both a celebration of libraries and an affirmation of the power of teenagers to redefine these public spaces as “places free of judgement.” The event, part of a larger initiative called A Place Free of Judgement, was brought to life by teens from the...

Linkubator Roundup: Week of December 4, 2016

We’ve got community-driven library programming, some beautiful images from old books, booty-shaking storytime plans, book apps, and lists of books with diverse characters this week– and more. It’s like we’re a library or something…

Enjoy!

~Erinn

TOP FEATURES: This week we took a look back at one of our faves: The Book Images Collection from the Internet Archive. Nothing like a little bookish eyecandy to kick off the week! The movement-based storytime crew shared a new plan for the season: Bo...

Library Takeover at Madison Public Library: Bootcamp Complete!

This is the second in our series on the Library Takeover program at Madison Public Library, a project designed to commit library resources to groups of community members that want to make their ideas for free, open community events happen at the library. Read the introduction post here.

Where do we find ourselves today? In late November we wrapped up the six-week bootcamp that introduced the team members to different aspects of event planning, from long-range planning and decision making to f...

Book to Boogie: “Waiting for Snow”

Book to Boogie is a monthly series that pairs picture books with dance and movement activities for preschool story time. The series is curated by Kerry Aradhya of Picture Books & Pirouettes and written by a different guest writer each month. We hope that children’s librarians, as well as classroom teachers and dance educators, will find these activities useful and fun!

by Maria Hanley

I was browsing the bookstore one day and the book Waiting For Snow by Marsha Diane Arnold and Renata Liwska p...

Book Images Collection from the Internet Archive

This post was originally published on December 11, 2014.

Sometimes you just need some eye candy, amiright? So today we’re pointing you to a fabulous Flickr collection of book images posted by the reliably-awesome Internet Archive. The Internet Archive hasso much in their collection that finding an access point can be a tad overwhelming. Luckily they do a great job making the wealth of images and materials in their collection available via Flickr, so if you’re an image junkie like so many memb...

Linkubator Roundup: Week of November 27, 2016

Wait– it’sDecember? Already?

Yes friends, 2016 is drawing to a close, but there’s still plenty of enlightening and exciting arts + library goodness to cram into the end of the year. And don’t forget our open call for stories about #InclusiveCreativity! We’re working on our features for 2017 already, and with your help, we’ll be able to continue the conversation.

Cheers!

~Erinn

TOP FEATURES

We love talking with artists about their work– even better when that artist is a bookbinder! Yohana Do...

Welcome to Bronzeville at Milwaukee Public Library

I am always on the lookout for interesting collaborations between libraries and performing arts groups. This example, inspired byWelcome to Bronzeville by First Stage and hosted by the Milwaukee Public Library, really captures the way that performing artists can create a hands-on and interactive experience for youth in the library. ~Laura

Workshop description (from Milwaukee Public Library’s website):

First Stage’s play, Welcome to Bronzeville, is a beautiful celebration of a historic and re...

Guitar Lending Collection at Licking County Library

This post originally appeared on the LAIP in December 2014.

by Laura Damon-Moore

Barbary Sanderson.

Licking County (OH) Library card holders can now check out a guitar from the library! The new guitar collection launched in mid-December, Barbary Sanderson tells us, and there’s already a waitlist forming on the six guitars. Barbary, who is a Teen Services Assistant at the library, is a guitar player herself who proposed guitars as a possible “alternative collection” when the library was lookin...