Babes n books

A Program for parents of babies from zero to twelve months old

Lois Phelps, children and youth services technician, Darwin City Council libraries

This program came about after Viki Chmielewski, manager, Darwin City Council libraries had started expressing the idea of five storytimes per week at each library across the system. Staff considered a number of options eg aiming for different age groups, offering the sessions at different times across the system to statistically catch the widest attendance possible.

We heard of the existing Lapsit sessions being held at the Palmerston City Library. What is a Lapsit? A Lapsit is a fun-filled session involving parents and their babies enjoying nursery rhymes, songs, finger plays and interaction through the use of board books and picture books. Following discussions with Palmerston City Library who advised us no matter what we did - read three to four books per session, Darwin City Council libraries commenced a three month trial Lapsit session Wednesday afternoons at 1:00pm back in October 2002. We called it 'meet other parents' (MOPS).

The program started with one four-year-old boy and his mother attending. Mind you this had been advertised for the zero to twelve month age group. Jack was cheeky enough to inform me I was not allowed to sing at these sessions but my off-sider, who was only 18 at the time, could sing as many songs as she liked. Two weeks before the end of the trial a mother approached us saying she had heard of this and could bring in ten mums and babies.

At the beginning we improvised each session. We found the songs we liked. We displayed the puppets, suitable videos, musicals instruments and read a variety of books by different authors each week.

I was then asked to produce and document a ten month program that would run from the first week of February to the last week in November. (Due to staffing plus our reading and holiday program over December and January we have a two-month break.) We decided on a name change as MOPS is the group run by Casuarina Community Care Centre for welcoming new families into Darwin. We came up with the name babes n books. We felt this reflected a better library image.

By having copyright clearance to play music in the library we were also able to introduce more songs. In the beginning we had stuck to tried and true songs we felt comfortable with, as at that stage we did not have background music playing, and sang the same ones week after week. We now have a set song we play at the beginning of each session and have a set song that we sing at the end to finish our sessions. (It helps if you are not happy with the sound of your voice to turn the volume up.) We have selected Happy as Larry by Peter Coombes (cd - Newspaper Mama) and Shake my sillies out (cd - Bananas in pyjamas, It's singing time).

We have ended up with a ten-session cycle that is repeated four times a year ending on two introductory sessions to what a storytime session will sound like. At the end of each ten-session cycle a survey form is handed out to everyone to fill in.

Any suggestions and criticisms are looked at and discussed with the children's and youth services librarian. Feedback is given to the parents and any suggestions of merit are included in the program.

The sessions cover the following topics:

• Layout of the Children's Section with an introduction to the parenting collection.
• Board books - shapes, sizes.
• Puppet collection - where to purchase/ range and variety.
• Songs and song books.
• Video collection.
• Musical instruments - where to purchase, home made instruments.
• Nursery rhyme collection.
• Computer technology - health and wellness database
• Poetry books.
• LOTE collection and hand out survey forms.

This program has grown from our first young visitor Jack to the ten mums and bubs to now each week at Casuarina we are getting 39 mums, 39 bubs and don't forget the 39 strollers. As of 1 October 2004 this program is now offered across the four Darwin City Council libraries.

Including this program into our weekly events at the Casuarina Library, we now have two storytime sessions on Monday and Wednesday mornings, 1 babes n books and different creches visit most Friday mornings, making a total of four storytimes per week.

I will now demonstrate a brief version of a session, so could you all please get ready to stand up.

Session 1: Layout of children's section and introducing the parenting collection

Welcome everyone to our babes n books session.

I will now play our introductory piece of music. Happy as Larry by Peter Coombs from his CD Newspaper mama. This song is played at every storytime session/babes 'n' books and crèche visit held in the library.

(Play songs and demonstrate dance steps. Please be seated.)

My name is Lois Phelps.

Purpose of babes n books

Purpose of babes n books:

1. Introducing parents to songs, finger rhymes.
2. Age appropriate literature.
3. Use of puppet and musical instrument collection.
4. Familiarise parents with libraries to make them a friendly and safe place for babies and parents.
5. Help prepare babies for storytime sessions.

Please fill out the attendance sheet for our statistics.

Our new storytime newsletter is available.

Today I will walk you through the layout of the children's section here at the Casuarina Library.

Parenting collection

Labelled with blue sticker with PAR.

Other titles in this area can be found in the main non-fiction collection. These books are in this area because of the size of Casuarina Library. Children get scared in the large library when they can't see their parents.

The range of collection includes the following:

1. Video collection - titles include Christopher Green toddler taming range.
2. Picture books - covers series Good manners. Other books are on death, visiting dentist or happy birth day.
3. Junior fiction - series covered are Viewpoint or Growing up includes titles like fair, honest, sharing.
4. Non-fiction. 155.4 Feelings - series that has titles sad, moody or anger. 155.937 Death and dying - from death of pets, death of grandparents, explaining death and dying to children. 306 Single parent families. 362.7044 Abuse - pysical, sexual or emotional. 612.6 Pregnancy. 616 Health covering diabetes, asthma, epilepsy, ad/hd/hyperactivity. 649.1 Parenting books. 649.5 Creative child, a. Baby games

Collection also holds three magazine titles Mother and baby, Australian parents and Practical parenting.

Video/ DVD collection
You can borrow two titles per library card. Look out for the Western Wood range of videos. These are five to ten minutes long and are videos of children's picture books. Eg In the small, small pond: Leo the late bloomer; Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge to name a few.

The usual ABC titles Bob the builder; Miffy.

Board books
The range of sizes and shapes amaze me. Yes they do have a short life span and the library adds to the collection all the time. It is good to see the popular picture books coming in board book format eg The very hungry caterpillar by Eric Carle: Lynley Dodd and Eric Hill books to name a few.

With the range of Touch and feel series I need to warn you mothers that some of the titles with sandpaper can cause babies and young children to cut their fingers. The books are good for this age range as the pages don't tear easily.

Picture books
Are filed by first letter of the author's surname. This is the range to read one on one with your baby. Lynley Dodd has lovely rhyme and rhythm to the words of her stories. Eric Hill and Mem Fox are some of the popular authors found in this area.

What I really enjoy about this section of the library is the illustration techniques used to enhance the story lines in the books. The range and variety of illustrations adds to the appeal of this section.

Spoken word and music collection
Spoken word is another name for a book on tape. Filed alphabetically by author's surname. Majorities are in tape format but also come in CD format.

We have copies of the music that we play at all storytime/babes n books sessions that you can borrow.

Junior beginner collection
This range of books is for when your child starts to read on their own. Filed first letter of authors surname.

Lote JPB collection
The majority of these titles are in dual languages and anyone can borrow them. Please help the library if you have any neighbours that speak another language let them know about the range of books available at the local libraries.

Big book collection
This range of titles can be read in the library only, every now and then we use them during storytime.

That completes the layout in this part of the library.

Songs
Sing 1 song

Author profile and first book
Read out the author profile of Lynley Dodd.
Read first title Hairy Maclary and Zachary Quack. At the end explain why you choose that author and talk about story line and illustrations.

Songs
Sing 1 song

Second book
Read Slinki Malinki by Lynley Dodd.

This completes our session thanks to everyone who has been here today. We will now finish up with our ending song.

Play shake your sillies out.

Song and demonstrate dance steps.

Offer to the parents to open the games cupboard.

Walk around asking who is new at the session. Hand a library folder with our core service pamphlets to the mother. Ask if she received the nappy pack at the hospital. If not, explain on joining her child to the library she will receive a free book and library bag.

Biography

Lois has worked for the public libraries in Darwin since the setting up of Casuarina Public library in 1980. She qualified as a library technician back in the old days of Darwin Institute of Technology. While working at Casuarina Library she spent time as a technician attached to the children's section, reference section and collection development sections.

Lois spent eight years as the officer in charge at the Nightcliff Public Library until September 2001 when she was transferred back to Casuarina Library as the children and youth services (CYS) technician. Her main job on returning to Casuarina Library was to centralise the story time collections from each library into the one location and documenting the materials which included puppets, musical instruments, picture books, dukane sets and 16mm film collection as well as listing the range of posters available for displays.

She is still working in the CYS area and the best part of her job would be looking and the range and variety of ways people illustrate children's picture books.