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Vernon Hills Public Library hosted our spring meeting on Wednesday, April 23, 2014 in their beautifully redesigned library. We covered a lot of ground in a few short hours, so if you weren't able to attend, please take some time to soak in this recap. Leap into Literacy Rita Angelini, founder of Leap into Literacy, shared the history and mission of her organization as well as the process of creating an adaptive book by translating the text into Boardmaker ™  symbols, laminating the pages, and adding page fluffers. About a dozen suburban libraries have already received a donation of these books, and Rita is working with volunteers and SNAILS to provide them to many more libraries. To see which libraries already carry Rita's books, as well as the books' titles, visit the new Leap into Literacy  website .  After Rita's presentation, a conversation ensued about the extra time it takes for Technical Services to catalog and process adaptive books. Due to the books' modif...

I'm so excited --  Temple Grandin is going to be in Chicago this month, and there's no charge to see her!!  Thanks to Family Action Network , she will be making two presentations in the near north suburbs on May 21, 2014: "Autism and My Sensory-Based World" 4:00pm (educator focus) New Trier High School,  Winnetka Campus Gaffney Auditorium 385 Winnetka Ave., Winnetka, IL 60093 "Different Kinds of Minds"   With her mother,  Eustacia Cutler Moderated by Molly Losh, Ph.D.,  Northwestern University 7:30pm (general public) Welsh-Ryan Arena, Northwestern University 2705 Ashland Ave., Evanston, IL 60208 Registration requested for evening event. Believe me, you don't want to miss this opportunity! Temple Grandin is an incredible woman who has redesigned the livestock industry and redefined Autism in America. She is  a Professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University and the author of many books, including her most recent,  The Autistic Brain: Thi...

Our winter meeting was held on Wednesday, February 12 at the Glenside Public Library.  Thank you to our hosts and to all of those who attended for your contributions to our discussions that day.  It was great to see you!  Here’s the meeting recap, with a video of JJ’s presentation: JJs's List JJ Hanley from JJ’s List spoke to the group about Disability Awareness.  JJ’s List is a website that collects reviews for people with disabilities, similar to Yelp.  Visitors can post information and reviews.  It’s a resource for people to use to find out how disability aware a business is.  The Directory includes at least 23 industry sectors, including libraries.  JJ encouraged the group to post our own reviews of area businesses as well as to add our libraries to the directory.  Contact Sarah Armour (sarah(at)jjslist.com) to help you manage your profile.  JJ’s List will also work with you to help your library get a Disability-Aware Business Seal...

Library services for children with disabilities are continuing to expand by leaps and bounds.  In the last year alone, three separate professional resources have been published specifically targeting this exact topic.  Each of these three books has something incredibly meaningful to contribute to our profession, and all of them are worthwhile purchases for your library's professional collection or your own bookshelf.  Check them out! Programming for Children and Teens with Autism Spectrum Disorder  Written by Barbara Klipper Purchase a copy HERE at the ALA Store Programming for Children and Teens with Autism Spectrum Disorder is unlike anything else I have even seen in professional library literature thus far.  Not only does it contain in-depth background info about autism and suggests methods for securing funding, it features step-by-step program models from librarians across the country.  These detailed program models are complete with lists of books, r...

This has become my mantra. Connecting positively with patrons brings libraries into their hearts, and when we touch hearts, we succeed. This is especially true for families with children who are not typical. No other group has shown as much gratitude to me for connecting with them as sensory storytime patrons.   Connecting with Barbara Klipper, Veronica (Schwartz) Defazio, Renee Grassi, Holly Jin and a host of others online has also been the answer for me in acquiring the models and courage I needed to offer a sensory storytime program at the Plainfield Public Library.  Perhaps some of the following sensory storytime practices that I use will suit your program. SIGN whenever it’s easy and clear – for example, hello and friends – because visuals help children comprehend, and it’s beautiful, like a dance. ( Italics = a word that I sign)   SING! It holds children’s attention better than simple speech. Here’s my Hello song to the tune, “Goodnight Ladies:” Hello , frien...

Sensory Storytime Presentations The fall meeting of SNAILS featured Sensory Storytime presentations by Renee Grassi of Glencoe Public Library and Sue Parsons of Plainfield Public Library. Renee and Sue covered: the what and why of Sensory Storytime three different models of Sensory Storytime what we can learn from offering Sensory Storytime Because Sensory Storytime is a relatively easy way to accommodate children with special needs at your library, we recorded the presentation for you! In addition to the main presentation, Sue demonstrated a mini Sensory Storytime including her welcome comments, the use of her little bird, Pájaro, songs, crafts, and games. A video of her demo will be included in Sue's upcoming post, so be sure to subscribe to the blog in order to receive an alert when it is posted! Sensory Storytime Ideas from the Group After the formal presentation and demonstration, we used the group sharing time to talk about our favorite Sensory Storytime components. So many g...

If you want to begin developing a Sensory Storytime program at your library, start here at the ALSC Blog.  In fact, that's where I started.  When I first started developing Sensory Storytime at the Deerfield Public Library, I began with researching what models already existed at other libraries around the county.  At the time, there weren't that many other librarians who had been leading special needs storytimes and writing about their experiences in library literature.  Thankfully, I managed to connect myself with two pioneers in our field.  The first blog post I remember reading was Tricia Bohanon Twarogowski's Programming for Children with Special Needs .  She put together an amazingly comprehensive programming model and wrote about her experiences in a five-part blog series.  Tricia later shared her experiences developing programming for older children in  Going Beyond Sensory Storytime: Sensory School-age Programming.   Then, there was B...