Author birthday, and Bright Spots to warm your heart

 Happy birthday, Mo Willems!

I was delighted to be interviewed by Len Iaquinta on WGTD about the new children's library. Listen here. 

NYT ran a terrific article for Valentines Day,  "A Love Letter to Libraries, Long Overdue."

This week's Bright Spots are many:

From Amy Rae:

"Lisa might not remember to toot her own horn, so I'm going to tell you about her Monday (02.13.23) story time.  That evening, she had Family Storytime, and she was so engaging that she got one of our little regulars to stay the whole time.  He's a neurodiverse preschooler, and I've seen his parents try to get him interested in storytimes and activities repeatedly, to little success.  (I've tried to help, too!  But I haven't been convincing. )  

But Lisa's storytime held his attention, and she made it welcoming to him, making sure his family knew when loud music was going to play so they could put his headphones on.  She mentioned to me that after, she and the kiddo's parents talked for a bit about the value of social experiences like storytime, even when they might be difficult.  It was heartening to watch from afar, because I've seen how hard this family works to enrich their son's life, and their success on Monday really speaks to Lisa's compassion and skill in working with children of all abilities."

From Shannon:

I'd like to give Brightspot awards to everyone who's helped so much with the building renovation at Southwest. From the Southwest Branch Staff shifting all of the fiction and non-fiction before the carpeting began, to maintenance doing the heavy lifting, Collection Services creating new classifications for special collections, YFS collaborating on a permanent Parent/Teacher wall, and Communications for getting the word out (and sharing the word inside), we've covered a lot of ground (and touched a lot of books) in the last few weeks. I'd also like to thank the Blue Tape Brigade for helping measure and mark (and measure and measure again) our floor plan for the movers.
Lastly, I want to give an extra big thank you to Rob and Michelle. They've balanced their regular jobs with table moving, second opinions, moral support and finding my tape measure.
Thank you all! We still have a few weeks to go, but we can already see how special this new space is going to be.

UPCOMING

Informational videos to keep you up to speed on the Children's Library Project, plus a Q&A form to ask us anything and have your questions answered via video!