This year’s MLS Annual School Librarians Holiday Program, focusing on “The Curriculum Connection: How Museums Serve School Libraries," took place at the Field Museum. The inspiration for this year’s event goes to the MLS School Advisory members who serve as the eyes and ears for the larger school library membership, providing suggestions and ideas to the MLS Consulting staff.
The MLS Consultants took the idea for museums to be the main focus of the Holiday Program to a group of Chicago Area Museums. A total of 12 museums participated in the day: Adler Planetarium, Brookfield Zoo, Chicago Botanic Garden, Chicago History Museum, DuSable Museum of African American History, Field Museum, Hellenic Museum, Nature Museum, Pritzker Military Library, Shedd Aquarium, Spertus Museum and the Morton Arboretum. The staff from these organizations represented the Chicago Area Museums well.
A common theme among the museum participants was to show librarians how to bring museum programs into the library or classroom, be it programs available online, materials they can check out, or ideas for in-class activities. Here are a few samples of what the museums have to offer school libraries:
- The Chicago History Museum described its “Great Chicago Stories” feature on their website. This program is comprised of historical fiction narratives based on items from the museum’s collection, and also includes an interactive map placement feature.
- The Notebaert Nature Museum provides Inquiry Kits and National Geographic Book Kits available for school librarians to check out for their library or classroom.
- The Adler Planetarium previewed a sample of their videoconferencing program which combines an interactive audio and visual presentation that can be shown in the library or classroom.
- The Pritzker Military Library offers a variety of podcasts (and archived broadcasts), such as the Medal of Honor series, which features Congressional Medal of Honor recipients telling their own personal stories of courage and valor under combat.
The Holiday Program offered a wide range of opportunities for everyone, from networking with other school librarians to meeting with museum staff, to visiting vendor tables (which included Baker & Taylor, Capstone Press, EBSCO Information Services, Follett Library Resources, Rosen Publishing, Thomson Gale / Cengage Learning, and Worldbook.)
Besides the museum and vendor table displays, there was a formal presentation by four of the museums, which included:
- How their organizations tie their programming into curriculum and teach to the standards.
- Examples of takeaways that can be borrowed for use in school libraries.
- Ideas and inspiration on how museums and schools can work together and form future partnerships.
Finally there was the festive nature of the day with food, door prizes, and an opportunity to explore the Field Museum at the end of the day.
At the end of the day everyone took away at least one thing that the program had to offer, be it a new connection with another school librarian, the opportunity for potential partnerships, or the sharing of programming ideas and resources between schools and museums.
For MLS overall, both events are a great representation of the power of connection and collaboration that a library system brings to its member libraries.
For more information about this multitype cooperative event see the MLS newsletter or contact Christina Stoll. You may also want to view the "Live from WJ-IL" from this event.
Photo Caption: Gretchen Steele, Chicago Public School, won a free field trip for a class to the Spertus Museum.