Library Snapshot Day at Mentor Public Library

The concept for Library Snapshot Day began in New Jersey but has since spread to the rest of the country.

The idea is simple: tell the story of your library using photos from a single day.

Mentor Public Library held its Library Snapshot Day on Wednesday, Nov. 13. It was a busy day: story times, crafts and joint programs with the Lake County General Health District and the James A. Garfield National Historic Site.

But why am I writing about this when I have pictures?

Anyone who has been to our of our Tiddlywinks story times needs no introduction to either Ms. Mary or her puppet, Ben.

Speaking of story time, one of my favorite things to see at the library is people reading to their child or grandchild.

Mary Pelton, one of our reference librarians, helps a patron with a question.

Dave Lintern, a volunteer from the Garfield National Historic Site, talks about the siege of Chattanooga as part of the Major Battles of the Civil War series.

Our Reference and IT Department getting ready for International Games Day where teens competed with gamers from libraries all around the world.

A student studying at MPL Commons.

Chris, one of our super shelvers, hard at work.

Jon making a bird feeder with peanut butter, birdseed and a pine cone over at our Headlands Branch.

Of course it snowed on Library Snapshot Day. This is Northeast Ohio.

For more photos from libraries all over the state, visit the Ohio Library Snapshot Day page on Flickr.

The Importance of Story Time

A person can learn to love reading as an adult. It happens and it's wonderful when it does.

But it's easier for children to learn -- not just how to read but to love doing it.

Studies have shown that children (even as babies) have brains built for learning. In the same way that it's easier for a child to learn Portuguese or decipher the intricacies of a smartphone, it's easier for a kid to learn how to read.

And it almost always starts with story time.

After all, children don't learn how to read by spontaneous literacy. It begins with someone reading to them. That someone can be a parent, grandparent, teacher and librarian. (Ideally, it's all of the above.)

Story time has been linked to improved communication skills, logical skills, enhanced concentration and other things that we want our children to have.

That's just one of the reasons early literacy is important to us at the Mentor Public Library. We also think reading stimulates children's curiosity and love of learning.

So we offer a multiplicity of different story times for children and families in hopes that you'll find the right one for you and your kids.

We have Tiddlywinks for children who are 36 months and younger (and their parents,) Preschool Story Times for kids who are a bit older, Family Story Times, and Mother Goose on the Loose which is designed to stimulate the learning process for babies and toddlers.

We have story times at all three of our branches, and all of them encourage participation with music, rhymes and (of course) stories.

For older kids, we also have our Comic Book Club, American Girl Book Club, Studio MPL Art Club and Lego Brick Building Club.

You can check out all of our kids book clubs and story times on the event calendar on MPL's website.

And don't forget to have story times of your own with your children. They'll thank you later!

Because, after all, they can learn to love reading as adults. But it gives them such an enormous head start if they do it as children.