This is a guest post from Naomi Coquillon, chief of Informal Learning at the Library, whose team has launched a new blog for families, Minerva’s Kaleidoscope.
Hello, families! Our new blog, Minerva’s Kaleidoscope, is designed just for you. Named for the Roman goddess of wisdom, it’s a source for parents and caregivers to find materials to spark kids’ imaginations and to get updates on programs at the Library. The blog is led by the Informal Learning Office, a new effort whose mission is to connect kids, families and teens to the collections and resources of the Library and to inspire you to use the Library for your own creative purposes.
There’s a lot to discover. For the past ten years, the Young Readers Center has welcomed families to read together in the Jefferson building. There also has been great content featured around the Library that has valuable material for kids and families. Some highlights:
- A kids category and a category for the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature on the Library’s main blog
- A category for the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature on the Poetry and Literature blog
- Highlights from the National Book Festival (NBF) for children and families on the NBF blog
- Comics highlights from the Serial and Government Publications blog, Headlines and Heroes
- A blog for teachers (and their students)
There’s also a variety of intriguing posts on other blogs. The Library also has a newly revitalized webpage of resources for family engagement, a page for kids focused on reading and writing, and a teens page.
The Minerva blog will be a place to draw the best of these resources together. We hope this space will help you to feel more connected to the Library and that you will use the blog as a way to communicate with us, too—this isn’t meant to be a one-way street. Please share ideas and questions in the comments, but note that any comments from children should not share a last name or other specific identifying information and must include parental permission. In addition to activity ideas, we’ll share information on ways to participate in upcoming programs and in planning for the Library’s new learning lab scheduled to open in 2023. We hope that looking through Minerva’s Kaleidoscope will give you a way to see and explore the Library’s vast collections in new and creative ways.
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