Librarian Camp: Where Kids Learn All Things Library-Related

By Joan Oleck -- School Library Journal, 8/14/2007 6:00:00 AM

We’ve all heard of summer theater camps and music camps—even manga camps. But now, Rose State College in Oklahoma City has added something new to the mix: librarian camp.

Supported by a $52,000 federal grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, Rose State hosted 16 local middle-school students, ages 11 to 16, this summer on a week-day-long, live-in introduction to librarianship.

The camp's hip name? "Information Matrix."

"We went to libraries every day but Saturday to visit and see what they did," reports Sharon Saulmon, dean of the community college's Learning Resources Center, which includes the campus library. "We talked to librarians about why they became librarians and what kinds of materials they worked with.”

Of course these potential future librarians—who bunked at a group hotel for just $50 for the week—also visited a school library at Telstar Elementary, which was located, Saulmon says, in an "impoverished" part of town. There, campers and students read to each other, and the Telstar students were then presented with books that were purchased at the bookstore..

Saulmon, who created the camp concept, says she's proud that a quarter of her campers—all of them referred by school librarians and some public librarians—included boys, while 100 percent were kids interested in "checking out" the librarian career path. As a past president of the Oklahoma Library Association (OLA), Saulmon recalls speaking out about the shortage of librarians even before it became a major topic. "I was thinking how, in Oklahoma, we have a real shortage of school library media specialists; we have had for several years," Saulmon says.

This school library event seems to have been a hit, judging from entries on the Information Matric Camp (IMC) blog. "Today was a very good day after my tiring morning we went to go read to some elementary students at Telstar elementary!!!" writes one camper. "After being there I realized that I should be proud of what I have instead of complaining about what I don't have!! I felt I was inspiring younger kids and teaching them what I learned when I was their age!"

On visits to libraries, Saulmon says with a chuckle, she made sure her campers were introduced to "some very young, cute librarians."