AL Library to Try Online, TV Storytimes

By Joan Oleck -- School Library Journal, 3/20/2008 10:51:00 AM

The Gadsden Public Library in Alabama is about to put storytime online and on local public TV—sans a live librarian. Gadsden staffers believe theirs could be the first library to do so.

The Gadsden city council on March 18 approved a city application for a $25,000 Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grant from the Alabama State Library. The grant, which will help pay for a library Webcast and cable television storytime, is designed to help working mothers. The city has volunteered to pitch in another $5,000.

Although the plan is to have library staffers and broadcast interns from Gadsden High School appear as readers, the storytimes will be equivalent to watching TV. And although some caregivers might not like that idea, it could serve others well. "We have a lot of single parent households in this area," says Carol York, the library's outreach coordinator, pointing out that according to the 2005 Census, 5,000 out of 103,000 households in Gadsden and surrounding Etowah County were headed by women.

If the LSTA grant is awarded, the library will use the money to buy a camera and other equipment and build a small studio where storytime tapings will take place. If all goes well, the project could begin by October, York says. Tapes then will be broadcast on the library's Web site and on the city's public channel, which will go live this May.

York says storytimes will be accessible 24 hours a day on the Web site, and tapings will consist of books for kids ages three to 10. "These are easy-read books, with large print and big, nice pictures that can be seen well." The Web site will also offer podcasts and links to parenting information.

One question remains, however: does this project threaten the livelihoods of librarians? "I don't feel so," York says, adding that it supplements their jobs. "We don't want to be obsolete. We're trying to stay current with the way information is delivered."

And after all, York adds, real-life story time will continue at the library, same as always, on Thursdays at 10 a.m.