2010 Our Water In Your Hands
Many California public libraries are raising awareness of water resources and recycling this summer! Here are the names of the participating libraries and some of the programs they will be presenting. Additional programming plans will be listed as they are confirmed.
For programming ideas and resources relating to recycling and protecting ecologically important lands and waters, for children’s, teen, and adult summer reading programs, please see below.
Would you like to join in CLA’s effort to raise awareness of water resources and recycling? Please email Natalie Cole with your library’s name and program plans and we will add you to the list!
Participating Libraries
- Hemet Public Library
- Long Beach Public Library: Los Altos Neighborhood Library
- Moreno Valley Public Library
- Palm Springs Public Library
- Working with the Desert Water Agency and the city’s Sustainability Manager
- San Benito County Library
- San Bernardino County Library: Apple Valley Branch Library
- Grow a Plant Recycle Craft: Learn about ways to reuse, reduce, and recycle plastic bottles (June 29)
- Environmental Issues Table: Each week visit the teen area to see the environmental issue that you can learn about and do your part to help. Special Incentives will be given and will vary throughout the weeks (All summer)
- Recycling for Pizza: Bring your bottles and cans and support the recycling bin to earn a pizza party! (All summer)
- San Bernardino County Library: Highland Branch Library
- Surf Simulator: Inflatable interactive surf simulation will be used to educate teens about water conservation and keeping our oceans and beaches clean (June 17)
- Aquarium of the Pacific: Aquarium on Wheels will visit the library with their mobile tide pools (June 22)
- Bottled Music: Teens will learn about reducing, reusing, and recycling bottles (June 23)
- Family storytime theme: Whales: their ocean environment and recycled craft (June 24)
- Baby SRP program: Ocean themed scrapbook pages using homemade paper die cuts, and educating parents on how to recycle unwanted junk mail through making paper (June 28)
- Splendiferous Sea Creatures Drawings with Kyle. Children will learn how to draw sea creatures, talk about their environments, habitats and unique traits and of course draw on 100% recycled paper (June 29)
- Environmental Learning Center hosts a program about water conservation for teen (July 1)
- Bottle Cap Buttons: Teens will recycle old bottle caps (July 7)
- Family storytime theme: Ocean life: creatures big and small that live in our oceans and a recycled craft (July 8)
- Rock The Boat: Library Clean Up Project – teens will beautify our community by picking up trash on and around the grounds of the Library and YMCA (July 28)
- San Bernardino County Library: Rialto Branch Library
- San Bernardino County Water Management: learn about water management by planning with puzzles, making mud & talking about the things that can pollute our ground water (July 7)
- San Diego County Library: Vista Branch Library
- Two water conservation programs provided by the Vista Irrigation District: one for upper elementary students (Aug 4th) and one for teens (July 22)
- A water program for teens presented by staff from the Reuben Fleet Science Center in Balboa Park (July 15)
- Teens will be loaned digital cameras to take pictures of water in their community during July, including of water use, natural water sources and water tanks. Selected photos will be exhibited in the library. (Cameras and developing is funded by a grant from Wal-Mart)
- San Diego Public Library: Clairemont Branch Library
- Ms. Smarty Pants and the Magic of Water, the Water Conservation Garden at Cuyamaca College (June 23)
- Mrs. Frizzle and the Magic School Bus, San Diego Natural History Museum (June 26)
- R. H. Fleet Science Center (July 2 and August 7)
- Mad Science of San Diego (July 10)
- Stephen Birch Aquarium at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography (July 24)
- San Diego Public Library: North Clairemont Branch
- Mrs. Frizzle and the Magic School Bus, San Diego Natural History Museum, (June 22)
- Stephen Birch Aquarium at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography (June 29)
- R. H. Fleet Science Center (July 6)
- Mad Science of San Diego (July 13)
- Ms. Smarty Plants and the Magic of Water, Water Conservation Garden at Cuyamaca College (August 3)
- San Francisco Public Library
- San Mateo County Library (all programs presented in partnership with the California Native Plant Society)
- San Mateo County Library: Atherton Library
- Native Plant Gardening for Year-round Interest by Sherri Osaka (May 19)
- Native Plant Gardening for Beginners by Stephanie Morris (June 16)
- San Mateo County Library: Belmont Library
- Native Perennials for the Garden by Matt Teel (April 19)
- Native Trees for the Garden by Fran Adams (July 19)
- San Mateo County Library: Brisbane Library
- Landscaping for Wildlife Diversity by Radhika Thekkath (June 19)
- Native Plant Landscaping on Slopes by Geoffey Coffey (July 17)
- San Mateo County Library: East Palo Alto Library
- Native Plant Communities for Bay Area Gardens by Agi Kehoe ( May 17)
- Sustainable Landscaping with Native Plants by Casey Allen (June 21)
- San Mateo County Library: Half Moon Bay Library
- Native Plants for Coastal Gardens by Toni Corelli (July 24)
- San Mateo County Library: Millbrae Library
- Sustainable Landscaping with Native Plants by Peigi Duvall (April 28)
- Natives in Containers by Pete Veilleux (August 4)
- San Mateo County Library: Portola Valley Library
- Waterwise Gardening Using Native Plants by Deva Luna (May 20)
- San Mateo County Library: San Carlos Library
- Converting a Lawn to a Native Plant Garden by Annaloy Nickum (May 26)
- Natives in Containers by Pete Veilleux (July 21)
- Birds in the Garden by Toby Goldberg (August 11)
- Plants and People of Native California by Marianne Schonfisch (August 18)
- San Mateo County Library: Woodside Library
- Native Plant Gardening for Beginners by Stephanie Morris (April 26)
- Irrigating Native Plant Gardens by Sherri Osaka (June 14)
- Whittier Public Library
Programming Ideas
- If your library recycles bottles and cans, remember to ask people to bring their empties to your programs!
- If you are planning to collect recycling this summer, check with your city waste management department to see if they would partner with you and collect the recycling. You could also check with your local Public Works or Planning Department who might provide assistance with recycling and possibly a recycling display for the library.
- For information on creating a recycling center in your library, see the tips in American Libraries: http://www.americanlibrariesmagazine.org/green-your-library/100-recycling-center-part-1.
- If you want to set up a new recycling center, http://www.bottlesandcans.com will send a free bottle and can collection kit (Recycling Starter Kit) upon request.
- You can search for your nearest recycling center here: http://www.calrecycle.ca.gov/publiced/Earths911.htm.
- Make It! Don’t throw it away-create something amazing! By Jane Bull. 9780756638375. It has a section on Paper, Plastic, Metal, and Fabric with water bottle ideas: crazy ice, bowling game, mini plant cover, bird feeder, rain catcher, toy boat, and bottle top art.
Children
- Give back to the environment by making a bird feeder.
- Easy Bird Feeder (38k)
- Collect crayons to recycle and create new crayons of all colors.
- If space is available, start a community garden that is maintained by kids.
- Craft program with recycled paper: can use scratch paper, newspaper, construction paper.
- Use storytime themes that tie in (e.g. coral reef animals, turtles, beaches). A list of suggested books for storytime is below.
- Have children decorate the library’s recycling bins.
- Host a create a bookmark/poster contest on the theme.
- Bring in empties to create an art project.
Some recycling websites for children:
- Recycle Rex
- Clean Sweep U.S.A.
- EPA Planet Protector’s Club
- EPA Recycle City
- Kids Recycle
- How is Paper Recycled?
- The Imagination Factory’s Trash Matcher -- Ways to Reuse Garbage Before Throwing it Away
- Eek! Recycling and Beyond
- Earth 911 Kids
Recommended books for storytime
- Beach Play by Marsha Hayles
- The Boy on the Beach by Niki Daly
- Billy’s Bucket by Kess Gray Cat Fish by Jill Newton
- Fish Eyes by Lois Ehlert
- Hooray for Fish by Lucy Cousins
- Mermaids on Parade by Melanie Hope Greenburg
- Mister Seahorse by Eric Carle
- Sally goes to the Beach by Stephen Huneck
- Sea, sand, me! by Patricia Hubbell
- Sun Dance, Water Dance by Jonathan London
- Sun Up by Alvin Tresselt
- Swimmy by Leo Lionni
- Ten Little Fish by Audrey Wood
- Turtle Splash: Countdown at the Pond by Cathryn Falwell
- Wave by Suzy Lee
Fingerplays & Rhymes:
Tune: London Bridge is falling down
Silly Sally sells seashells,
sells seashells,
sells seashells.
Silly Sally sells seashells
Down by the old seashore.
Tune: Row, Row, Row Your Boat
Catch, catch, catch a fish.
Hook it on your line.
Reel it, reel it, reel it in.
This one will be mine.
Teens
(see also suggestions for adult programs)
- Recycled art: use recycled materials to create one of a kind pieces of art. Can also use weeded books, CDs and DVDs.
- Teen action group can sponsor and/or adopt an animal at the local zoo.
- Promote a trash pick up date and/or work with a local organization on sponsoring and promoting this day.
- Have teens decorate the library’s recycling bins.
- Teen advisory group collect and turn in recycling. Funds collected might be donated to a wildlife organization that supports clean water or reclamation projects.
- Encourage teen group to investigate participating in water conservancy projects.
- Magnets: save a damaged book from the recycling bin to make super-style magnets in just four easy steps.
- Craft
program: transform a water bottle. Suggested websites:
http://familycrafts.about.com/od/drinkbottlecrafts/Drink_Bottle_Crafts.htm
http://www.artistshelpingchildren.org/artscraftsideasplasticbottlesprojectskids.html
http://www.instructables.com/id/Plastic_Bottle_quotStained_Glassquot_Candlehol/ - Host a create a bookmark/poster contest on the theme.
- Craft project: tin can projects, e.g. create pencil holders.
- For many more ideas and information on plastic bag recycling, overfishing, carbon footprints, and saving water, see the presentation and powerpoint on Environmental Programs and Recycled Crafts created by Helen Fisher on our workshops page: http://cla-net.org/summer-reading/workshop.php
Adults
(see also suggestions for teen programs)
- Invite a community specialist to your library to talk about composting.
- Invite a panel of community specialist/members to debate an ecological or water issue. Specifically for the San Joaquin Valley: the lack of water and the effects on agriculture.
- Host speakers on recycling, coral reefs, the environment, etc.
- Book clubs: read a book on a related theme. Suggested books:
Bottlemania: How Water Went on Sale and Why We Bought It by Elizabeth Royte
When the Rivers Run Dry: The Defining Crisis of the 21st Century by Fred Pearce - Put a recycling bin in the Friends store or at sales.
- Staff and volunteers Best Recycling Project Idea: created and displayed in the library.
- (If your library collects recycling) Offer a book sale discount for bringing in recycling.
- Invite your local water board to host a program on how to conserve water.
- Invite your local garden supply store to present a program on
xeriscape gardening
Earthwatch Institute, an eco-tourism organization, has a speakers
bureau of people who have volunteered to aid in research/conservation
projects and who are willing to talk about their experiences.
The California Summer Reading Program is a project of the California Library Association, supported by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act, administered in California by the State Librarian.
Collaborative Summer Library Program (CSLP) is the sponsoring organization for the 2010 Summer Library Program. Artwork is for use by CSLP members only. Copyright 2009-2010 by Highsmith Inc. All rights reserved. No images may be reproduced without written permission.