When I interned with the fabulous, brilliant, librarian, Sue Kowalski at Pine Grove Middle School in East Syracuse, NY i was floored by the success of her “iStaff”, a group of volunteers who would come into the library to participate in numerous activities to help get things done around the library. This influenced the start of our Teen Volunteer Corps run by our teen librarian, Margaret Portier. This has been so successful that I wanted to see this happen in the children’s room.

The Fayetteville Fantastics then came around. I wanted kids in grades 1-5 to really take ownership of their public library and by giving them a sense of responsibility was the perfect way to do so. Fantastics can come into the library for one hour a week and do a variety of tasks around the library including:

• Cleaning up the FFL Family Room and Little Makers area
• Reshelving books if carts are full
• Checking the New Books display for books that are not new anymore
• Creating book lists
• Creating book reviews
• Creating book displays including a bio of themselves and their favorite books and why
• Creating art displays for the library
• Helping to upkeep the Story Wall
• and more…

Unlike the teen volunteers who have a bit more responsibility, the Fantastics are helping me with content creation and with purchasing. This is an easy way for me to see what kids are reading, what they are into and it also gives them a chance to share that with their peers in the community. The idea is that Joe can come in after school and see his friend Sally’s book display and make the connection.

Fantastics when on duty have a name tag on a lanyard that they are required to wear while working and have a special bin behind my desk with a sign in sheet and a list of things that they can do. So far this program has been very popular and will hopefully keep kids in the public library and move on to the teen volunteer program when they get into middle school.

And of course we will be having a semi annual pizza party to celebrate there hard work!