Read Aloud 15 MINUTES is a national campaign to encourage parents and caregivers to read to their children daily, for the many educational and developmental benefits that reading brings. The goal of Read Aloud is to make reading aloud, for at least 15 minutes a day, the national standard in child care.
Digital Media Training is coming to a library near you! Attend this FREE one-day train-the-trainer workshop and learn how to be a Media Mentor for families with young children.
Registration is open for the 2016 Ohio Library Council Convention & Expo, September 28-30 at Kalahari Resort, Sandusky.
New parent/caregiver tipsheets are available for Choose to Read Ohio (CTRO) 2017 & 2018 titles! CTRO is a reading initiative encouraging Ohioans to read and share books together and to 
discover Ohio's authors and illustrators.
Free parent/caregiver tipsheets are available for each CTRO featured picture book. Sized to tuck into the book or hand out at storytime, the tipsheets feature simple activities to engage young children in talking, singing, reading, writing, and playing.
Download and share these tipsheets, or write your own tipsheets for new picture books, books you share in storytime, or books that are popular with families at your library.
Here is a story for you.
"Oz keeps a great pot of courage in his Throne Room," said the man, "which he has covered with a golden plate, to keep it from running over. He will be glad to give you some."
"And I want him to send me back to Kansas," said Dorothy.
"Where is Kansas?" asked the man, with surprise.
The A. Sophie Rogers School for Early Learning and the Statewide Family Engagement Center at the Ohio State University are collaborating on RealTalk, a webinar series for families of young children. Webinars take place monthly in May, June, and July 2021 and are recorded for anytime viewing. Topics include Kindergarten Transition, Guidance and Discipline, and Conflict Resolution. These webinars are free and open to all.
The Ohio Library Council recently hosted a webinar with First Lady Fran DeWine and representatives of the Ohio Governor's Imagination Library, Ohio public library systems, and the State Library of Ohio on the Ohio Governor’s Imagination Library (OGIL) and how public libraries are incorporating the program into their Summer Reading and fall programming event
Are you looking for tips, techniques, and best practices for planning and producing online/virtual storytimes? Two recordings from webinars originally presented in summer 2020 are now available for free, anytime viewing via the Self-Paced Online Courses and Recorded Webinars page of the ORTR website! One is from the Ohio Library Council and the other is from WebJunction.
Find more self-paced learning opportunities for early childhood programming: ohreadytoread.org/recorded-webinars
Every Child Ready to Read (ECRR), a national parent/caregiver outreach initiative, empowers public library workers to share early literacy knowledge with the caring adults in young children's lives. It was first rolled out in 2004, and is very familiar to children's services specialists. But what if you're a new children's librarian or specialist and you're hearing about ECRR for the first time? You've come to the right place!
