ALPACAS IN THE AISLES
CELEBRATING NATIONAL SIMULTANEOUS STORYTIME IN NEW ZEALAND
They say you should never work with animals or children, but what if you had the perfect opportunity to work with both? National Simultaneous Storytime (#NSS) is held every year by LIANZA’s Australian counterpart, the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA). Just as the name suggests, every year a picture book is chosen to be read simultaneously across Australia. National Simultaneous Storytime dates back to 2001 in Australia, where Library and Information Week was celebrated with a nationwide reading of Sheena Knowles’ Edward the Emu. New Zealand libraries have been in on the action since 2018. For last year’s event, LIANZA partnered with ALIA to create the first Trans-Tasman edition of Simultaneous Storytime. Kiwi schools and libraries embraced the event, contributing to a final figure of more than 1,062,230 participants across New Zealand and Australia. More than 32,180 Kiwis were registered at 392 locations nationwide for this year’s event, which for the first time also included readers in Thailand, UK, Canada, Singapore, Vietnam and Hong Kong. |
Librarians in New Zealand have a few options for bringing National Simultaneous Storytime to life. Most libraries either incorporate the event into their regular story time sessions, invite schools or early childhood groups to visit the library, or go out into the community to meet those groups on their own turf. Rochelle from Hauraki District Libraries is one great example of this; ‘I am planning to visit all the daycare centres and the kindy and read the story to them, as last year it was just too hard trying to get them all down here at once for the actual reading time.’ Rochelle says on top of these community visits, Paeroa and Waihi Libraries will also host readings at the official ‘go live’ time – the best of both worlds.
Most children’s and teens’ librarians I spoke to conceded that the ‘simultaneous’ part of the event proves to be the most difficult part to wrangle, particularly with the time difference between us and our Aussie counterparts. However, National Simultaneous Storytime is a unique opportunity for going out and bringing the library to the community and New Zealand libraries can set their own, more appropriate times as long as it takes place on the same day!
Most children’s and teens’ librarians I spoke to conceded that the ‘simultaneous’ part of the event proves to be the most difficult part to wrangle, particularly with the time difference between us and our Aussie counterparts. However, National Simultaneous Storytime is a unique opportunity for going out and bringing the library to the community and New Zealand libraries can set their own, more appropriate times as long as it takes place on the same day!
This year’s chosen picture book, Matt Cosgrove’s Alpacas with Maracas, presented us at Thames Library with a unique possibility: could we find some real alpacas to help us read the story? Shori took up the challenge…
When I first heard about National Simultaneous Storytime I thought what a great event to be a part of, and being a children’s librarian what better way to promote and encourage young readers than a fun simultaneous story time. Then I found out the book we were to read was Matt Cosgrove’s Alpacas with Maracas. I was so excited! Having been slightly obsessed with alpacas all my life I knew then and there I needed to do something awesome for this event. I also knew I wanted it to include some live alpacas – easy, right? First thing I needed to do was find an audience and a venue for my alpaca storytime. I quickly ruled out having the event in the library, as we do not have a big enough space, and I also was not so sure having alpacas in a library would be the best idea. I then approached one of our local schools to help host this event. With the opportunity to have some real live alpacas at their school they quickly agreed to be the audience and venue for our simultaneous story time. |
Next, I had to find was some adorable alpacas to join in on the fun. Luckily, I know an alpaca farmer. I understand finding an alpaca farmer might not normally be the easiest thing to find, and the only reason I know this particular alpaca farmer is because I make it a regular occurrence to visit some of my favourite furry friends. Two of the most preeminent alpacas have been chosen for the job and with health and safety organised (just in case the alpacas decide to take over the world) our Alpacas with Maracas National Simultaneous Storytime was all set and ready to go.
As the big day rolled around, we were blown away by the enthusiasm of our community for this event. The children were excited to meet the alpacas, the school was enthusiastic about us bringing some reading magic to the school day, and we even had a local business support us by printing some bookmarks. Now all we needed was for our alpaca assistants to play their part! |
The biggest surprise of the day was that our alpaca farmers arrived with not two, but four alpacas to meet the kids. The senior students had a great time leading the alpacas (or being lead by the alpacas) around the school field, before we settled in at 11am for a dramatic rendition of Alpacas with Maracas. The kids loved it. We also all got to learn a lot about alpaca wool and how the alpacas are cared for. The visit was also a nice opportunity for us to promote the library’s service to the teachers and the children. It was really great to be able to collaborate with the school to create a unique experience.
We’d love to hear how your library celebrated National Simultaneous Storytime; if you are a children’s and teens’ librarian, join us in the CATS in Libraries group on Facebook and share your photos!
We’d love to hear how your library celebrated National Simultaneous Storytime; if you are a children’s and teens’ librarian, join us in the CATS in Libraries group on Facebook and share your photos!
Nicole Thorburn; (left) and Shori Allan work for Thames-Coromandel District Libraries, where Shori has been Children’s and Teens’ Librarian for almost a year and Nicole has been a Library Assistant for three years. Nicole and Shori are both big fans of picture books and cute animals – fortunately National Simultaneous Storytime has both! |