Scouting and your Local Library

[SSScout]

Here's a challenge for you and your Scouts:

How can you use your local library to help Scouting?

 

Here's some ideas:

=Source for advancement: Are there books about animal ID, tracking, camping, first aid, etc.? And for merit badge things...

=One local Troop donated a complete set of Merit Badge Books to our local library. Good PR! The Librarian (Media Specialist) put'em out for a display. Much finger pointing ensued.

=Encourage your Scouts to avail themselves of this resource for Citizenship MBs...

=Books about BP? Scout stuff? Donate some Scout manuals for others to borrow.

= Tapes, DVDs about Scouty stuff? "Down and Derby", "Follow Me Boys", "Castaway", "Second Hand Lions", more?

= Topo maps of the area for study? On the wall?

= Meeting rooms for (!) Meetings?

= Howzabout a Scout display in their lobby or display cases? Check with your 'Media Specialist'. Set up a Pinewood Derby some Saturday morning. Recruit! Model campsite. History of the Scout unit. Scouting serves the community. Don't forget to include your Contact Info!!

==Check with your 'Media Specialist' about donation requirements... You can probabbly include a plate (sticker) inside the cover of your donation: "Donated by Scout Troop XYZ, Anytown".

 

And you...?

[scoutldr]

When I was Cubmaster, our Pack met in the local elementary school (K-5). As a token of gratitude, I regularly purchased (with my own $$$) the hardcover editions of the various CS and BS handbooks and Fieldbook (when I could get them), put a bookplate in them ("Donated by Pack XX") and donated them to the school library. When we rechartered, I would also add a subscription to Boys' Life for the school library. The librarian told me that they were some of the most checked-out books in the whole library. At one time all the MB pamphlets were available in hardcover library editions. You see them from time to time on Ebay.

 

Thanks for the reminder...I'm no longer CM, but maybe it's time to refresh the library copies with new versions.

[Eagle92]

As a librarian myself, I cannot tell you all of the resources available as I need to do my actual work the rest of the week. It is endless.

 

One thing my district use to do is provide a bound list of all the merit badge counselors in the ditrict to be checked out at the library. This is something we are trying to get redone, and the gentleman whose project it is has lots of connections at the library as his wife works there.

 

SS has just started on some of the things.

[shortridge]

Ah, a topic near and dear to my heart! I practically grew up in local libraries, and read every Scouting-related book they had, more than once. Patrick McManus' "Kid Camping from Aaaaaaa to Zip" was (and is) a personal favorite. I also once snatched up a bunch of '60s and '70s-era MB pamphlets that were being discarded - cool stuff.

 

My mother is a youth librarian (children/teens) and she reports that by far the most popular items are graphic novels, in both traditional and anime style. They fly off the shelves, and are regularly stolen. So if anyone knows of a Scouting-related topic that's presented in a graphic novel format, snap it up and donate it, because the kids will eat it up. (Maybe National should redo the Handbook in that style next time around...)

 

Consider a Scout-run program on outdoor skills (suitable for indoors instruction) for youth - knots, lashings, semaphore, soap carving, etc.

 

On a slightly related topic, summer reading programs for youth are incredibly popular in my area, with hundreds of kids signing up even at the smaller libraries. But with budgets being trimmed, librarians are often searching for low-cost programs that match the chosen theme. (It's usually some sort of a reading-related pun - Buggy About Reading (insects), Adventures On The Page (adventure), etc.) See if your Scouts can develop some thematic programs to offer and help out your local librarian.

 

A lot of libraries have literature racks for display of brochures and pamphlets from community groups, social service agencies, etc. Develop a brochure promoting your unit and activities and ask for copies to be placed there. Refresh them regularly.