Essential Elements of Storytime

I’ve been giving storytimes regularly since 1996, and have been in a training and mentoring role for storytimes at my library for the past several years. The more time I spend thinking and learning and talking about storytime, the more I realize how much is involved and how many things must be managed in order to do it well. If you provide storytimes, give yourself credit for working to master a complex, sophisticated skill set. In storytime, you are performing, promoting, teaching, inspiring, and managing a double audience: children and adults. You’re amazing!

Maybe you were hanging out with us last winter, when I asked a couple of questions about what to do and not to do in storytime. The conversation was fabulous and I learned so much. One of the things I was doing at work this year was helping to develop our first-ever list of competencies for storytime providers. In the process, I had a chance to clarify my own thoughts on what elements are essential for a quality storytime.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing that list with you: Not my library’s storytime competencies, but my current list of critical components. “Current” because I’m certain it is still evolving. I know some of your thoughts will be different, and I can’t wait to continue the conversation about storytime with you.

What’s first on my list?

Loving storytime.