Welcome to Mel’s Desk! I’m Melissa Depper, and I’ve been a children’s librarian in the Denver metro area since 1996. My professional interests include early literacy, early childhood programs and services, parent and caregiver education, staff development and training, and storytime. <\/p>\n
I work full-time at a suburban Denver public library district in youth services, where I spend most of my time creating and leading staff training, and developing early literacy based programs and services. This spring I had the great good fortune to be named one of Library Journal’s 2013 Movers & Shakers<\/a>. <\/p>\n In January 2013 wrapped up a five-year stint on the Steering Committee of Colorado Libraries for Early Literacy<\/a>. In addition, I was one of two public library advisors to the Early Childhood Librarian Fellowship program<\/a> at the University of Denver. As part of this project, I twice have team-taught a class on early childhood materials and services to the LIS students there. Currently I’m chairing the selection committee of the brand-new CLEL Bell Awards<\/a>, an initiative to celebrate great picture books that support early literacy development in young children. <\/p>\n I present workshops and trainings outside my library as time allows, and had the great fun of completing my first national presentation at the 2012 ALSC Institute, where my supervisor and I shared the storytime competencies and observation forms we’ve developed for our library. I serve on the ALSC Children & Technology Committee, and I also have a great time hanging out with the Flannel Friday<\/a> online community. I love what I do and am learning all the time. <\/p>\n On this blog I write most often about storytime, but also occasionally about other youth services projects and programs, past and present. While I share a lot of what I’m working on for my library, my opinions are of course my own. <\/p>\n You can find me (too often probably) on Twitter<\/a>, and you can check out my picture book account on GoodReads<\/a>. You can reach me via post comments here at Mel’s Desk, or by email to melsdesk at comcast dot net.<\/p>\n Thanks for visiting!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Welcome to Mel’s Desk! I’m Melissa Depper, and I’ve been a children’s librarian in the Denver metro area since 1996. My professional interests include early literacy, early childhood programs and services, parent and caregiver education, staff development and training, and … Continue reading