Can we learn from museums?

Both libraries and museums are institutions dedicated to making enriching experiences available to their communities. For a long time both institutions tended to remain behind their high walls, offering riches but not advertising them very much and not pushing them to the forefront. All that has changed over the past half century, but the pace of change has accelerated greatly particularly in museums. New technology makes it possible for museums to invite their publics to participate in the selection and evaluationg of art and to see exhibits that may be otherwise inaccessible. The N.Y. Times recently produced a special section on museums outlining the initiatives taken in New York, Brooklyn, Indianapolis, and San Francisco. Libraries have been expanding their web presence too, but perhaps not as spectacularly as museums. What ideas can children's librarians borrow from the museums to offer their patrons? Well, clearly announcing events and posting slideshows of visiting authors, illustrators, and performers is one way. Perhaps some events can be streamed live through Facebook or other social media. Teenagers and tweens would probably find this congenial. Offering glimpses of new acquisitions in the picture books, or excerpts of books, as amazon.com does, would surely attract readers. Following library accounts of programs and PR work is valuable, but it's time to reach out further and take our cues from sister institutions which may offer fresh ideas.

Follow that monkey!

There are few stories more intriguing to librarians than the stories of how their favorite children's books came to be written. The Curious George books, as most children's librarians know, were written and illustrated by H.A. Rey with help from his partner and wife, Margret Rey. Now the Jewish Museum in New York has created an exhibit based on the story of how the Reys escaped from Europe during World War II and created George as they were on the run. Despite the aura of innocence and naivete which the books exude, they came out of a world of war and terror. George's thoughtless escapades, from which he is always rescued by the Man in the Yellow Hat, have enchanted several generations of children, but the books were written by adults under the threat of concentration camps and death. The Museum exhibit shows letters and part of H.A. Rey's diary, most of which do not reveal much about what the couple was thinking as they fled from Paris to the South of France, then bicycled to Lisbon and managed to get to South America and finally New York. We will probably never know what the authors were thinking as they wrote and drew the pictures for the early books. Perhaps they survived by creating for themselves a world safe from war and death and where the threats of runaway bicycles and all-too-buoyant balloons can always be solved by a helpful hand from the cryptic Man in the Yellow Hat. This exhibit will show in New York until late summer and in the fall will move to the Jewish Museum in San Francisco.