Masterton, Moera and Mr Muggs

Masterton Library Pre-School Programme
(with Moera on the screen)

On Wednesday the 18th of August Masterton District Library and Moera Community Library combined for an online pre-school programme as part of our Library Week activities. Using Skype we were able to link the programmes being offered at each library, talk to, and see each other, and hold a combined reading of ‘Mr Muggs the Library Cat’ for our part of New Zealand’s largest storytime. Explaining to children of this age that there are other children in other libraries reading the same book can be a bit abstract, but being able to see other children really made an impact. The kids really enjoyed interacting with the technology and far from proving a distraction, it seemed to focus their attentions.

The exercise was also a very valuable one for the adults involved, the link-up proving to be a great medium for sharing information and ideas. One of our Masterton mums is going to contact her sister in Moera and tell her about the great preschool programme going on at her local library. Our children’s librarians are also going to borrow the welcome song used at Moera , teach it to our children, and perhaps be able to sing it back to the Moera children next time we link up.

There were some technological issues such as intermittent sound, and a bit of time lag, but as a first step it was a very encouraging exercise and one that we hope to build on in the future. Congratulations to Chris, Kylie and Erica from Moera, and Jane, Mary and Sandy from Masterton (with help from Steven our Techie) on a really exciting initiative with huge potential and a great way to deliver NZ’s largest storytime.

Jon Adams
Community Outreach Librarian
Masterton District Library