Story Times in Academia: How a Grant Sparked Creativity and Fun for Children and College Students

At the Klinck Memorial Library at Concordia University Chicago (CUC), we believe that the library is not just a place for quiet study and academic research, it is a center for connection, learning, and creativity, starting at the earliest age possible. With the generous support of the RAILS 2024 My Library Is… Grant, we launched a project that deepened our relationship with the university’s Early Childhood Education Center (ECEC) and broadened the library’s relationship with the entire undergraduate population. 

How Did This Happen? 

This project came to life thanks to a shared vision between the library, ECEC teachers, the College of Education, and student clubs: to create more inclusive, engaging story times for our daycare children, while enriching the learning experience for undergraduate students. Our goal was to refresh and expand the library’s early childhood collection with new, diverse children’s literature and bring those stories to life through campus-wide story time events with more interactive props and engaging tools to support literacy for the ECEC children and invite undergraduate students to learn about and participate in the story time process. 

Why It Matters? 

It is more important than ever for libraries to stand as advocates for embracing diversity, equity, and inclusion, even academic libraries. Our story time programming centered around cultural celebrations that are normally practiced on campus. We expanded our story times to include these events, in addition to including summertime reading, which is appreciated when it can be too hot to play outside.  Most librarians and educators understand that story time offers a multitude of benefits for children's development for improved literacy, language skills, cognitive abilities, and social-emotional growth. The ECEC has wonderful teachers that also have story time in their classrooms, but having story time from different adults, such as librarians and undergraduate students, on different topics will encourage an even deeper love for reading and provide opportunities for engagement and interaction that does not happen in a public library setting.  

After receiving funding, the story times we spotlighted throughout the year were: 

• National Family Month
• Disability Awareness Month
• Hispanic Heritage Month
• Native American Heritage Month
• Holiday Story Times
• Black History Month
• Dr. Suess (just for fun!) 

The first two themed story times were held in the summer, so they were led by the library team. The rest of the story times were held during the school year. The library team intentionally collaborated with student groups like the Black Student Union and Latino Student Union to be a part of story time, including an open invitation for students studying any major. Inclusion for all was our primary goal. 

Benefits 

We feel that our patrons (the ECEC children, teachers, and undergraduate students) saw and felt immediate, lasting value: 

• For the ECEC: Teachers gained access to up-to-date, diverse books that reflect the world around them. The children loved coming to the library more frequently than in the past. The teachers can now borrow additional props for their classroom story times.
• For college students: Education students and students of other majors used the expanded collection to explore culturally relevant pedagogy and build familiarity with children’s literature, a crucial skill for future classrooms and overall knowledge.
• For the library: A reduction in interlibrary loan requests proved that the new collection is deeply appreciated and utilized by the College of Education students for specific, required assignments.  

Lessons Learned  

This project reinforced the value as a collaborative partner within the university and planted seeds for future field experience opportunities, particularly for education majors looking to get involved in story times, classroom support, and library programming. The most surprising number of students signed up for the Holidays story times. Ten spots were open for story time and all ten were filled within three days, which did not happen with the other monthly themes. While this could be because CUC is a Lutheran and Christian university, even during finals week, students were wanting to participate in story time at a significantly higher rate for this period. 

One unexpected challenge was recruiting undergraduate students for our Black History Month story time. We suspect the broader political climate may have created hesitation to be involved in this particular story time topic, as the atmosphere was quite sullen on campus. Still, we were heartened by the students and staff who stepped up and participated, proving that even small acts of engagement can have powerful effects. To go a step further, the library director personally reached out to the authors of selected story time books through their social media platforms to thank them for writing the material and informing the authors that it was well received during story time. The authors each responded with heartfelt thanks. 

Google Form surveys were sent out to student participants and ECEC teachers after each batch of story times and while we received wonderful feedback from ECEC teachers for suggestions and improvements of story times (such as including more puppets and using songs that the children would already know during movement breaks), we received very little feedback from the student participants. This may be a generational communication gap or survey fatigue, but feedback from college students was minimal, so usually feedback was recovered orally, immediately after the story time occurred.  

Another new tradition we started, thanks to the grant, was purchasing markers to draw on glass to create themes in the main entry way that represented the different celebratory months. Student workers in the library were asked to design murals every other month around the story time theme and now the installations have become an expectation for inspiring messages and images which will be continued in the next school year. 

Want to Replicate Our Project? 

• Start with relationships: Building bridges between your library and campus partners—especially those working with children or education students.
• Think collections and connections: Updating your materials is only part of the impact. Pair new acquisitions with events that bring stories to life.
• Celebrate throughout the year: Use a calendar of cultural observances to create momentum and build traditions.
• Stay flexible: Political and social contexts can affect participation, so be prepared to adapt and support your project however you can.
• Ask for feedback and act on that feedback: Honest feedback can be difficult but necessary for growth and opportunities. If individuals are hesitant to answer survey questions, ask for in-person for feedback immediately after the event.  

By transforming story time into a platform for inclusion, creativity, and collaboration, we reimagined what an academic library can offer to a campus community. The Klinck Memorial Library is proud to have been part of this work, and we are even more excited about what will be requested for future events with the ECEC and how else to include and support the diverse undergraduate population. 

How many story times did we hold in an academic library? 

We held 27 story times from June 2024-March 2025. Too many and not enough! 

June: National Family Month—Story times lead by Librarians 

• June 6—Young Full Day 1 & 2 Classes (32 children)
• June 14—Full Day 3 Class (20 children)
• June 20—Young Full Day 3 Class (16 children)
• June 28—Full Day 1 Class (20 children) 

July: Disability Awareness/Pride Month—Story times lead by Librarians 

• July 2—Full Day 3 Class & Young Full Day 2 (36 children)
• July 12 —Full Day 1 Class (20 children)
• July 18—Young Full Day 1 & 3 (32 children)
• July 26 —Full Day 4 & 2 Class (40 children) 

October: Hispanic Heritage Month—Story times led by seven undergraduate students  

• October 7: 2 story times—Full Day 1 Class & Full Day 4 Class (40 children)
• October 8—Young Full Day 1 & 2 (32 children)
• October 9—Full Day 3 Class (20 children)
• October 10—Full Day 2 Class & Young Full Day 3 (36 children) 

November: Native American Heritage Month—Story times led by three undergraduate students  

• November 25—Full Day 3 Class (20 children)
• November 26—Full Day 4 Class (20 children) 

December: Holiday Story Times—Story times led by ten undergraduate students  

• December 9—Full Day 1 Class (20 children)
• December 10—Full Day 4 Class (20 children)
• December 11—Full Day 3 & 2 Class (40 children)
• December 12—Young Full Day 1 & 2 (32 children) 

February: Black History Month—Story times led by two undergraduate students  

• February 25—Kindergarten (20 children)
• February 26—Full Day 1 & 2 Classes (40 children) 

March: Dr. Suess—Story times lead by Librarians 

• March 10—Full Day 3 Class (20 children)
• March 11—Full Day 2 Class (20 children)
• March 12—Full Day 4 & 1 Classes (40 children)
• March 13—Young Full Day 1 & 2 (32 children)
• March 14—Kindergarten (20 children) and Young Full Day 3 (16 children) 

This week’s blog post was written by Liesl Cottrell, Director of the University Library, Klinck Memorial Library, Concordia University Chicago.

This project was made possible by the My Library Is... Grant.