PROGRAM IDEAS
Let’s Move in Libraries is a great place for library professionals to be inspired by, learn about and share excellent program ideas to get their communities moving.
If you are seeking advice about how to begin, please visit our Resources page. Let’s get started!
Music and movement are important at every stage of a child’s development, and can be brought together in fun, dynamic library programs. Librarians already sing, clap, and play during storytime. Music and Movement deepen this tradition by bringing in physical activity.
Running is one of the best things you can do for your health. Libraries help people start running through Couch to 5K programs and sustain this healthy habit through running clubs. These programs are great opportunities to form partnerships with runners in your community.
Did you know that you can work your whole body without standing up? Chair-based exercises are great ways to make fitness more accessible to individuals with mobility problems. Yoga, Zumba, Cardio: You can do it all without getting out of your chair!
Local, state, and national parks are all wonderful partners. By partnering with parks you can start circulating hiking backpacks, set-up StoryWalks®, take your summer reading outside, and encourage a lifelong love of being active in nature.
We already invite musicians to perform at our libraries. Take things to the next level through dance programs. Ballet, line dancing, ballroom, and hip hop dance programs are being offered across North America to all ages.
Gardening is a great way to not only enjoy some fresh air, but to get some exercise and increase your physical activity, too! Support gardening in your community by installing some raised beds on your lawn, starting a seed exchange, or through informational programs on how to garden.
Re-imagine the classic board games from your childhood by making them life-sized! Battleship, Candyland, Jenga, Connect Four: Without a lot of set-up you can transform your library into a giant board game.
There are so many ways to encourage walking at your library! Organize a walking history tour of downtown, launch a StoryWalk® at the park, start a walking book club, circulate snowshoes or walking poles, or simply organize a walking path through the library.
Beginning in 2011, libraries in all 50 states and 12 countries have installed done a StoryWalk®. Laminated pages from a children’s book are attached to stakes that are installed along a path. As you stroll down the trail, you read the story.
Bike rodeo in the library parking lot, checking out bicycles, bike safety workshops, bicycles tours of library branches, book bikes: There are so many ways libraries and bicycling can come together! See what librarians are doing to encourage bicycling and get rolling at your library.
Yoga is the most commonly offered type of movement-based program offered in North American public libraries. Yoga in libraries contributes both to physical and to mental health, and it is fun! Get started with Yoga in your library.
