Baby Bundles Overview

Baby Bundles were something that I had on my SOMEDAY list. After the success of Book Bundles, I knew that I wanted to create a Bundle that would target the very youngest patrons and their caregivers. Part of this was because baby/toddler toys often become obsolete quickly after a child loses interest. The other part of this was to teach caregivers how to use simple toys and books to teach their child early literacy skills.

This past fall, my manager was putting together a list of proposals for a sponsor and I worked out a very quick budget for the Baby Bundles without any guarantee of seeing the project come to fruition. I was pretty darn floored when Baby Bundles was chosen by the sponsor!

The Details

Baby Bundles

• I created sixteen Baby Bundle themes: Alphabet, Balls, Bugs, Colors, Counting, Faces, Farm, Food, Make Music, Ocean, Peek-a-Boo, Pets, Shapes, Sounds, Things That Go, Zoo.
• The backpacks were purchased from 4Imprint and are the “Chervon Zippered Business Tote” style.
• Book Bundles are shelved on the floor with a zip-tie securing the tote closed. I punched a grommet into the tote to allow the Bundles to be secured.
• I provided a lot of input for our logo, but it was created by our fabulous graphic designer.
• For each Baby Bundle, I made both an Inventory and an Activity Guide. The Activity Guides for Baby Bundles differ from Book Bundles because I wrote ideas based on the five practices of Every Child Ready to Read (read,
  sing, talk, play, and write). For Book Bundles, I wrote activities based on each item in the kit.
• The Baby Bundles were sponsored by a donation from a patron and we do recognize that patron on our materials. I did remove the donation logo for uploading purposes in order to protect their identity.
• Twice a week one of our adult volunteers checks the returned Baby Bundles against the Inventory sheet and then staff checks them in, backdating to the date that the patron returned the item. Because baby toys often go in the mouth, each item is cleaned with disinfectant or washed before going back out on the shelf.
• They circulate for two weeks, with a fine of $1.00 per day if returned late. That’s the library’s standard for kits like Book Bundles, Parenting Packs, LeapFrogs, etc.

The tags on the Baby Bundles give a recommendation age range for the toy inside (provided by the manufacturer of each toy) as well as a picture of all the items inside the Bundle so that patrons know what they are checking out without having to open the Bundle on the floor.

Circulation of Baby Bundles is now handled by the front desk (and for that matter, so are Book Bundles and Parenting Packs which they were not originally)!

Over the next sixteen weeks, I’ll be showing off a kit a week so you’ll get to see what was chosen and why.

And that’s about it in terms of specifics in getting the kits put together. Technical Services helped SO MUCH in creating a catalog record for these items from scratch and making sure all the materials got tagged with the barcode. I am so appreciative of how everyone at the library works together.