Cooperation and Company was a Dewitt Wallace-Reader’s Digest Library Power grant-funded project. Two public library children’s librarians, Mary Margaret Mercado and Char Maynard and two school librarians, Terri Moschetti and yours truly, collaborated to co-author, co-promote, co-produce, and co-celebrate three puppet plays.

We worked in public librarian-school librarian teams to develop the puppet plays based on three public domain stories from traditional literature: Borreguita and the Coyote, Whale in the Sky, and Whose’s In Rabbit’s House? We purchased the puppets, created the scenery, and used the then Tucson-Pima Public (now Pima County Public) Library’s professional puppet stage.

We had a blast! We performed the plays at two branches of the public library and at both elementary schools. We involved students in bookmark contests to promote the plays and the hours and contact information for the libraries. (See above selection of bookmarks, circa 1995.) Students also learned the puppet play refrains so they could assist in the performances. Mary Margaret and I continued to perform Borreguita and the Coyote for the public library’s summer reading program for many years after the grant project.

School library and public library collaboration can be a rewarding and high-impact activity for all involved. While the school librarian’s support for the public library programs during summer reading is essential (especially if our school libraries are shuttered during the summer months), we can make the extra effort to involve students and families in taking advantage of what the public library has to offer year round.

School librarians collaborating with our colleagues at the public library is a win-win for the readers in our shared communities.