Lately, I've enjoyed reading posts from "The Show Me Librarian"by Amy Koester, a children's librarian in Missouri. Her lastest blog was about Halloween programming at her public library, for which I wrote in a comment:

http://showmelibrarian.blogspot.com/2012/10/halloween-safety-story-time-partnership.html

Partnering with the county ambulance district, the children's Halloween event opened with a tour of the the ambulance, in which two EMT's demonstrated the stretcher, heartbeat monitor, and lights on the ambulance. After presenting safety rules on Halloween, the spooky stories were finally told. This might have been a very common Halloween program, but for someone like me who didn't grow up celebrating Halloween and generally preferred staying home and rest early on the night, this was a brand new idea.

Even though I am not into ghost, monster and alien stories, over the years, I did acquire a taste for zombie-themed novels and movies. When I first started working with teens, I didn't share the same excitement with my students when the spooky season came close. A few years later, I pushed myself into learning about the imagined apocalyptic world occupied by zombies as a way to connect to my students and the important part of modern American culture. (I imagine I will be doing more of that as I progress into the profession of librarianship.)

Koester's Halloween program reminded me of the zombie-themed disaster preparedness program I saw last year on CDC's website. I visited the site again today, and found that they added even more ideas and activities:

http://www.cdc.gov/phpr/learn.htm

There are lesson plans, activities and even a graphic novella. These are good resources for teachers. Teacher librarians as well as public librarians can also use the site as a part of their Halloween programs.