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Children and Schools (Summary)
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SUMMARY

SCOPE
This guideline covers IST-based services and activities provided by Public libraries, which help children to develop a positive attitude toward learning, consistent with the goal of an eEurope and which contribute to their development as human beings able to play a role in society, building citizenship and a sense of community. 

POLICY ISSUES
Children need services that contribute to their development in a number of ways: intellectual and emotional, language, social, educational and motor skills. Public libraries can promote this development through enjoyment. They can provide children with opportunities for developing social skills, the acquisition of aesthetic sense and the developing of interest in literature and the arts. 

New basic skills were defined at the European Council meeting in Lisbon 2000 as IT skills, foreign languages, technological culture, entrepreneurship and social skills. There is a need to develop much further IST-based services oriented toward children, including those delivered by public libraries, in order to promote a positive attitude toward learning. 

This requires effective co-operation between local public libraries and other organisations at local level. Although public libraries, archives and museums are increasingly seen as part of a learning delivery network, greater involvement in the discussion of school curricula could give libraries, museums and archives a chance to establish a stronger collaborative strategy in support of school-based education. Close co-operation is needed with schools, and particularly with school libraries. School Library Services support learning for around three-quarters of school children in England. These services are frequently managed by the public library service and act as a crucial bridging agent between schools and public libraries. Their knowledge of the curriculum can enrich libraries’ homework support provision. Frequently they forge partnerships to enable public libraries to work more effectively in supporting literacy and developing reading and increasingly they are providing links at local level between public library ICT learning networks and school ICT provision. 

GOOD PRACTICE GUIDELINES
Services may be provided in the library, on-line through websites or other digital networks. They can be developed by the library itself or in partnership between public libraries and other cultural and educational organisations to provide effective support to formal and informal learning at all levels, including distance learning, through sharing collections and resources. The client groups for public library children’s services include children, parents and carers and families.

Public libraries can provide:

• a meeting point for local communities with a natural relationship with schools, families and other community groups;

• a networked learning environment to stimulate and provide skills for lifelong reading and learning and IST skills which can be extended to schools, individuals home and virtually everywhere through web based services; 

• enhanced homework facilities; 

• models for shared enjoyment between adults and children involving books, computers and IST, music, theatre and cinema and other cultural activities; 

• an important contribution to the development of all forms of literacy including: functional literacy; digital literacy; visual literacy and media literacy; 

• support for social inclusion and strengthened cultural identity.

• curriculum-based learning opportunities, activities and resources.

FUTURE AGENDA
Policy makers, professional bodies, public libraries, museums, archives, schools and other cultural and educational institutions need to come together to build the next stage of policy development for children’s services in preparation for a knowledge-based and Learning Society.

Home | Public library services for 
Children and Schools (Summary)
Full Text: Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4