Home | Public library services for 
Children and Schools (Summary)
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Services
Public libraries can provide:

• a meeting point for local communities with a natural relationship with schools, families and other community groups, enabling the development of partnerships to achieve a coherent approach to services for children and their parents or carers;

• a networked learning environment to stimulate and provide skills for lifelong reading and learning and IST skills. This learning environment can be extended to schools, individuals homes and virtually everywhere through web based services for children, parents and carers;

• enhanced homework facilities such as homework clubs, and links to specially designed homework help web sites for those in remote areas or unable to visit the library;

• models for shared enjoyment between adults and children involving books, story reading, computers and IST, games music, theatre and cinema and other cultural activities – increasing the potential for more constructive use of leisure time. The library environment should be designed jointly to make children safe and happy;

• an important contribution to the development of all forms of literacy including: 
  - functional literacy - through books and the reading of electronic formats such as stories from the web, summer reading schemes, etc.; 
  - digital literacy - by introducing IST-based services for children, for example Web orientation to empower children in browsing and search skills, including the very important skill of evaluating website content and relevance, and games technology to teach IST skills in a fun way (see BECTA);
  - visual literacy - through posters, adverts and computer images;
  - media literacy - newspapers, TV and radio including access via the Web;

• learning resource packaging in partnership with educational organisations - libraries offer co-operative networks and WWW directories of necessary resources as well as local educational/training packages in order to support national and/or local curricula;

• support for social inclusion by focusing on multicultural and multilingual content and activities as well as services for children with disabilities;

• strengthened cultural awareness, creating a sense of citizenship and cultural identity by promoting children’s cultural roots (see Chimer).

Most of the above can be applied to museums and archives. Museums in particular can be exciting places for children and families, and many have developed interactive web sites. Archives have been slower in attracting children as Record Offices and their contents tend not to appear very child-friendly. However, technology makes access possible without danger of damage to valuable original documents. 

Client groups for children’s services

• Children are clients of the Public Library: the library is responsible to the whole of the local child population, not just its current users. The development of services has to be informed and determined by consideration of children’s needs. 

• Parents and carers and teachers, who are responsible for the upbringing and education of children, are a major target audience for these services. Interaction with them is crucial for the development of services truly oriented to children’s needs. They can be assisted through information and consultancy support in networked environments. Younger children, need the help of parents, carers or teachers to visit the library or to access a computer at home: if services are attractive to both, they are more likely to be successful and used.

• Families are also an important client group which can be supported through reading and literacy initiatives – libraries can provide services that involve children, parents and grandparents. They need to recognize the importance of family involvement in children’s literacy. In order to get family trust in children library services, library staff should work closely with children’s specialists and make sure that services are appropriate to different stages of children’s development and families’ needs.

• Schools, playgroups and nurseries are all clients. Special events are run for them in the library or museum, on their own premises, or in the community. For example, libraries can provide topic loans (sets of books on specific subjects), museums can provide boxes of objects for use in lessons, and classes can visit museums or other heritage sites where they can dress up in costume and “live the life” of people in a different time or place. 

Children with special needs
Public libraries can play an important role in providing services for those who experience physical disabilities; learning disabilities, behavioural and social difficulties, specific language/cultural needs, educational disadvantage and financial disadvantage by supplying IST based services in a web-based environment to be used inside the library and remotely. 

Sometimes children are taught at home, either from choice or necessity, and in these cases libraries, museums and record offices can play a crucial role. (see Education Otherwise.)

In rural and isolated communities and where there are few or no other facilities to help both children and families, public libraries can play an important role as supporters in child development and family orientation by guaranteeing access through IST to resources for learning and leisure (see social inclusion).

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