Home | Public library services for 
Children and Schools (Summary)
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FUTURE AGENDA
Public library practitioners need, through training and experience, to develop their IST and educational skills, to meet the needs of children and to work as partners with nurseries and promary schools. 

Libraries will need to employ on their staff people with other relevant professional training and backgrounds, for example primary schoolteachers, nurses etc. The advice of parents and carers will need to be sought more widely in the way that public library services are developed and delivered.

The investment of the IST content industry in the market for 0 – 6 year olds is low in comparison to other age groups. Public libraries can redress this situation by promoting IST skills. Together with schools they need to develop tools and services for children. There is a need to rethink children's services in general and those based on IST on particular, including those for disabled or disadvantaged children.

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. There is a need to develop national policies promoting learning environments and a general learning attitude, building on the facilties involved by public libraries. A common agenda needs to be developed with short, middle and long-term strategies to promote learning and fight illiteracy in all its forms.

LINKS

Links included are to innovative IST-based services for children under 13 years old.

Europe
Chimer
One of the ‘Heritage for All’ projects from the Sixth Call, funded by the European Commission's Information Society Technology R&D programme. Develops new approaches to the use of evolving technologies for documenting items of cultural interest to children. Children develop skills by actually working on this site themselves.
http://www.chimer.org/

elearningeuropa.info
Gives a lot of useful information on what is happening in Europe.
http://www.elearningeuropa.info/ 

Chilias 
An EU libraries project addressed to children aged 6-14. It:

• contains content contributions (texts and images) from elementary school students on specific topics; 

• enables communication between children in different European countries through a guestbook;

• contains a storybuilding component that allows children to write their own stories;

• contains games and exercises for the development of information skills. 
  http://www.haef.gr/chilias/ (Greece)
  http://chilias.diba.es/ (Spain)
  http://www.infoplaneetta.hyvan.helsinki.fi/ (Finland) 

Bulgaria
Dora Gabe Municipality Library 
A library project aiming to introduce and orient children to the opportunities of the WWW while protecting them from its negative influence 
http://www.libdgabe.dobrich.net

Czech Republic
The District Library Karlovy Vary (DL) www.knihovna.kvary.cz is one institution in the Czech Republic supporting information technologies (IT) exploitation. PC and Internet at home are not standard in Czech society. The level of school IT equipment differs place from place and that is why DL decided to make available good equipment especially for "disabled" groups of our society - 1) for children from the families with lower incomes; 2) for seniors (mostly retired) who have no chance to learn new IT and especially Internet use; 3) for unemployed people who could gain new chances with IT knowledge; 4) for librarians from small libraries that are in the process of computerization. http://www.knihovna.kvary.cz

Estonia
The Central Library of Lääne County
has a children's department in a separate building, which serves the children of Haapsalu as well as the visitors of the town. At the library there is a playground with several attractive facilities, children's study circles for developing manual skills, facilities for listening to music and watching videos.
http://www.miksike.ee

www.miksike.ee
An open source movement in educational publishing and online learning. Used by public libraries.
http://miksike.com/

Estonian Children's Literature Information Centre
During the last ten years, the Centre has initiated several large-scale projects, including the Nukits-competition and National Reading Day, in active co-operation with public and school libraries. In March 2003 Life is full of fairy tales will be launched.
http://www.eltk.ee/

Germany
InfoPlanet
A virtual children’s library building on the work of the CHILIAS project funded by the EC’s Telematics for Libraries Programme.
http://www.stuttgart.de/chilias/

Greece
17 new mobile libraries are serving primary and secondary schools without library facilities. The programme is funded by the Ministry of Education and is intended to contribute to the development of library services across the country. Information about the project can be found on the main website at
http://www.ypepth.gr/

Ireland
Clare County Library
Library web page inviting children to read and learn with links organized by themes, including books, curricula support and leisure
http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/kids_section/kids_section.htm

County Wexford Public Library
Writers worth reading - encouraging your child to read
A brief and populist guide to quality writers for children was produced as a brochure and as six bookmarks. Initially intended for a local audience, 1/2 million copies were distributed to public library services countrywide.
http://www.wexford.ie/library.htm

Moldova
Ludoteca
Innovative service offered by the Transylvania Public Library (Chisinau County) for children (less than 14 years old) from vulnerable families. Its aim is to facilitate pre-school education, encourage intellectual development and expand knowledge by using traditional toys, cognitive play and electronic and video games. Regular meetings with children's authors, puppet shows, and discussion clubs are organized.
http://www.hasdeu.md/load.php?file=ro/copii/ludoteca

Summer Camps at Public Libraries
The "Alba Iulia" public library from Chisinau County was opened as a summer camp for children of 12 years old during the summers of 2001 and 2002 with finance from the Soros-Moldova Foundation. During these holiday periods the public library offered great opportunities for children to use cognitive electronic games, join reading discussions and story telling, etc.

Mediateca
Modern and innovative service provided by 3 public libraries: the National Children's Library "I.Creanga", Donduseni City Library and Anenii Noi City Library. Their major aim is to provide Internet access, offer electronic games and e-books, etc. IT training courses and lectures are offered for everyone interested.

Ireland
Clare County Library 
Library web page inviting children to read and learn with links organized by themes, including books, curricula support and leisure
http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/kids_section/kids_section.htm

Netherlands
Assen Public Library
Website where students are challenged to work on their own and stimulated to approach new subjects: an example of a successful partnership with educational organizations to support on-line curricula. 
http://www.bibliotheekassen.nl/jongeren/frkennisnetckv.htm

Den Haag Public library 
Projects especially for children to enhance their interest in reading, networking in the project “Fantasia” etc.
http://www.mijnstempel.nl
http://www.fantasia.nl
http://www.leesplein.nl

Foundation Reading
The method called “Boekenpret” is introduced in many municipalities in pre- and early educational settings to enhance basic language and learning skills, especially effective for native and migrant families without a reading habit and tradition. 
http://www.lezen.nl

NBLC 
Website to support pupils, students, parents and teachers with all kinds off school matters. A successful collaboration between the professional body of libraries, public libraries and government, which started with the participation of twenty public libraries on a government pilot project
http://www.kennisnet.nl/ 

Rotterdam Public Library
Website to stimulate and help students that are not attracted by reading: example of a partnership with educational organizations to help students with special needs in order to help them succeed in their compulsory education
Link: http://b-wise.bibliotheek.rotterdam.nl

Norway
Troll I ord (Words come true) 
A co-operative project, exemplifying co-operation between public libraries and the community, that aims to promote reading, especially among children and youngsters
http://www.trolliord.org/

Austevoll Public Library
Local history website produced by the Municipality of Austevoll where children and adults can find out more about their community.
http://www.hordaland.org/austevoll/

Haram Public Library
Website to support students in finding resources on the web and writing reports, resulting from the need to combine public and school libraries as a way to optimise resources.
http://www.haram.folkebibl.no/prosjekt

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