Maribeth MontgomeryLSIS 5505 0L1

Dr. Edna Cogdell20 Nov 2010

Sixty percent of the library’s users are under eighteen years old.

Children’s services are intended to support the needs of children of all ages and the wide range of people who are associated with children: Babies Toddlers Preschoolers Early Elementary Schoolers Tweenagers Young Adults Parents/Guardians Child Care Providers Homeschool Families Teachers and School librarians Nonnative speakers of English Adults with low literacy

Provide children with the opportunity to experience literature and become involved with books at an early age.

Teach children to learn to read and improve their reading skills.

Help children learn to love to read.Help children to become lifetime readers.Provide children with a positive library

experiences that will encourage them to become lifetime patrons of the library.

Teach preliteracy skills, such as letter knowledge, phonological comprehension and sensitivity, print awareness, print motivation, how to hold print materials and move through the materials, etc.

Promote family literacy.Combat aliteracy, which is the ability to read but

not the motivation.Help offset the deterioration of language and

reading skills that children experience when they do not read outside of school.

Promote community outreach, curriculum support, and homework help.

Provide children the opportunity to talk about what they have read to confirm, extend, and modify their understanding of literature.

Encourage children to search for meaning in books and connect what they are reading to their own lives, which aids with their social and emotional growth.

Develop children’s literary awareness and appreciation.

Encourage children to become educated, literate citizens capable of making decisions and acquiring desired information.

Babies (Birth to one and a half-year-olds): They are learning to react to various stimuli, such as sound, rhythm, color, and

touch. Need a collection and environment rich in stimuli. Need programs that can reinforce these concepts.

Toddlers (One and a half to three-year-olds): They are developing the appreciation of stories, learning to interact with others

outside of their immediate family, and exploring the world around them. They need language-rich environment and social play times. Programs and the collection should include read-to-me-level books and nursery

rhymes, illustrations, and music. Preschoolers (Three to five year-olds):

They are preparing to enter school and learn to read. They are developing a sense of structure and an awareness of rules and

routines. They need programs that include ritualized play and picture books that are

suitable to their social and emotional needs and folktales and fairy tales, which can teach the structure of stories

Early Elementary (Kindergarten through second grade): Children become independent readers. They will need “Step Readers” or “I Can Read” books, which have simple text,

few words per page, and straight-forward story lines. It is important to promote books that are of high-interest to remind parents and

children that reading is a joy as they struggle to master reading.

Tweenagers (Eight to twelve-year-olds) These children are in their later elementary years and are no longer in early

elementary, but not quite teenagers either. They are developing a keen sense of curiosity about the world, the people

around them, and themselves. They are developing a recognition of genres and a sense of preferences and

comfort levels . Programming should aim to help children connect literature to their

comprehension of their personal lives and the world around them. Young Adults (Twelve to eighteen-year-olds):

Young adults are intellectually and emotionally growing into adults. They are trying to make sense of the world around them and how they relate to

this world. They are trying to define themselves and discover their personal identity. They are forming a gender and racial identity and developing a new body

image. They have a desire for personal recognition, responsibility, and independence Teens need positive interactions with adults and peers to develop their social

skills. Libraries need a well-developed collection to support the interest and needs of

young adults in fiction as well as nonfiction. Programs that encourage the use of the library and the love of reading are also

necessary because this age group is often less likely to use the library.

Socio-Economic disadvantaged Children from socio-economically disadvantaged homes are at risk because they

are: Less likely to have children’s books in the home. Less likely to be read to frequently at an early age. Less likely to be given time to talk to adults about books. Less likely to be given opportunities to engage in imaginative storytelling.

Children of ethnic and language minorities Children from ethnic and language minorities are at risk because they have:

A lack congruity between their entry knowledge ,ways of knowing , and experiences and the expectations at school, the school curriculum, and everyday routines in the classroom.

A disproportionate percentage living in poverty. A lack of enrollment in preschools because preschools are often private and the family

cannot afford it. A lack of knowledge of the English language and English vocabulary because English is not

the primary language spoken in their home. Children from families in which the adults are poor readers or do not read to

their children Children with less literacy experiences at home are at risk because:

The adult are poor readers or don not give the children opportunities to engage in story discussions.

The adults do read to the children, but do so in a manner that only emphasizes the words, letters, and sounds, but not the story itself.

There are no special places for books to be kept nor any time in the daily routine for sharing books.

Children who are in some type of child care center instead of being cared for at home Children in child care are more at risk because:

Children are less likely to receive as much individual attention to support their development in literacy.

Professional standards for quality of care may not be in wide compliance, so children may not encounter enough quality literacy experiences.

There are concerns about the expertise of the staff and the consistency of nurturance provided for the children in settings of high staff turnover .

“ Latchkey children” Latchkey children are at risk because:

Being unattended after school hours puts their safety at risk and puts them at more risk of getting in trouble (after-school hours are the time when juvenile crime is at its peak.).

Children who are supervised afterschool are less likely to commit crimes, be victimized, and engage in risky behaviors, such as drugs, alcohol, and tobacco use.

Latchkey children are less likely to receive assistance with homework or engage in literacy activities after school.

Boys Boys are less likely to read as often as girls, and are therefore considered to be

more at risk than girls when acquiring literacy. Often times librarians and teachers prefer books that stress the importance of

relationships and emotions, which are typically more appealing to girls. Nonfiction, plots with lots of action, and graphic novels tend to be more appealing to

boys and need to be included in the collection and programs to attract more boys to reading and the library.

Children with learning disabilities Children with learning disabilities are at risk because:

The learning problems are often overlooked when it comes to everyday literary experiences , such as going to the library or selecting books to read in the classroom or at home.

Children develop negative feelings towards reading because they find it difficult.

Children experiencing great stress in their lives, such as: Children with emotional disorders Children in foster care Children who are abused or neglected Homeless children

Children who are facing traumatic experiences are at high risk because: It is difficult for children to concentrate on education or learning to

read when they are facing separation from their family, abuse, neglect, homelessness, etc. It is important to reach out to social agencies in the community when

trying to meet the needs of these children.

A carefully selected collection Because children need a vast amount of reading material and few

people can satisfy the reading needs of their children in their homes, the collection is arguably the most important aspect of children’s services.

The collection must support the wide variety of needs of the population the library serves and should include characters and ideas from a variety of national, racial, religious, ethnic, socio-economic, and cultural backgrounds.

The types of materials necessary for the collection are: Picture books (fiction and nonfiction) Beginning Readers (fiction and nonfiction) Juvenile Fiction Juvenile Nonfiction Reference Video Collection Audiobooks Recorded Music (popular music, educational songs, and games in compact

disc form) Parent Collection Internet Access Toys that support educational concepts

Afterschool Services These services are after school and before dinnertime, which is the time in

which librarians have the greatest amount of contact with children. These services can include homework help. These services can also include homework web directories, which are web

pages that include links that are helpful when conducting research or completing homework assignments.

These programs can be especially helpful when trying to reach “latchkey children”.

Reference Reference works consist of a patron asking questions, and the librarian

supplying an answer and/or the necessary resources to answer the questions. Children ask more reference questions per capita than adults. Reference resources that are at the appropriate reading level for children and

young adults are essential. Reader’s Advisory

Reader’s advisory consists of the librarian guiding an individual through the collections to determine what his or her needs and desires are and suggest titles that may be of interest to him or her.

A collection that appeals to the interest of children and young adults is absolutely necessary.

This service can be used to reach children who are more hesitant or less interested in reading and to aid caregivers and parents who are trying to encourage children to read.

Outreach Services Book bags for day cares, preschools, and other children’s programs,

book mobiles, interlibrary loans with other libraries in the region and/or school libraries

Offering story hour and other reading programs at afterschool program, child care center, etc.

Book Discussion Groups Book discussion groups can reach tweenagers and teenagers who

become less likely to attend library programs at their age. The discussion of literature for these age groups can help them make

sense of the emotional development that they are experiencing. Groups can be separated into single-sex, so librarians could chose

books that are more typically interesting and appealing to boys, who are less likely to read as much as girls.

Children’s Programs Programs are scheduled events that promote reading and the love of

books and is intended to attract children, parents, and caregivers to the library.

It is important to include children’s programs that appeal to all of the age ranges of children and support the wide variety of children’s developmental needs.

Booktalking Booktalking is used to promote a book and recommend other

similar books to children, tweenagers, and young adults. Booktalks can be used to help parents find books their children will

find interesting, present books. Booktalks can be used to promote books that may be more

appealing to boys, children from socio-economically disadvantaged families, and other groups at risk.

Entertainment and Enrichment Programs Enrichment programs are programs in which information is

presented to an audience. Enrichment programs can be used to inform parents and caregivers

about children’s literature, child development, library skills, and how to utilize the library’s resources.

These programs can also be used to teach children and young adults about how to use the library.

Entertainment programs promote community and the library to draw people in to socialize and possibly use the library’s resources and services. These programs can be used to expose children and young adults to

crafts, arts, and the performing arts, which can capture their interest and learn about self expression.

Types of Children’s programs Story Hours

Story hours provide the opportunity for librarians to model good reading skills to children and parents who do not know how to read to children or who lack literacy skills. Story hours can also include story telling, which allows for more

interaction between the teller and the audience to keep them interested and involved, and sparks the imagination of the listener, which allows them to make their own mental pictures; therefore, storytelling can be especially beneficial for adults with limited skills in English and children struggling with English and/or literacy skills.

Storyboards can assist children with visualizing the story’s action, characters, and setting.

Crafts add a physical component to story hours that stimulates different areas of the brain, allowing for more cross-brain communication, which aids with brain function. This could be especially beneficial for boys, who typically have less cross-brain communication than girls.

Music and rhyme can also enhance storytime; studies have shown that people who practice or are exposed to music have better word recall and verbal memory; furthermore, babies exposed to music tend to learn quicker than their peers.

Summer Reading ProgramsSummer reading programs include a collection of a

variety types of programs designed to promote literacy and the love of literature and reading.

These programs help offset summer reading loss, combat aliteracy, encourage reading in vast quantities and reading for fun.

These programs can especially be used to reach children from poorer areas who are more likely to have less access to libraries, experience transportation barriers, and less options for enriching summer activities.

Family ProgramsThese programs can help encourage preliteracy (showing

a child how to handle a book, associate reading with meaning, exposing children to the structure of a story).

These programs can be especially beneficial to disadvantaged families, families with adults with limited literacy skills, and families with limited English proficiency.

Location: Lincolnton, North CarolinaTotal Population: 9,965Hispanic or Latino Population: 1,491 (15%)Total Population whose Primary Language in the

home is Spanish: 1,339 (14.7%)Of these 1,339, the census describes 986 (10.8%) as

able to speak English less than “very well”Poverty Status

379 (14.4%) families living in poverty21.7 percent of families with children under 18

living in poverty

Poverty Status379 (14.4%) families living in poverty21.7 percent of families with children under 18 living

in povertyAs mentioned earlier, children who come from families of

ethnic or language minorities usually represent a disproportionate amount of this percentage

Families with children under six in which all parents are in the labor force 57.7%

Educational Backgrounds of population 25 and older:67.1% high school graduate or higher (The state

average is 78.1%)17.6% bachelor’s degree or higher (The state average

is 22.5%)

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Microsoft Office: Images-Clip Art, Photos. Web. 24 Oct 2010. <http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/images/>.

Sullivan, Michael. Fundamentals of Children’s Services. Chicago: ALA Editions, 2005.

"Table DP-1 Profile of General Demographic: 2000." U. S. Census Bureau. U. S. Census Bureau, 2000. Web. 21 Nov 2010. <http://censtats.census.gov/data/NC/1603738320.pdf