Welcome to Ask ALSC, where the Managing Youth Services Committee asks leaders in children’s libraries to share their response to an issue or situation. We hope to showcase a range of responses to topics that may affect ALSC members. If you’d like to respond to today’s topics, or suggest a topic for the future, please leave a comment.
How much do we apply the school’s family engagement principles in libraries? Is focusing on engagement the secret to attracting underserved communities to the library? How can we create more awareness about the importance of library resources and programs? All these questions go through my mind after we work hard planning a program that gets hardly any attendance. For children’s services librarians, attracting families to engage with the library in a meaningful way should be our focal point.
Last year, I attended a program called Fundamentals of Family Engagement offered by the Ohio Statewide Family Engagement Center at the Ohio State University. In that workshop, I learned that Family Engagement can be summed up by comparing it to the launch of a space shuttle. In the same way a space shuttle launch needs astronauts, scientists, mathematicians, and so many others to be successful, children need their schools, families, public libraries and other community partners working closely together to help them succeed in their educational journey.
In the Fundamentals of Family Engagement session, they asked us to define Family Engagement. My definition of family engagement is to create a collaboration with our families to ensure the academic success of their children from birth. I always hope that as a result of engaging families, parents become involved in their child’s educational journey and that children are excited about it, too.
In Nashville (TN), a good example of creating the right environment for family engagement has been partnering with Conexión Américas. This organization is a non-profit and has partnered with Metro Nashville Public Schools and the Nashville Public Library to encourage Latino families to engage in their children’s educational success through a program called Parents as Partners or Padres Comprometidos. It helps Latino parents understand the ins and outs of school system. This program provides workshops in Spanish both in person and virtually with different curriculums for elementary, middle and high schools. As part of the program, the Nashville Public Library does a presentation about the resources available through the library that can help families succeed at school.
As the program has grown, the library has added a tour for families at their closest library branch so that the Latino community feels more confident coming to the library and using our resources. By connecting with families through this partnership, we have created strong relationships with Spanish-speaking families. As a result, attendance at our Spanish Storytimes have increased, and we have been able to recruit Spanish speaking volunteers that help in our Storytimes and shelving.
By rethinking our family engagement model, we have created a collaboration between parents, teachers and other organizations based on compassion and trust to help our families be more involved in their child’s educational journey.
Getting to know the families who live in your community is essential to get more families engaged in their children’s education. One of the key tools that is important to keep in mind and helps deepen relationships with families is knowing more about their cultural background and traditions. Ohio Statewide Family Engagement Center offers a handout on how to obtain this information with the Funds of Knowledge.
In 2016, the Harvard Family Research Project and Public Library Association published the Ideabook: Libraries for families and the companion publication, Public Libraries: A Vital Space for Family Engagement, to help librarians make family engagement more intentional and recommends new ideas that help reframe family engagement at the library.
Are you ready to reframe your family engagement strategy? How can the library increase family engagement to serve underrepresented communities?
The Ohio State University. (n.d). Homepage. Ohio’s Statewide Family Engagement Center. https://ohiofamiliesengage.osu.edu/
Weiss, H. B., Caspe, M., M. Elena Lopez, & McWilliams, L. (n.d.). IDEABOOK: Libraries for Families. Public Library Association. https://www.ala.org/pla
M. Elena Lopez, Margaret Caspe, and Lorette McWilliams, Public Libraries: A Vital Space for Family Engagement. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Family Research Project, 2016), http://www.hfrp.org/librarycta
Today’s blog post was written by Patricia Rua-Bashir, Children’s Services Manager at Nashville Public Library in Nashville, TN, on behalf of the ALSC Managing Children’s Services Committee. She can be reached at pat.bashir@nashville.gov
This post addresses Core Competencies I. Commitment to Client Group and V. Outreach and Advocacy.