Hello everyone!
My name is Brooke Newberry and I am the new chair for the Early Childhood Programs and Services Committee. This year our major project, “Babies Need Words Every Day” finally launched. This project has been in the works for over two years and seeing the final product and the reaction to it has been amazing. We hope everyone has printed out these posters for their libraries and community partners.
This committee year we have some more big ideas in the works, everything from revamping our charge to expanding our “Babies Need Word Every Day” toolkit. We’re also working on new partnerships both within ALSC and the community. Make sure to keep your eyes open for future announcements from the committee!
We had an amazing committee year in 2014-2015 and we want to keep the momentum going. We would love to hear any ideas the membership has in mind with regard to early childhood programs and services. What’s at the top of your mind right now regarding library services to young children? What is your biggest concern regarding early literacy?
The committee is proud to serve the membership and we look forward to this next committee year!
Vera Gubnitskaia
Hi, Brooke, thank you for the post, this is a great project! Question – are specific libraries allowed to customize the posters with the local library information? We would love in addition to the information posted to give our customers the website address, phone number, locations information, information about our early childhood programs, etc. Thank you,
Vera Gubnitskaia, Youth Services Manager, Orange County (FL) Library System
Early Childhood Programs and Services committee Post author
Hi Vera!
In our library we have added a small white label to the bottom right corner of each poster with our library information on it. We wanted to make sure the poster didn’t look too cluttered so we simply posted other posters surrounding it, in regards to our other early childhood programs. So far the response has been amazing! Thank you so much for choosing to hang these posters!
Allison
We are looking at ways to extend our reach to our Spanish speaking community. I want to start offering bilingual story times but I’m having a harder time coming up with resources and trainings. I think this is a big issue in many communities – how to reach our underserved populations with our early literacy messages, especially the Hispanic population.
Early Childhood Programs and Services committee Post author
This is definitely something we struggle with too Allison! Here is a great workshop from Infopeople about building and sustaining a successful bilingual storytime… http://infopeople.org/training/past/2008/biling-storytime. It is full of bibliographies, fingerplays, and just about everything in between. This is definitely something I’ll bring back to the committee though. Thank you for your comment!
Lisa
We love the artwork, but feel the font size for the rhyme text needs to be made larger. Can we go ahead and make those edits, or would we be violating copyright?
Early Childhood Programs and Services committee Post author
Hi Lisa,
Due to the licensing agreement with the publishing company, the posters are to be used as-is, without modification. This allows us to be able to use the images and offer the free downloads. Thank you for choosing to hang up these posters!
Vicki Kouchnerkavich
One issue I see, is most families who attend storytimes already are doing the “right” thing with their child getting ready to read. How can we reach those families who need to expose their young children to reading, language, and storytimes??
Vicki Kouchnerkavich
Regarding the posters, I know realize your focus is on babies, but they could also serve as great tips for young children and their parents in general. I have one in my Youth area, but wonder if the word “baby” could be changed to a more general term?