Author: ALSC Library Service to Underserved Children and Their Caregivers

Blogger Library Service to Underserved Children and Their Caregivers committee

Growing Together with your Community

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Libraries often need to overcome barriers in order to provide services to those who need them most, but how? There’s no specific answer that will work for every library, so instead we suggest focusing on the idea of planning library services as a growing experience. By this we mean that success is easier to find when we consider the uniqueness of our individual communities and tailor our offerings accordingly, essentially growing our offered services to be more of what our communities want, as opposed to planning exclusively around what we might think they need. The suggestions below include specific examples of ways to employ this mindset, and we hope that they can aid other youth services professionals (especially those looking to reach underserved families) in their planning process. Research and Repeat Growing with your community involves research, and lots of it!  Luckily, research includes everything from sitting down at a…

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Blogger Library Service to Underserved Children and Their Caregivers committee

Universal Design in Storytimes-An Open Invitation to Play!

| ALSC Library Service to Underserved Children and Their Caregivers|2 Comments

Have you ever broken a bone?  Or accidentally injured your eye and needed to wear a patch?  If so, you may have unexpectedly developed empathy for individuals who navigate everyday life with disabilities. Using universal design to create storytimes events helps libraries plan for successful participation and play. By using universal design, all people are assured opportunities to engage at the library!

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Blogger Library Service to Underserved Children and Their Caregivers committee

Empowering Caregivers in your Community

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New Castle Public Library (DE) patrons using prop scarves with their children at storytime

Preparing children for a lifelong love of learning is a goal shared by most children’s librarians, although the ways we cultivate that joy vary vastly. There is, for example, no standardized way to deliver a storytime, and no prescribed set of programs a library absolutely must offer. This vagueness can be helpful because it allows us to cater to the uniqueness of our communities, but if I could suggest a common theme to incorporate into most children’s programming, it would be family engagement. The goal of family engagement, especially with our youngest patrons, is to empower caregivers to be their children’s first teachers. A recent research article from Frontiers in Psychology states that this movement is largely underway in spaces such as children’s museums, but also mentions that not every community has access to a museum, and that admission costs can be a barrier to families. Luckily, libraries are able…

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Blogger Library Service to Underserved Children and Their Caregivers committee

Thoughts about Using Beans, Rice & Other Food in Library Programming

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When I present sessions, I like to begin by using opening activities that show commonality among participants and allow space for relationships to grow.  One such activity is a simple invitation for participants to share a recipe for cooking either beans or rice.  Beans and rice are some of the most common foods on the planet and used in a variety of dishes in many different cultures. Beans and rice are so widely recognized and readily available it’s easy to forget they are often a primary food source.  For just one moment, imagine you are the caregiver of a family who has juggled competing interests, figured out transportation, time, and energy obstacles to attend story time at the public library.  The stay-and-play activity after storytime involves playing in enough rice to feed everyone in the room.  It’s not a choking hazard, it engages the senses, it’s relatively inexpensive, and it…

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Blogger Library Service to Underserved Children and Their Caregivers committee

EDI In Action: Let’s Move!

| ALSC Library Service to Underserved Children and Their Caregivers|1 Comment

When we talk about how to connect with underserved communities, one way is through programs for youth who may be looking for more than books. Instead, they may be looking for a place to belong, a space to develop confidence, or a time that works with their variety of learning styles. I’m a librarian who loves movement in storytimes but also as part of programming for all youth. As a kinesthetic learner, I try to incorporate many different access points in my programs to connect with a variety of learners. As a Chinese martial artist, I like to bring what I have learned as well as acknowledge community members who may want to share. Today, I’d like to focus on using movement as a way to enhance programs you already do or as inspiration to partner with others to authentically bring a new type of program to your community. Storytime….

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Blogger Library Service to Underserved Children and Their Caregivers committee

Learning from the Mistakes We’ve Made

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Image created on Canva Please note that for historically marginalized communities, discussions about mistakes in the workplace may be emotionally challenging, especially if their identity is harmed in some way.  I am of mixed race and I find these conversations can be especially rough when the mistakes that have been made are things that I have experienced from colleagues.  Learning from others can be beneficial, but your mental well-being is more important. Don’t be afraid of opting out of these discussions to protect your peace.  Intentionally inclusive programming has been on the forefront of my mind for the last few years, but even with intentionality, it’s easy to make mistakes. The thing about equity and inclusion is that the learning is ongoing.  You have to commit to it for a lifetime.  As library professionals, we have a responsibility to ensure what we do is in line with what we say—we…

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Blogger Library Service to Underserved Children and Their Caregivers committee

Programming with Purpose through Community Engagement

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For those looking to program with purpose, the entire process begins and ends with your community. Similarly to how we perform diversity audits on our collections, it’s important to also take a critical eye to the programs and services we offer. As professionals we understand that every community is different and has different needs, and that our offerings ought to be tailored to those needs. It can be easy to go on “auto-pilot” when it comes to programming, especially when we have recurring programs such as LEGO® Clubs or storytimes, however we should remember to look at all programs from time to time to evaluate their effectiveness.  Programming with purpose means that ideally every program we offer has some kind of goal for our community behind it. The first two questions I always ask myself when planning programs are: 1. Which population in my community am I serving/who is this…

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ALSC Institute – Overwhelmed by Underserved Communities: Participant Responses

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Photo of Tammie Benham, Melody Leung, and Georgette Spratling presenting at the ALSC Institute in Kansas City

Members of our committee (Georgette Spratling, Melody Leung, Tammie Benham) presented at last month’s ALSC Institute! We showcased our toolkit for Getting Started with Underserved Communities Thank you to everyone who came to our workshops. We were able to learn about barriers our fellow library practitioners face when working with underserved communities as well as gauge where we all are in our practice.  Below is a summary of participant responses from our collective reflection. The questions asked align with an advocacy framework we presented to help empower library staff to work with underserved communities. If you have your own responses, we’d love to see them in the comments below!  What is the most overwhelming part about working with underserved communities?  What underserved communities do you want to work with? (Check out our toolkits for some examples or inspiration) Imagine a real or hypothetical program/outreach/initiative?  Are there barriers in your organization…

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