My library’s community has a small, but richly diverse population of people from all over the world, and this is something I like to reflect in my children’s department through collection development and programming. We have a large Muslim community here and we wanted to take part in their Ramadan celebrations. Earlier this month, we held a Ramadan Iftar Party for families, which included a storytime, crafts, and dinner after sundown. In this post, I will provide a recap of all the components of this successful program!
Tag: family engagement
From One Family to Another: Library Exchange Brings Caregivers Together
Three years ago, FamilySpace was launched at two branches of Cuyahoga County Public Library. You can read the details on this community partnership on my linked previous blog, but, since its inception, the program has reached over 2200 families.
Pop In Play: Building Flexible Fun for Families
Play is at the heart of early learning—and some of our favorite library programs. Our Community Playgroups are among our most popular and well-attended programs. However, because they require advanced registration and a four-week commitment, they exclude some families. What about families who can’t attend every week or who miss out on registration? After 18 months of reflection and development, we’ve launched Pop In Play, a meaningful, flexible, and inclusive play-based program for children and their caregivers. Built to meet families where they are, this program directly addresses community needs. Here’s a look at what we’re doing.
Family Engagement @ Your Library
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…
Connecting Families to Resources
Libraries are no longer just hallowed halls of books and learning. They have adapted throughout time, always meeting the needs of the patrons and the greater community. First, computers, then internet access. Nowadays, it’s common practice for libraries to offer services such as homework help and career services, food programming with local food banks, and even resource closets with household supplies. They partner with government agencies, local housing networks, and more.
FamilySpace at the Library
Several years ago, before the COVID-19 outbreak, Invest in Children, a community wide public/private partnership administered by the Cuyahoga County Office of Early Childhood, and the United Way of Greater Cleveland came to the two largest library systems in Northeast Ohio (Cleveland Public Library (CPL) and Cuyahoga County Public Library (CCPL)—the largest suburban system for which I work) with an idea. Although delayed thanks to the pandemic, the first FamilySpace location opened in September 2022 at CCPL’s Garfield Heights Branch, and three other locations (two in each system total) followed. The response has been positive, to say the least.
Empowering Caregivers in your Community
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…
Integrating Technology into Public Library Programs with Bedtime Math
For many public libraries, 2022 saw a slow but gradual return to in-person programming after two years of services altered or disrupted by the pandemic. This past summer was the closest my branch has been to “normal” programming, and we finally hosted our first big school night since 2019 in December. Like other libraries, the long pause has forced us to reassess needs and rethink the programming and services we invest in. Finding ways to expand access to out-of-school learning and creating opportunities for families to engage with each other? are both priorities for my team. So, when a librarian on my staff proposed the idea of creating a series of math enrichment programs last summer, I was all in. The six-week program was very well-received, and we saw high family engagement throughout. Each session featured a math-themed book and a related hands-on activity. One of the most successful…