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Demographic Data and Importance of Library Services for Children
- 2. DEMOGRAPHICS • 26.2% of households have children under 18 • 86.2% of people have high school diploma or equivalency • 13.0% of household speak a language other than English • 70.2% of families with children under 6 have both parents in the labor force • Mean family income: $51,842 • Median family income: $42,907 • 30% African-American, 60% Caucasian, 4% Asian • Total Population: 114,000 • 35.6% of families with children under 18 had income below poverty level in the past 12 months
- 3. WHY CHILDREN NEED THE LIBRARY Library services are important to children of all ages for a variety of reasons: Younger Children: • Pre-literacy skills are one of the strongest predictors of school readiness • Care providers observe story time programs and learn best practices to enhance early literacy for their children • In shared reading children have the opportunity to build social skills by interacting with an adult Young Adults/Adolescence: • Information literacy is paramount for the youth of today to excel professionally and socially • School libraries are suffering due to budget cuts that reduce staff and hours drastically
- 4. CURRENT OUTREACH SERVICES Library X Currently Uses the Following Outreach Services: • Bookmobile services • School classroom visits public, private • College tutored homework help
- 5. SUGGESTIONS FOR ADDITIONAL SERVICES These are possible areas where Library X could expand upon their services in order to be more efficient in reaching their target population • Reformatting bookmobile services • Outreach to juvenile detention centers • Outreach to youth in local hospitals • Becoming more active in classroom content
- 6. CONCLUSIONS Overall, Library X has good foundations for setting up substantial children’s outreach services. These services are needed due to the community’s limited ability to access the library building itself. By reformatting existing programs and building up existing relationships, Library X has the seeds planted for strong children’s outreach services.
Editor's Notes
- Hello, everyone. I visited a local branch of my community’s library and examined the nature of their children’s outreach programming. I examined what services the library currently has, why children’s services are important and made recommendations as to how the library can continue to expand its children outreach services.
- The first step in understanding a library is understanding the community that library serves. These statistics help to illustrate who the library interacts with on a day to day basis. In this community there are roughly 114,00 people and 26.2% of household have children under 18. These statistics show that the community is made up of hard working, low to middle class families who come from a diverse background. This can inform the library that services, especially children’s services, need to address the needs of low to mid income restrictions as well as diversity in culture and family background.
- It is important that both younger and older children receive the literacy and training that they will need to operate successfully within the social and professional realms of adulthood. Younger children need to start developing early literacy skills before they reach formal schooling and this can be achieved through story time activities that promote positive library association and interaction with adults. Daycare centers benefit from learning best literacy practices and being able to freely provide more resources for children. Young adults and older youth must learn to critically think about the information they are immersed in. They must understand the implications of posting things online and have knowledge of how to find reputable sources of information. Much of this type of information was available at school libraries, but due to budget cuts school libraries have seen a drastic reduction in the number of operating libraries and media centers as well as the staff to support them. It is the duty of the public library to fill this information gap that its community is experiencing.
- These are the service and programs offered to children and youth through the library’s outreach. The library has an active bookmobile which makes stops at community centers and apartment complexes. The library’s Youth Librarian also makes visits to 18 different schools during the school year. Unfortunately, these visits only happen about once or twice a year. During the visits the librarian introduces the students to new books the library has acquired as well as information on upcoming events such as movie nights and homework help.
- Library X could improve upon its children’s outreach services by expanding upon what programs it already has. For example, reformatting the book mobile services into smaller SUVs eliminates the need for special licensing, along with allowing for greater mobility and ultimately more cost efficiency. The library can also reach out to juvenile and health centers that house youth who are facing limitations on their ability to find their own education and resources. In addition to these services, the library can also reach out more to the schools that it already visits. The library can work with the teachers at schools to become more active in delivering classroom content. Many school libraries are severely limited by budget cuts that reduce the resources and staff of school media centers and has a huge impact on the youth’s ability to access a variety of resources. By organizing and partnering with the schools, the youth will benefit from a more equipped classroom and a better understanding of what their local library can do for them.