Children's Books and Programs at the Library

I've recently heard through the grapevine that a patron or two has complained about the amount the library spends on children's books and programs. Here is my response to that: (please note that my response is my personal feelings on the matter both as an individual and as a library technician, but is not and should not be taken as the library's official stance on the matter)

:-P

I recently joked to Sharon that library staff are like drug dealers. We try to get our customers hooked young. In fact, that's not all that far from the truth. If we catch children while they're young and get them interested in reading, the chances of them becoming life-long readers is much higher.

Does it work on all children? Of course not. But it seems to work on quite a few. Look back to the salad days of cigarette advertising. Cartoon characters such as Fred and Barney from the Flintstones appeared in cigarette ads. There was a reason for that.


Ideally, children start visiting the library for Sharon's lapsit program while they are still babies. Lapsit establishes a routine of visiting the library and having fun. Sharon's rhymes and songs are all intended to help develop early literacy skills.

When the children get a little older, they can start to attend storytime. The mix of stories and songs continue to develop literacy and help to create a habit of visiting the library. Children start to read and sing along with their favourite books and songs, and most drag their parents over to the shelves to borrow some books before they leave the library. At this point, the children have already become weekly library users!

Finally, Wednesday Club and the library's Summer Reading Club mostly cater to school-age children. Sharon can read books to them that explore more complicated ideas and introduce them to a wider range of books and ideas.

We are in a time when literacy is a stated goal of the government. There are a large number of people who never read a single book once they graduate from school. Children who go through these programs (and have access to a wide variety of children's books) literally grow up in the library, and these programs increase the odds that they will continue to use the library for the rest of their lives.

In short, to suggest that we should be spending less money on this goal is absurd.

--Jacob Fehr