Penny Peck - Crash Course in Childrens Services

Crash Course in Children's Services

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Second Edition

Penny Peck

Crash Course

Copyright 2014 by Penny Peck

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except for inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Peck, Penny.
Crash course in children's services / Penny Peck.
pages cm. (Crash course)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-61069-781-1 (paperback) ISBN 978-1-61069-782-8 (ebook) 1. Children's librariesUnited States. I. Title.
Z718.2.U6P43 2014
027.62'5dc23 2014018879

ISBN: 978-1-61069-781-1
EISBN: 978-1-61069-782-8

18 17 16 15 14 1 2 3 4 5

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Welcome to the world of library service to children! Helping children find great books to read, assisting them with homework assignments, and leading them to be lifelong readers and library users is a very rewarding career. But there can always be frustrations, too. Children may be left by inconsiderate parents, who expect the library to serve as a babysitter. This crash course guide is intended to help you find job satisfaction as well as cope with a variety of different aspects of serving children in your public library.

In the eight years since the first edition of Crash Course in Children's Services , there has been a great deal of change in the landscape of children and libraries. Children are reading eBooks and using apps for learning, their schools have adopted the Common Core curriculum that encourages reading more informational nonfiction, and library programming has expanded to include more hands-on activities, including Lego clubs, Makers' Spaces, and gaming. On the other hand, some traditional services are as popular as ever, with an increase in storytime attendance. This book covers both traditional practices of library service to children and many new innovations that can make the library an essential part of the 21st-century child's life.

Designed for persons working in small- and medium-sized libraries, this book will increase your comfort level while working with children in your library. This guide covers library services particular to children such as programming, including storytime and book discussion groups. Programming has become a big element of library service to youth, so we will also discuss gaming programs, therapy dog reading programs, and other new ideas that bring families into the library.

In many small public libraries, only a part-time person may be assigned to children's services. If no single person is assigned full-time to conduct programs or to offer homework assistance, your volunteers may be as important as volunteers in schools or in hospitals. This book gives lots of practical advice on basic children's library services that you or another staff member can perform with confidence when there is no children's librarian at that site. It will also be very useful for you to train new staff or volunteers to work with children.

This book covers tried and true, practical library service to children based on 25 years' experience in a busy suburban public library, working in a community with no school librarians at the elementary level. It also brings the experience of teaching others who will be working with children.

Because this is a "crash course," meaning a brief, quick handbook on serving children in a library, it cannot cover everything. It will not go into specific service issues to teens or young adults, but some of the advice can easily be adapted to serving that audience. Nor will we cover making flyers, how to write a press release, or management of employees. Many other books will go into detail on how to perform those tasks; this book covers procedures specific to serving children in the library. It also does not go into circulation or related issues.

So whether you are assigned to the children's desk or you are responsible for choosing and perhaps training this person, this book is for you. It is not all inclusive; it is also a quick overview for those already on the job, who need some assistance in taking on a new task such as storytime or a summer reading program. Alongside the relatively brief descriptions of practices and procedures, you will find references to books and websites for you to further explore a topic of interest.

What are the essential qualifications of those who work with children in a library? It is the interest in and concern for children and their well-being. Also, children's services is more book driven than some other library services that are currently more centered on using computers for research; helping to nurture the love of reading is still a top priority in children's services. That is why so many of us went into the profession in the first place: to promote books and reading for fun as well as help children be better students. So if you enjoy books and helping children, you are well on your way to being a successful children's library service provider, and hopefully this book will give you more confidence so you will go on to achieve job satisfaction. After all, what could be more enriching than nurturing the love of books and reading in a child, making that person a lifelong learner?

Reference is often the first step in assisting children, parents, and teachers who come to the children's desk seeking books, materials, and information. Folks come up to the desk and ask "I need a book about dogs," and the staff member explores if this is for a report on dogs, or if the family has a new pet dog, or if the child wants a story about dogs or a book of poetry about dogs. This chapter defines the child as your customer and gives tips on the reference interview, a simple overview of child development levels to show what children can handle at certain ages, and tips for assisting parents or teachers in finding materials. A major focus is on library tours for teachers and their students. The chapter also covers teaching children how to perform basic public access catalog searches and some of the newer online reference experiences available.