‘A Place for Children’ Revisited

Abstract

Reflects on the findings of the ‘A place for children’ project, a major collaborative research project which investigated the extent and value of support for children and young people’s reading provided by UK public libraries. Notes the four areas highlighted by the study in which provision could be improved: use of information and communications technologies (ICT) to support reading development; use of national and/or regional literacy initiatives; support for children with special needs; and support for the literacy of children from multicultural backgrounds. Discusses the developments that have taken place in these areas in the three years since the original research was conducted and provides an overview of the current state of provision. Reports results of a questionnaire survey involving 127 heads of children’s services at the 209 public library authorities (60.8 per cent response rate), and presents results of a survey of children’s Web sites in the UK. Concludes that, although the provision of ICT facilities and children’s Web sites has developed since 1997, there are still many public libraries that offer little or no provision. There is a lot of variation in the use that is made of children’s Web sites by those authorities that have them. Greater numbers of authorities are participating in national and regional initiatives, examples including: Bookstart; National Year of Reading; Building a Nation of Readers; Launchpad; National Children’s Book Week; Reading is Fundamental, UK. Little change was detected in the area of support for children with special needs and only limited progress was revealed to have occurred in the provision of support for the literacy of children from multi-cultural backgrounds.

The multilingual children’s library as physical and metaphorical ‘space’ within the community: Practical and emotional considerations

“…While research literature around multilingual children's libraries is scarce, individual cases have attracted attention, such as the work of Pura Belpré, the first Puerto Rican public librarian in New York, a leader in bilingual community outreach work from the 1920s onwards (Sánchez-González, 2013). In the UK context, Mynott et al (2001) highlighted increased provision for children from multicultural backgrounds as one of four developmental needs for libraries (the others being improved use of ICT for literacy development, support for children with special educational needs and better use of local and regional literacy initiatives, with the latter arguably being a category the multilingual children's library in Sheffield also met). It is important to note, though, that 'multicultural' does not necessarily mean 'multilingual'.…”