This article originally appeared in the January-February 2006 issue of the Children's Advocate, published by Action Alliance for Children.

Resource for reading: your local library

By Cecelia Leong

Parents and caregivers hear a lot these days about how important it is to prepare young kids to read. But they don’t necessarily know how. And even trained child care providers need resources.

Children’s librarians and your local library can be a wonderful source of ideas and resources.

For parents and kids

“Visit the library!” says Janet Cheung, children’s outreach librarian for the Oakland Public Library. Most libraries have:

• Special materials, space, and activities for young children

• Picture books and board books

• Videos, DVDs, and books on tape or CD

• Internet access

• Story times for the under-five crowd

• Books and programs in several languages—at the Alameda Free Library, for instance, weekly story times are offered in English, Spanish, and Mandarin

• Special programs throughout the year—summer reading programs, puppet shows, holiday celebrations, and more.

For child care programs

Many libraries send staff out to work with child care providers. “That’s where the kids are!” explains Maida Wong, senior librarian for children’s services in South Pasadena.

In San Mateo, for instance, librarians are available for presentations at parent nights in child care centers or preschools. Oakland outreach librarians Janet Cheung and Laura Tarango visit Head Start programs and the school district’s preschools. At preschool graduation, they sign kids up for library cards and give out free books for children and a calendar for parents with tips on how to help their children with reading.

• Some libraries send out bookmobiles to bring library materials to under-served or remote areas—urban, such as Glendale, or rural, such as Tuolomne County.

• Some libraries have special borrowing programs for preschool teachers and child care providers. San Jose Public Library’s Books for Little Hands provides mini libraries for child care providers. San Mateo County libraries have a special Teacher Card that allows teachers to check out more books, keep them longer, and not incur fines.

• Raising a Reader, a program started in San Mateo and now spreading to other counties, supplies child care providers with bags of books in English, Spanish, or Chinese. Each child can take one bag home for a week.

Return to top

Prepare kids for reading

“It’s not as hard as parents think,” says Oakland librarian Janet Cheung. Parents can:

• Read to your children!

• Take them to the library

• Sing songs with your children

• Point out signs

• Read labels and menus

• Talk about the world around you

• Ask about a child’s day at preschool

• Speak to your child in your native language.

Return to top

How to get a library card

Library cards are free. In many library systems, you don’t even have to live in the same city to get a card. Some libraries have a minimum age for children’s cards and most ask that a parent or caregiver come along to apply. To get a library card for you or your child:

• Go to the circulation desk at your local library.

• Fill out a short application.

• Make sure you bring some form of identification such as a California driver’s license, California identification card, or utility bill showing your name and current address.

Return to top

Extra resources from the Children’s Advocate bulletin

• Getting Ready to Read, an article from the January 2003 Children's Advocate, provides tips for parents on helping their kids tune into language and books. Online at http://www.4children.org/news/
  103reade.htm;
  In Spanish at http://www.4children.org/ news/
  103reads.htm

• Resources to Promote Social and Emotional Health and School Readiness, from the National Center for Children in Poverty, discusses resources and strategies that families, child care providers, and others can use to help children develop the social and emotional skills they need to succeed in school. Online at http://nccp.org/publications/pub_648.html

To stay informed about new and upcoming Children’s Advocate articles, related resources, and advocacy opportunities, sign up for our Children’s Advocate bulletin

Return to top

Action Alliance
for Children
e-mail aac@4children.org
1201 Martin Luther
King Jr. Way
Oakland, CA 94612
(510) 444-7136