RE: using the public library

The library serving our community is quite a distance from the school, so parents weren't using it. Then we found out the Book-mobile stops very nearby and so we have been promoting that. When parents come in for Student Assistance Team meetings (MDT), we encourage them to use the public library or bookmobile and have library card applications (in several different languages) to give them. I'm going to try having a librarian come for our "Back-to-School" event in the fall (which is one of our distributions for Page Ahead) to also promote.

The public library is such a wealth of resources that I wish parents would take more advantage of it.

-Steve

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-teacherslounge@pageahead.org [mailto:owner-teacherslounge@pageahead.org] On Behalf Of Le, Lien
Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2008 11:27 PM
To: Brooke Graham Doyle; teacherslounge@pageahead.org
Subject: RE: using the public library

Using the libraries is a great way of promoting family literacy. I really can't say what we've done has made a difference since we haven't asked about this in particular. But one thing we did that usually brought positive feedback was inviting the local public librarian to be the story teller for our family's events. Along with telling stories, she would give a quick talk about the library service, give away inactivated cards, and pass out fliers advertising of upcoming kids' events. Kids will want to activate their cards at the library. Parents have a taste of the library and hopefully will want to go, even just to attend those events at first.

Since you are working with preschool children, I assume you have a smaller number of families. You might have thought about holding a family event at the local library. If you coordinate with the children librarians, they might be able to provide some special service for your group and start opening up the world for these families through books.

Lien

________________________________________
From: owner-teacherslounge@pageahead.org [owner-teacherslounge@pageahead.org] On Behalf Of Brooke Graham Doyle [brookedoyle@yahoo.com]
Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2008 10:06 PM
To: teacherslounge@pageahead.org
Subject: using the public library

Thank you all for joining our list serve. We hope this will be a valuable tool for sharing ideas. **PLEASE REMEMBER TO REPLY ALL when answering so we can all benefit from your thoughts.

One of our sites offered this feedback from 07-08:
I love the library and stop in once or twice a week; and in my 6 years as a birth to three lead teacher, I have only seen one of my mothers with her children at the library. So in my dream world, I would like to be successful at encouraging families to get a library card and introduce themselves and their children to the magical world of opportunities that hte library holds for their family and child's future. The things that I have tried in the past have not been successful, so I welcome other ideas.

What have you done that has worked in getting families to use the public libraries?