Tag Archives: libraries

In March 2020, schools, libraries, and businesses all over the country closed their physical buildings as we began the long effort to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. But community leaders rallied to bring their services to children and families at home, adapting to new circumstances with new technologies. Claudia Haines shares how the Homer Public Library  transitioned from in-person to remote programs to keep families engaged throughout the pandemic.    Just about a year ago, my library closed the building because…

One could say the only constant during this unprecedented time is change. Childcare centers and schools are adjusting from one day to the next in order to keep the children and families in their communities safe. Another constant, however, is the value of connecting with well-trained children’s library professionals. This is why the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) developed Look to Libraries, a collection of materials intended to assist parents and caregivers during the COVID-19 pandemic. ALSC is…

This article was originally published on PBS SoCal’s At-Home Learning, an early childhood education resource (for ages 2-8) providing families, educators and community partners with at-home learning activities, guides, and expert advice.   Each Thursday morning at 10 a.m., kids and grown-ups across Alaska’s Southern Kenai Peninsula join me for an hour-long storytime—on the radio. Yes, radio. For some, that means an actual AM radio and for others that means a mobile device with the local public radio station’s free app…

For the fourth part of this series, we asked experts to focus their predictions on digital play by answering the question, “How will the way children play with digital media change in the coming months and/or years as a result of the coronavirus pandemic?” Virtual library spaces to connect children Juan Rubio is the Digital Media and Learning Program Manager at The Seattle Public Library. Before COVID-19, informal learning spaces such as libraries provided children with afterschool programs that gave…

Youth Services Librarian Claudia Haines recently hosted a family screening of the new PBS Kids show Molly of Denali at Homer Public Library in Homer, Alaska. This post from her blog is republished here with permission.   I’m always looking for media, in all formats, that authentically reflects Alaskan families’ experiences. Today, a new show produced by WGBH in Boston for PBS Kids does that and more. I’m excited about the show, and the advanced screening we offered at the library…

Claudia Haines, librarian at Homer Public Library in Homer, Alaska, describes a recent Storytime with Robots event that she hosted in which children and their parents had the opportunity to think about computational thinking along with early literacy. This post was originally published on Claudia’s blog, Never Shushed, and appears here with permission. I’ve been reading and thinking A LOT about computational thinking (CT) and coding this winter as part of my work on the Libraries Ready to Code initiative.…

This summer, Oak Park Public librarians Anne Bensfield and Naomi Priddy hosted two workshops inspired by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center’s Digital Play for Global Citizens guide. As Multicultural Learning Librarian, Naomi manages the Multicultural Collection, a circulating collection of books and artifacts from around the world. Her goals are to create opportunities to explore different cultures, invite learners to reflect on their own identities and cultural lenses, and ultimately to build intercultural empathy.  Anne’s work as the Children’s Digital Learning…

Ask Americans where kids are learning the skills they’ll need to participate in the 21st-century workforce, and you’ll likely hear the same answer over and over again: home or school. That’s how most members of the U.S. public respond when asked about where learning takes place, according to the work we’ve done at the FrameWorks Institute, a communications think tank in Washington, DC. And that way of thinking applies to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education, our new report…

This week, libraries, schools, and organizations across the country are highlighting the importance of media literacy. Regardless of the type of media, children and adults need to be savvy consumers. According to NAMLE, media literacy is defined as “the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, create, and act using all forms of communication.” Headlines about fake news and misinformation have driven home the vital need for critical thinking skills among all ages. While much of the media literacy attention focuses on…

A new study on public libraries highlights their role in digital literacy and family engagement A recent survey of more than 400 public library directors provides new evidence of how public libraries are transforming to help families build digital literacy skills and become familiar with new technology. The results, published last month in Public Library Quarterly, raise the question: Are public schools doing enough to take advantage of these resources in their backyards? The results are part of a larger research…