Outreach to Child Care Providers

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Why Reaching Child Care Providers is Important

During the first three years of life, important intellectual and emotional development is taking place in young children that has a profound impact on their success later in life. Libraries have long recognized the importance of serving children, and many libraries have adopted "Preschooler's door to learning" as a primary or secondary role.

In Idaho, 56 percent of the children under the age of six have either both or their only parent in the workforce [1990 U.S. Census data, reported in 1996 Idaho Kids Count: Profiles of Child Well-Being]. It is estimated that 162,100 children ages 0 - 12 are in need of child care [Kids Count Special Report: Idaho Works if Child Care Works]. Because patterns for caring for children have changed, libraries are looking at alternate ways to reach children with library services. One way they are doing this is to provide outreach services to child care providers in their communities. If your library is just getting started, here are some things to consider.

Ideas for Library Outreach to Child Care Providers

Do a needs assessment to find out . . .

  • who is providing child care in your community
  • how many children they serve
  • what their training/resource needs are to nurture young children's emerging literacy
  • what other resources are available for child care providers in your community

Develop outreach services, which could include . . .

  • rotating collections of materials for day cares
  • professional development materials for day care providers
  • theme kits of materials for day care staff to use
  • training for child care staff on such topics as book selection, how to read aloud, and storytelling techniques
  • providing child care staff with information about the library and reading to distribute to parents.

Collaborate with other organizations serving daycares to . . .

  • provide information and referral about services available in your community
  • cosponsor or supplement training on reading-related topics
  • create new services and resources
  • reach new library patrons by providing information to parents through daycares

More Service Ideas

Storytimes

  • Invite child care centers to storytimes at the library.
  • Have child care providers and children visit the library on a regular schedule, e.g. once a month. If they live too far away to walk, help them look for transportation.
  • Visit child care providers at their place of business.
  • Have volunteers do storytimes for day cares, either in the library or at the day care.
  • Create Child Care Storytime Kits based on themes. Include books, puppets, fingerplays, songs and activities for each kit.

Summer Reading

  • Sign child care providers sign up to participate in your summer reading program.
  • Have child care providers participate in summer reading programs at library.

Training

  • Provide training on how to conduct storytimes, e.g. select theme, books, fingerplays, etc.
  • Offer a tour of resources at the library or a special open house or get-together. Schedule it in the evening when child care providers are available to come to the library without their children. Highlight materials of interest and talk about ways to use books in literature-based programs.
  • Sponsor or cosponsor seminars on child development.
  • Offer to talk or give a presentation to parents at a child care center.
  • Send library staff to training that increases their skills and knowledge about children's issues.

Day Care Fair

  • Cosponsor a day care fair. Invite area day cares and in-home day care providers to set up a table at your fair. Advertise and invite parents to tour the fair to learn about day care options in your area.

Resources

  • Create a special shelf or area of your library for materials of interest to early childhood educators. Label a parent-teacher shelf and include materials on such topics as children's literature, activity books for adults to use with children, and other parenting books, e.g. discipline, child development, nutrition and health care, information on educational activities, etc.
  • Provide age-appropriate and subject-appropriate lists of books. Provide handouts, brochures, and take-home activity sheets on a regular basis. Send new book lists or a list of recommended books to child care providers along with a coupon or an invitation to come to the library.
  • Help child care providers develop specific subject units, focusing on good children's literature.
  • Consider rotating a collection of books to the child care centers in your community or provide bulk loans if your collection is large enough.
  • Purchase magazines of interest - Copycat, Totline, Kidtivities by Kidstuff, and/or Healthy Child Care, for example.
  • Purchase videos. Include adaptations of children's books as well as instructional videos for providers.
  • Provide child care storytime kits which can be as extensive as you like. Some libraries keep them fairly simple; others are very extensive and include videos, games, etc.
  • Consider circulating educational toys and puppets.
  • Add sites of interest to your library's home page.
  • Have a pamphlet file or other area where child care providers can leave information about their facilities for patrons to view.
  • Purchase music in a variety of formats.
  • Consider circulating nontraditional items like flannel board stories, etc.

Collaboration and Public Awareness

  • Work with other area agencies to find out what services they are providing, to whom, etc. Serve on a child advocacy board, if possible.
  • Ask agencies what you can do. Don't duplicate services.
  • Consider waiving fines for child care centers. Allow extended loan periods or increased numbers of books for child care centers. Issue cards in the name of the center.
  • Display child care student's artwork at the library and invite their parents and grandparents to come and see it.
  • Advertise the services and resources you are providing in whatever manner you can. Write brief "blurbs" about new parent-teacher materials for the local Child Care Resource and Referral office's newsletter. Try to get an article published about your services in your local paper.

Ideas from other Idaho Libraries

The Hayden Branch Library, in conjunction with the Coeur d'Alene School District #271, has started the Day Care Outreach Program to help develop literacy in young children. Children's Librarians Irma Anderl and Karen Schmidt select an assortment of age appropriate books to present during the storytime. Each time a librarian visits the day care, approximately 20 books are left at the site for about three to four weeks. Storytime takes place once a month and each month a new selection of books is brought along. In addition to the stories, the librarians bring along songs, poems, fingerplays and a suggested hands-on project. They also provide handouts for parents that encourage them to read to the children no matter how young. "Children enjoy being read to and we believe exposure to books at an early age is important," Anderl said.

A second goal for this program is to offer role modeling for the day care provider as to how a storytime works. The librarian also offers help in choosing books and other materials that will enhance any projects planned by the provider.

Through the financial support of the Title I Program and the Coeur d'Alene School District, the library was able to purchase a wide variety of books specifically designated for the program. The library also participates in the Idaho Public Television First Books program which allows them to distribute 20 books to at-risk children in the Outreach Program. (staff reports, 5-6-98)

The Latah County Library District provides storytime kits for in-home daycare providers. Each kit is theme-based and contains three books, fingerplays and songs, activity ideas, and a puppet or other object for creative play. The kits are appropriate for use with preschool and primary grade children. The kits were made possible by the Friends of the Moscow Library.

American Falls District Library also provides storytime kits for child care providers.

Nez Perce-Lewis County Free Library District recently received a $1,788 grant from the Idaho Community Foundation to create preschool story time kits for day care providers. Pierce Public Library also received $590 from the Idaho Community Foundation to purchase preschool story time kits.

Boundary County Free Library District visits area child care providers once a month to present a story time and leave a rotating deposit collection of age-appropriate materials.

Boise Public Library is now offering two opportunities for child care programs to take advantage of their storytimes. One is called "Book-a-Tale" and is for 3-5 year olds meeting each Wednesday and Thursday. The newest opportunity is "Tadpole Time". This program is offered for children who are 2 or 3 and is scheduled for Tuesdays and Fridays. The librarians asks that child care programs call to schedule their time in advance and that they only visit these storytimes no more than once per month. The librarians will also pull collections of books in advance for child care programs with a 2 or 3 day notice.

Child Care Outreach Resources

Periodical Articles

"The Child Care Connection: Reaching Children in Day Care," by Judith Daniels Dwokin. Public Libraries, July/August 1993, p. 209-211. Contains an appendix page with a sample of the book list used for child care connection kits.

"Raising the Quality Quotient: Library Outreach to Child Care Providers," by Donna J. Dengel. School Library Journal, July 1994, p. 36-39.

Videos Available from the Idaho Commission for Libraries

Head Start Emergent Literacy Project Series

Emergent Literacy: What and Why?, v. 1
Designed to help teachers and parents understand the concept of emergent literacy and how it has a natural role in the development of young children. It describes the characteristics of homes that encourage the development of literacy in young children. (1996. 16 minutes.)

Creating a Print Rich Environment, v. 2
Designed to help teachers and staff incorporate the concepts of emergent literacy into their classrooms. It will also provide ways for teachers to read to children to encourage the children's literacy development. (1996. 23 minutes.)

Creating a Classroom That Supports Emergent Writing, v. 3
Describes the type of classroom that a teacher can create to encourage young children in developing their writing. It will help teachers design methods and procedures for incorporating writing into the preschool curriculum. (1996. 19 minutes.)

Creating a Literate Environment in the Home, v. 4
Helps parents to become aware of the literacy events that occur naturally in the home. It shows parents how to respond to these events in ways that will support their child's literacy development. (1996. 16 minutes.)

The Library Head Start Partnership
Explores the scope of the Library-Head Start partnership and how local partnerships can work. Also describes a variety of possible library programs, provides criteria for deciding what makes good books, and how the presence of library materials supports the educational and emotional experiences of children. (1995. 38 minutes.)

Reading and Young Children: A Practical Guide for Childcare
A great video for those who work with young children and want to learn more about how to make their childcare facility a place where reading and books are a part of every child's day. (1991. 10 minutes.)

Books Available from the Idaho Commission for Libraries

Beginning with Books: Library Programming for Infants, Toddlers and Preschoolers.by Nancy D. DeSalvo. Library Professional Publications, 1993. [ISL 027.625]
Early contact with books can make lifelong readers. This book covers why programming for this age group is important, and includes 24 sample programs and good lists of books, recordings, videos and toys to use. The author also shows how to influence at-home reading, organize a community-wide TV Turn-off, and promote pre-reading activities in all kinds of ways.

Books, Babies, and Libraries: Serving Infants, Toddlers, their Parents and Caregivers.
by Ellin Greene. American Library Association, 1991. [ISL 027.625 GREENE]
Covers the library's current role in early childhood learning and parent education; early child development and learning; emergent literacy; collections; program planning; networking and outreach; and planning, implementing and evaluating library services.

Library Programming for Families with Young Children.
by Sue McCleaf Nespeca, Neal-Schuman, 1994. [ISL: 027.625 NESPECA]
This is a complete how-to guide for planning storytime programs for the whole family. It includes several fully developed sample programs as well as bibliographies of resource books for various program components, such as poetry, music, flannel boards, fingerplays, etc.

Managing Library Outreach Programs: A How-To-Do-It Manual for Librarians. Neal-Schuman Publishers, 1993. [ISL 027.4 TROTTA ]
This useful book from the Neal-Schuman how-to-do-it series includes sections on reaching out to new parents, day cares, teachers' in-service, homework centers, mall storytimes, and doctors' office collections. Other highlights include how to work with volunteers and other partners. This is very valuable if you are considering any type of outreach.

Serving Families and Children Through Partnerships: A How-To-Do-It Manual for Librarians.
by Sandra Feinberg and Sari Feldman, Neal-Schuman, 1996. [ISL: 027.6 FEINBER]
Covers getting started; coalition building; building family support services; funding basics; evaluating; building a family support collection and has a lot of resources listed.

Internet Links

Scholastic's Early Childhood Today online magazine. Prepared for early childhood educators. Contains activity ideas and curriculum suggestions in English and Spanish.
http://place.scholastic.com/ect/index.htm

King County Library System's Books to Grow On Kits. Explore this link to discover books, finger plays, poems and songs to share with toddlers and preschoolers. Click on an underlined theme topic and be taken to great ideas for books (click box content) and activities to extend stories. This is a great resource. Books to Grow On: Thematic Kits for Toddlers and Preschool Children This link provides access to the contents of thematic kits including book titles, poems, songs, videos and finger plays to share with toddlers and preschoolers. Compiled by the Children's Outreach Librarian of the King County Library System for use by child care providers and parents.

Special Thanks

Some of these ideas were adapted from "Day Care Outreach," a presentation at ILA Regional Conference, Lewiston, ID, April 22, 1997, presented by Ellen Harter Wall, former Youth Services Librarian, Latah County Library District, and from an article by Miriam Hansen published in Shortcuts, a newsletter produced by the Indianhead Federated Library System in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, July, 1995.

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