Idaho Commission for Libraries

More and more Idaho libraries are working with health care providers to reach new parents. Research supports this growing trend with findings that parents are more likely to read to their children from an early age if a health care provider encourages early literacy efforts. The home is the earliest and strongest influence on a child’s health and education. Reaching parents as early as possible to provide up-to-date and accessible information on how to develop a love for reading and lifelong learning in a child and how to rear healthy children is vital. The development of a healthy mind and body go hand in hand. Parents can be empowered to take an active role in the education of their child. They need to understand that the entire community is there to help them be successful parents. Librarians and health care professionals can provide parents with health-related and parenting information and encourage them to read to their children.

On this page:

• Service Ideas
• Reaching Rural Residents
• Working with Hospitals to Reach New Parents
• Idaho Reach Out and Read programs

Service Ideas

Libraries can partner with health care providers by providing:

• Deposit collections in waiting rooms.
• Training for health care providers and librarians in reading and reaching parents.
• Support materials and small table top display holders for waiting rooms.
• Books families could take home, read and keep. 
  The American Falls District Library provides First Books to their dental clinic partner, who distributes books to young dental patients.

• Welcome baby bags with early literacy materials.

• Programs like "Reach Out and Read" or "Born to Read," modeled on national programs. 

Health care professionals can partner with libraries to "prescribe" reading to families and talking with them about the importance of early literacy activities like singing and reading to children. They can provide space for reading promotional materials and support reading initiatives.

Reaching Rural Residents

Clearwater Library partners with health care providers to reach rural residents

Clearwater Valley Hospital and Clinics now distribute free books to all children who visit the clinic for their immunizations as part of an ongoing partnership with the Clearwater Memorial District Library. Children can choose among many different age-appropriate titles as part of the Reading is Fundamental (RIF) program. Parents also receive a list of suggested activities they can do with their youngsters to increase their enjoyment of reading.

The hospital provided matching funds to purchase books for their young patients and the children who receive immunizations through the health department for a total of 500 books at the health sites. The Library’s RIF program distributes three books to over 2,000 children in Clearwater County. Books are distributed at 18 sites, including the immunization clinics.

"Our staff is interested not only in the physical health of children and adults in this area, but we are concerned with their overall well being," Clearwater Valley Hospital CEO Casey Uhling said. "When the library approached us about partnering to provide quality books to children in this area we immediately agreed to join in this worthwhile effort."

Working with Hospitals to Reach New Parents

Efforts in Eastern Idaho send home books . . .

Pocatello educator Blossom VanHouten coordinates the "Books for Babes" project which provides over 2,500 welcome baby literacy packets to area hospitals.The program is sponsored by Southeast Idaho Reading Council, Success by Six, Babybug, Marshall Public Library and the Idaho Commission for Libraries. The local librarians in Soda Springs, Preston, Malad and Montpelier put information about their library in the packet. Marshall Public Library provides a bookmark and a card listing their programs for babies and toddlers. The local librarians in Pocatello, Soda Springs, Preston, Malad and Montpelier put information about their library in the packet. Each bag contains a book, local library information, and materials that encourage new parents to read to their child from birth on. The project was started in 1997 and now works with both hospitals in Pocatello, and hospitals in Soda Springs, Preston, Montpelier and Malad.

"Considering the current information on the importance of brain development in babies, every effort we can make toward encouraging parents and grandparents to read to children is essential. I have talked to many of the parents who receive the "I read to my baby" bag which contains the literacy materials, and they all are very pleased with the contents and are using them. Reading to children does more than develop the brain, it forms a bond between the child and the parent which will probably be extremely important as the parent-child relationship matures," VanHouten said.

Hayden library pilots program . . .

Every new parent at Kootenai Medical Center, about 1,600 a year, will leave the hospital with a new book, poster, literature, a booklet with rhymes and baby songs, a coupon for a free book when they visit the Hayden Branch of the Kootenai Shoshone Area Libraries, and a library card application. The Tots and Tales pilot program was funded with $4,000 from the Hayden library, Friends of the Kootenai-Shoshone Area Libraries, Parents as Teachers and the Coeur d'Alene School District. The library will track how many applications they receive from new parents over the 10 month pilot project. "We are always looking for new ways to reach out to the community," youth services librarian Irma Anderl said. "We thought that if we give away things, parents would start thinking, 'They must really care about us,' and come in to see us."

Idaho Reach Out and Read programs

Boise resident Bev Pressman coordinates a "Reach Out and Read" program for pediatric patients at The Eye Associates. Modeled on the national program, several Idaho sites have been established in the last five years and Bev hopes the program will continue to spread to more Idaho communities. Reach Out and Read (ROR) is a pediatric literacy program that emphasizes early literacy as an integral part of pediatric care. Pediatricians and other health care professionals involved in the program encourage parents to read aloud to their young children, giving books to their patients to take home at all check-ups. There are also volunteers who read to the children in the waiting rooms to model good read aloud practices for parents in many of the ROR programs.

" Everyone wins with this program -- the patients, the parents, our staff, and our volunteers. It adds a welcoming warmth to our waiting room and takes advantage of a teachable moment with parents," Pressman said.

There are 1,100 Reach Out and Read sites located in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, which serve 1.4 million children annually. Nearly 11,000 pediatricians and nurse practitioners have been trained in the methodology, and 2.5 million new books have been giving to families annually. To learn more about the ROR program, visit www.reachoutandread.org.

In Idaho, Reach Out and Read sites have been established at Coeur d'Alene Pediatrics, Family Practice Medical Center in Boise East (coordinated by Susan Kim, M.D.) Terry Reilly Health Services at the Boise and Nampa Clinics, The Eye Associates, P.A., Boise. Boise Public Library is a partner in the ROR program and provides training for volunteers who read in waiting rooms. Library staff have assisted by training volunteers to participate in ROR programs. For more information about starting an Idaho Reach Out and Read program, contact Bev Pressman at (208) 362-4828 or e-mail pressman@rmci.net.

Return to Top

Contact Stephanie Bailey-White
Contact Peggy McClendon