Environments are imbued with ideals and beliefs about the core values of their institutions. As public libraries move to a more patron-centered approach, library settings become less formal and more available for collaborative and creative practices. This year, ALSC President Andrew Medlar will share his vision for active and child-centered learning spaces throughout American Libraries at his Charlemae Rollins President’s Program: Libraries: The Space to Be.
Chicago Public Library is the home of Charlemae Rollins, and here at CPL, we see it as our role to enliven the spaces in our children’s rooms in order to encourage and promote what Fred Rogers called “the work of childhood” play-based learning. By creating meaningful and child-friendly spaces, we serve children and their families more deeply. It is our goal to create active learning spaces that are a meaningful educator for our children and our communities. Our libraries are considered pioneers in incorporating STEAM opportunities for child and parent engagement, and we are designing space across our system to meet the needs of 21st Century children and families. This means age designated ‘neighborhoods’ areas for creativity, collaboration and lots of ways to encourage moments of sharing. We believe sharing is learning and we want to encourage that in both formal and informal settings. As our new flagship main children’s library opens later this year, we will roll out even more ways upon which STEAM, early learning and school-aged families can read, discover and create.
In San Francisco, our libraries are family destinations for discovery and community engagement. As part of the library’s early literacy initiative, we partner with the Burgeon Group to design and embed Play to Learn areas in each location. These site-specific transformations are beacons of play incorporating colorful interactive panels, multilingual features, developmentally appropriate experiences, fine gross activities, texture and tracing elements all to spark spontaneous conversations and build key literacy skills. (Stoltz, Conner, & Bradbury, 2014) From nook to cubes and the flagship installation at the Main Library, parents, caregivers and most importantly children know play is welcome at the library.
Successful play spaces are those that engage children’s interest; inspire creativity; allow physical movement; and encourage interaction with both materials in the space and with other children. Many early childhood spaces are modeled on the Reggio Emilia approach, starting with a welcoming space that is arranged to provide opportunities for children to make choices and discover on their own. Once children have explored, adults facilitate play around subjects or objects in which the child shows interest. This child-driven model is a natural fit for an active learning setting in a library, where children have free access to a variety of resources from books to toys to art materials. Research shows that having quality books placed at children’s eye level supports literacy-related activities like those that occur when children play in library spaces. (Neuman, 1999)
The Reggio Emilia approach has also been shown to be equally effective for young children who do not speak English, a situation common in Chicago and San Francisco (Zhang, Fallon & Kim, 2009). Leslie William and Yvonne DeGaetano note the importance of creating culturally relevant spaces based on children’s own communities in Alerta: A MultiCultural, Bilingual Approach to Teaching Young Children.
Play is a necessary building block for children’s brain development, along with culture and the creative mindset. (Gauntlett & Thomsen, 2013) It is so essential for life that the United Nations recognizes play as a human right for every child. Play allows children to explore and experiment with their environments, building synaptic connections in the brain and helping children establish problem solving skills as early as 6 months of age. The American Library Association-Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) recommends that play be incorporated into library programming, recognizing the direct correlation between play and early literacy.
There are five general types of play that children engage in. These can all be supported in our libraries, and each type of play supports both children’s general development and literacy in a variety of ways. These include:
- sensory play
- constructive play with objects
- symbolic play
- pretend play
- rule-based play such as games.
Some of the elements that are shared by both Chicago Public Library and San Francisco Public Library include:
- Creation of connections and sense of belonging
- Flexible and open-ended materials
- Materials that support the ECRR2 practices ( TALK, SING, READ, WRITE, PLAY)
- Stimulation of wonder, curiosity and intellectual engagement for children and their caregivers
- Symbolic representations, literacy and visual arts
- Flexible furniture and arrangements
- Different levels and heights of displays or tools
- Nooks to read and/or work
- Open-ended activities and tools that can be transformed by the child’s interest
- Places for individuals as well as groups
- Creation Station and maker areas for encouraging design, exploration and creation
- Parent and caregiver incubator space
- Areas and resources for constructive, dramatic and creative play
- Appealing signage and parent tips to support family learning
As co-chairs, we are eager to have you join us at President Medlar’s Charlemae Rollins President’s Program to learn more about successful elements of library design for 21st Century Kids and hope to see you there!
— Liz McChesney, Director of Children’s Services, Chicago Public Library
— Christy Estrovitz, Manager of Youth Services, San Francisco Public Library
References
- Stoltz, Dorthy, Marisa Conner, James Bradbury. (2014). The Power of Play: Designing Early Learning Spaces. ALA Editions.
- Gauntlett, David & Thomsen, Bo Stjerne. (2013). Cultures of Creativity: Nurturing Creative Minds Across Cultures. The LEGO Foundation.
- Nespeca, Sue McCleaf. (2012) The Importance of Play, Particularly Constructive Play, in Public Library Programming.
- Zhang, Jie, Fallon, Moira & Kim, Eun-Joo. The Reggio Emilia Curricular Approach for Enhancing Play Development of Young Children.
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