Babies and libraries: serving the youngest patrons of a community

Abstract

Study of infants and children up to the age of 2 years shows that literacy and learning begin at very early stages of development, but a discrepancy exists between provision of public library services for babies and toddlers, for whom preschool programs are primarily developed. This article examines the cognitive development and socialization processes encouraged by early childhood literacy programs, then explores what programming efforts are involved in this area at libraries around the United States. The author describes her experience at two branch libraries in Dallas, Texas, as a case study of weekly infant/toddler programs for children and their caregivers. She also explores opportunities for collaboration between public libraries and pediatric clinics in the Born to Read program, which provides children with bilingual learning materials at very early ages.