Library services enriching community engagement for dementia care: The Tales & Travels Program at a Canadian Public Library as a case study

Growing dementia-friendly library services are contributing to community-based dementia care. Emerging community programs in libraries and museums provide notable opportunities for promoting engagement and inclusivity, but these programs have yet to receive in-depth assessments and analyses to guide future research and practice. This paper presents a case study examining a social and storytelling program for people with dementia run by a Canadian public library. It investigates two research questions: How can public library programs contribute to community-based dementia care? And what are public libraries' strengths and challenges in running programs for people with dementia? The study involves participant observations of the program and semi-structured interviews with people with dementia, caregivers, and program facilitators (librarians and Alzheimer Society coordinators). Through thematic analysis of fieldnotes and transcripts, the study reveals how this inclusive platform supports engagement, fosters relationships, helps caregivers, and reaches broader communities. This research further uncovers the librarians' diversified roles as demonstrated through their collaboration with professionals, preparation and research, and facilitation of the sessions. This paper advances librarianship research on enriching community-based dementia care, including furthering inclusivity and engagement and extending accessible library services. By analyzing library programming for the dementia community and assessing its strengths and challenges, the paper highlights librarians' awareness of the community's evolving needs and their collaboration with other professionals. It offers practical insights on useful resources and emerging best practices that will hopefully inspire other initiatives in which information professionals can help improve the well-being of vulnerable populations.

Promoting caregiver involvement at the public library: An evaluation of a math and science storytime program for young children

Introduction

Public libraries are asset institutions that provide important spaces for families to engage in meaningful, authentic STEM learning. However, limited budgets and a model centered on open-access and broad inclusion makes conducting rigorous evaluations in these spaces, such as randomized control trials, challenging. There is a need to consider evaluation designs that consider both rigor and feasibility. The aims of the present study were to: (1) describe an innovative interactive parent-child interactive storytime program, Fun with Math and Science (FMS); and (2) conduct a preliminary evaluation of FMS in a large, urban public library setting, using a quasi-experimental static group comparison design.

Methods and Results

Post-test scores for caregivers who completed the program in the fall or winter (n = 80) were compared to pre-test scores for caregivers who completed the program the following spring (n = 35); Fall/winter caregivers scored higher on program items related to concrete behaviors to support math and science learning, but significant differences were not found on items related to caregiving beliefs or general caregiving practices. Demographic differences were also found related to program outcomes.

Discussion

Results are discussed both in terms of implications for the development and implementation of caregiver-child interactive programming, as well as the use of innovative analytic approaches to program evaluation in community settings.

Playful stories: Exploring the use of dramatic play in storytimes

Research in early childhood development widely supports play as a vital learning mechanism for young children. Consequently, many libraries are beginning to embrace play as an intentional strategy for meeting targeted early learning outcomes. However, sufficient research on how play can be incorporated into storytimes to support children’s early development has yet to be conducted. This study begins to address this need by exploring how two other informal learning environments—a museum and a zoo—use educator-led dramatic play experiences in storytimes with the goal of understanding how libraries might be able to incorporate dramatic play experiences in their storytimes to create a more in-depth playful learning experience. To elucidate the nature of the museum and zoo’s educator-led dramatic play experiences, this study explored (1) characteristics of their educator-led dramatic play experiences, and (2) the learning behaviors that children were exhibiting while participating in the dramatic play. The results revealed that the educator-led dramatic play episodes in both environments consisted of one long, immersive oral story with other types of play interspersed within the larger story structure. The data also revealed that the children were exhibiting many different types of learning behaviors while participating in the dramatic play experiences. Based on these findings, implications, and recommendations are provided for libraries around designing and using dramatic play in their storytimes to help transform the traditional library storytime structure into a more in-depth playful learning experience.

Characterizing an information environment for supporting learning

Purpose

This study aims to offer insights into the presence and nature of an information environment provided for young children to support their learning and explore how an information environment for young children can be characterized.

Design/methodology/approach

Observations of video-recorded public library storytimes were used to investigate the presence and nature of an information environment for young children’s learning.

Findings

The observations revealed that storytimes provide a rich, multimodal information environment where information is shared with young children and they are encouraged to interact with it in a variety of ways. The storytime participants take on several different roles that help to foster and sustain the information environment.

Originality/value

This study tests the applicability of Eisenberg and Small’s (1993) information-based education framework for exploring an information environment and recommends revisions to improve the framework’s effectiveness for characterizing information environments for young children.

We’ve been Offering It for Years, But Why Do They Come? The Reasons Why Adults Bring Young Children to Public Library Storytimes

While storytime programs for preschool children are offered in nearly all public libraries in the United States, little is known about why adults choose to bring children to participate. This survey study gathered information from 346 parents and caregivers who attended storytime programs at 35 public libraries in three states. Parents and caregivers indicated child enjoyment of hearing stories and participating in activities and the opportunity for children to interact as the primary reasons for attending; however, differences in motivation to attend were noted by community density, relationship to the child, educational level of the adult, and length of attendance. In addition to identifying those aspects of storytimes that resonate most for children and building upon them, librarians should integrate cooperative activities that facilitate interaction. Further, librarians should take stock of their own contexts and modify programs to best address the needs of their specific community.