Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Rice Lake's Early Literacy Efforts





Dawn Wacek, a former YSS board member and the director of the Rice Lake Public Library wrote an excellent piece for Ebscohost's Kids and Books Newsletter about their library's successful Early Literacy LSTA grant project.




She talks about the components of the project:  creating a cohesive early literacy space, revamping the parenting collection, adding story kits, improving their website's early literacy offerings, and working with other agencies to improve early literacy services and increase library visits by the lower income families they were especially trying to reach.  Refreshingly, she also talked about the reality of the project (underestimating the amount of time things would take; overestimating the number of people they'd reach, and ultimately, that the project was still amazing!). 


One parent told the library staff:  “We can’t afford to drive to Eau Claire and visit the children’s museum, but it doesn’t matter now. My child gets just as much out of a visit to our library!”

If you are interested in Early Literacy, or if you have designs on an LSTA grant yourself, take a look at the full article!  It's enlightening!

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