Written by: Jamyang Gyaltsen, LEC Alumnus and Director of Manjushri Education Services
I would like to begin by engaging the readers in a brief exercise. If I ask you to write the first three things that instantly come to your mind upon hearing the phrase children’s library, what would they be?
Would your list include children, books, and librarian?
Now, had I asked you to write the first five things that came to your mind, what would the two additional words be? Does the word “parent’ easily feature in your list? Or do you think it might not even make it in your list of the first ten words associated with the phrase children’s library?
Research evidence suggests that parents are arguably the most important stakeholders in children’s education. For instance, the Coleman Report (1966), widely considered one of the largest and most influential educational studies of the 20th century, concluded that a child’s family background is the single most powerful predictor of their academic achievement.
Similarly, Karen Mapp and Anne T. Henderson’s synthesis titled A New Wave of Evidence, 2002, concluded that family engagement improves children’s performance in school regardless of their income and background.
Children’s libraries: a perfect space for parent engagement
My own experience as an educator for the last 20 years corroborates these findings. During my teaching years, we had orphans and destitutes from Tibet, as well as children with parents working as teachers and civil servants in the Tibetan refugee schools. A large majority of children excelling in studies and cocurricular activities were day scholars with educated parents, whereas school drop-outs and children with serious behavioural issues were significantly overrepresented by those who had escaped from Tibet without their parents.
Some of you might still ask, but why children’s libraries for parent engagement? After all, there are other community spaces and public institutions that could support parents.
Children’s libraries have a unique advantage over other public venues (such as schools, community centres, museums, and science education centres) as a space for parent engagement. Children’s libraries are generally considered open, safe, trusted and inclusive spaces. Unlike some of the other spaces which can feel too formal and intimidating – particularly for parents from low-income families – children’s libraries offer a warm, welcoming and lively option.
Librarians with a vision and resolve to engage parents can transform children’s libraries into far more significant agents of educational and social change in society.
I work at Manjushri Educational Services (MES), an NGO based in Dharamsala that strives to improve the quality of early childhood care and education in the Tibetan refugee communities in India and Nepal. As a part of its early childhood care programs, MES runs a children’s library in McLeod Ganj. Besides conducting reading programs for children, parent engagement has been an integral part of our library work.
A reading activity at Manjushri Children’s Library
One of the most important prerequisites to effective parent engagement in libraries is the need for librarians to have a positive attitude towards learning and professional growth. Often, we hear librarians, particularly those working in schools, complain about not getting the same respect as teachers. Rather than demanding respect from outside, I believe librarians should try to earn respect by changing people’s stereotypical perception of librarians from that of bookkeepers to educational experts. For this to happen, librarians need to take ownership of their professional growth and become lifelong learners.
There are many modes of professional development, out of which I personally prefer self-directed and reflective learning through reading. Reading books and journals on themes of parents’ interest, such as reading, parenting, teaching and learning, and early childhood care, helped me in equipping myself with the knowledge to support parents. Over the years, personal reading for professional growth has also enhanced my confidence as an educator.
Parent-engagement programs in children’s libraries can take different forms and shapes depending on factors such as the libraries’ vision, the type of library, availability of resources and the socio-economic background of parents. At a basic level, parent engagement could mean developing a relationship of trust and mutual respect with parents and providing them with guidance and support regarding children’s reading. More ambitious programs could address parents’ larger learning and emotional needs.
Parent Education Seminar at Manjushri Children’s Library
At Manjushri Children’s Library, we organize programs for parents such as educational workshops, book discussions, panel discussions, expert talks, educational seminars, and reading programs (along with children). The themes for the programs, which are mostly decided based on the feedback from parents, include specific topics such as positive parenting strategies, managing children’s screentime, early childhood best practices at home, developing reading habits in children, and fostering socio-emotional development.
We greatly value the rich knowledge and experiences individual parents bring with them to our programs. While those parents with professional expertise in the topic of engagement would be invited to co-facilitate the program, the interactive format of our programs enables active sharing of knowledge and experiences among the participants.
Besides collaborating with parents, frequent partnership with outside organizations is a critical aspect of our parent-engagement programs. Over the years, Manjushri Children’s Library has partnered with the Tibetan government in exile, other community libraries, NGOs and schools. The primary goal of the partnership is to leverage each other’s expertise and resources for the effective implementation of parent-engagement programs.
Small group discussion during Positive Parenting Workshop
The immediate impact of some of our parent engagement programs was visible. For instance, Manjushri’s workshops on gender equality have significantly increased fathers’ participation in our library programs in the last 10 years.
Parents’ participation in the parent-engagement programs also impacted children’s enrolment in our library programs. We observed that parents who began taking part in our programs were more likely to frequently visit our library with their children. Likewise, after attending our reading workshops, a significant number of parents reported having installed reading corners at home and reading with their children on a regular basis.
Parent engagement has been such an integral part of Manjushri Children’s Library that if you were to ask me the first five things that come to my mind on hearing the phrase children’s library, the word parent will undoubtedly feature in the list. And given its importance, I hope every librarian associates the two as closely.