Programming Ideas for Libraries: Early Literacy Toolkits

Children’s librarians and the materials and programming they provide offer varied paths that enable and motivate children to become independent readers. Since children are expected to read to learn starting as early as 4th grade, it is imperative that they are given the tools and opportunity to master reading fluency and comprehension.

Libraries and museums reach millions of children each year. It is exciting to bring that capacity into focus so that libraries and museums can more effectively engage in early learning strategies at the community, state, and national levels.

Learning to Talk and Listen is intended to help caregivers learn more about how children develop the ability to use words to communicate their thoughts and needs and ask questions.

This toolkit is designed for public libraries and other organizations interested in working with community partners to plan and offer early literacy programs and services to parents of children birth to three years old.

Raising our children well is a great responsibility for parents, early educators, and communities. The hope of the Alaska Early Learning Guidelines is to offer support to all adults that play important roles in the lives of young children.

Information literacy empowers people in all walks of life to seek, evaluate, use and create information effectively to achieve their personal, social, occupational and educational goals.

The toolkit is intended for a broad age group - parents and children (5+), peer-groups, those working in educational settings and really anyone interested in watching, remixing, creating, and having fun with popular culture!

Project-based learning is a teaching method in which, “students gain knowledge and skills by working for an extended period of time to investigate and respond to a complex question, problem, or challenge and results in a product, publication, or presentation that is shared with a public audience” (Buck Institute for Education).

The School-Age Strategy is a framework for the development of programs, services, collections, and spaces that support children ages 5 – 12.

This toolkit from the Association of Librarians Serving Children is designed to help you create STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics) programs for children in your library.

The toolkit describes evidence-informed approaches for promoting positive mental health, preventing mental health conditions, and reducing engagement in self-harm and risk behaviors.

The Roadmap to Educating for American Democracy is an inquiry-based content framework for excellence in civic and history
education for all learners that is organized by major themes and questions, supported by key concepts.

The purpose of this toolkit is to provide library professionals and library workers who work with and for tweens and teens with materials and resources for professional development, outreach, collections, and programs to successfully integrate Science Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) into programs and services.

According to US News, 1 in 5 teenagers lack the skills of basic financial literacy. This means they have little to no working knowledge of common financial practices such as savings & checking accounts, credit scores, filing taxes, and more.
To help combat this issue, this eBook will provide teens with their own Financial Toolkit to help educate and empower them for the future.

In this toolkit, we use the “fake news” phenomenon as an approach to print and digital literacies. We re-examine and discuss culturally-inclusive print and digital literacy strategies we can use with teens to help them make sense of their world and build a robust set of skills as they prepare to enter college or start careers.