Magness has first Family Place Library in state

With more and more studies showing the importance of exposing children to learning, and particularly reading, as early as possible, Magness Library has established itself as the first designated Family Place Library in Tennessee, and one of only 250 in the nation.

The program is designed to encourage parent-child participation in reading and learning early on, prior to the point where children enter pre-K programs.

In an effort to inform the community about this important new program the library will be holding a Family Place Library Community Involvement Meeting on Saturday, April 19 from 10 a.m. to noon. Lunch will be served and the event is free and open to the public.

Magness Library’s participation in the Family Place Project is made possible through a Library Services & Technology Act Direct Services grant received through the Tennessee State Library & Archives.

A Family Place Library is a center for early childhood information, parent education, emergent literacy, socialization and family support. Expanding the traditional role of children’s services, Family Place builds on the knowledge that good health, early learning, parental involvement and supportive communities play a critical role in young children’s growth and development.

Magness Library director Mary Robbins discovered the program during her training at the Certified Public Library Manager Institute.

‘Because I’m very interested in children’s programming, especially programming for young children, that stayed in the back of my mind,’ Robbins said. ‘So I contacted the people who originated the program and are still coordinating it. They are at the Middle County Public Library on Long Island. I talked to them and got information about how we could get involved.’

Robbins soon found there would be some travel, expense and quite a bit of work involved.

‘There’s a very intensive week-long training process,’ Robbins said. ‘It was expensive, and as a small library we have a limited budget.’

It was at that point Robbins decided to apply for the grant, which was subsequently awarded.

‘We got a $20,000 grant,’ Robbins said, ‘and that paid for the training and it will pay for technical assistance. This is a four-year program, but the main part of the cost is the first year.’

Included in this cost is the training, the cost of books, which includes a new parenting collection, early childhood development toys, and a five-week parent-child workshop beginning in May.

‘It will be an hour workshop one day a week for five weeks,’ Robbins said. ‘This workshop will involve parents playing with their children, reading to their children, and we will also have a different professional person coming in for each of those workshops to talk about their area of professional expertise, like nutrition, pediatrics, the arts, music, because art and music are a big part of this, and play, because play is so important to learning.’

But Robbins says the main aim of the program is to instill a love of reading for children in a society which has become inundated with broadcast media and video and computer games.

‘The bond between a parent and child in a library setting with books as a focal point helps them to learn to read so much earlier in age,’ Robbins said. ‘To learn to love books, to discover words, pictures, colors, and to get excited about books.’

Robbins says the program brings full circle the original goal of Magness Library founder Mary Cunningham, who established the facility as a place for mothers to bring their children to rest when they came to town, and provided books and magazines to read to them.

‘I think she would have loved this,’ Robbins said.

Library board chairperson Pat Bigbee, who attended the training with Robbins at her own expense, said she is thrilled Magness is becoming a Family Place Library.

‘I think it’s going to be wonderful,’ Bigbee said. ‘It’s the future of libraries. Libraries across the country are being encouraged to go in this direction, to start with very young children, to have pre-literacy activities with them so they will be more ready to learn when they are a little bit older, and to make parents aware of how important this early learning is.’

For more information on the Family Place Library program, or the community involvement meeting, contact the library at 473-2428.