For an upcoming issue of Public Libraries, the journal of the Public Library Association, an interesting call for submissions has been issued:
Homeschoolers are a growing constituency for public libraries. Families choose to homeschool for many reasons: religious and political; their children’s learning styles; the quality of the public schools. Public libraries can provide a common meeting place for homeschool families.What programs has your library developed to assist homeschoolers? How have you developed collections in response to their requests? Do homeschoolers and their families present any difficulties?
So we as homeschoolers have officially become a large enough group to be officially catered to. Actually, travel companies, seeking ways to increase sales during the off-season, have begun looking at us too. Maybe once we are recognized by the market, homeschooling will finally be be more universally accepted.
In our library system, there seems to be one library which is focused on the homeschool community. That is where the little “So you are thinking about homeschooling?” seminars are held, it has most of the homeschool related books and it even has some of those “odd” items such as materials from Answers in Genesis. It is the only library with a homeschool magazine (Homeschooling Today) and it has little “unit in a bag” kits teachers and homeschooling families can check out for young children. The librarians obviously considered the needs and desires of local homeschooling families in their acquisitions and it is sort of nice to have all of these materials at one location. Although it is not the closest library to us, it is where we tend to visit simply because any time I do a search for a book of an educational nature, it is almost always available at that library.
Have you noticed your library specifically catering to homeschool families in your area?
Hat Tip: Homeschooling and Libraries
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One of the things to do, in my mind, to improve the situation in public libraries, and to correct the public attitude to homeschooling and Christianity, is donate books - naturally, Conservative, Christian books - to public libraries.
That’ll help adjust overall bias of content.
I am privileged to have several libraries to choose from. All of them, have been very helpful to us, as homeschoolers.
The tiny one in our community never has the books we need. But they have reached out to us. They had DS13 teach during their preschool hour. And lots of homeschoolers that are otherwise unconnected attend the preschool time with their younger elementary-aged kids. The library encourages it.
The medium-sized library in the next town over carried lots of conservative titles, including Henty books. They also have a huge 3-ring binder with local homeschooling information.
The large city system that we use lets our kids have cards for free (I have to pay $40 , if I want one). Two of their branches host new homeschooling talks once a month. It was through this library system that I read tons of homeschooling books, Christian and secular (Holt.)
Our particular library is fantastic. When we walk in it is a little bit like Norm from Cheers, everyone knows our name. They have been very helpful tracking down the books I want. It is a smaller library, but they are part of a larger system so we have access to any book or video in the system. All we have to do is ask. Also, and this is probably due to our geographic location (Bible Belt), there are plenty of “conservative” books on the shelves.
Our small library does offer/accomodate a small recognition of homeschooling.
There is a shelf that contains binders in which there are lists and assignments from each school in our District and a HUGE binder of homeschooling resources: homeschooling publications and newsletters, lists of publications, organizations with numbers and contacts and such.
I have only browsed it once and quickly, but did jot down some publications I was interested in. I plan to do some more looking into the Binder at what else is offered there.
We have a children’s shelf of DVD’s divided between learning style DVD’s: Popular Mechanics for Kids, American History for Children series, Greek Mythology for Students series, Weather Fundementals series, the Eyewitness Series (Arctic, Antarctic, Dinosaurs, Planets, Prehistoric Life, Rainforest, Human Machine, Natural Disasters), sign language, etc…and children’s movies and literature put on DVD.
All of this is addition to the normal divide of Fiction, Non-fiction, Young Adult Readers, and Children’s sections of the library. We also have 10-12 computers for use, a children’s librarian, children’s story times and other great scheduled activities for children: Birds of Prey presentation, learning to sketch class by a national political cartoonist, etc.
And all of this for a community the size of 38,000… our library just left the County system and became an independent city library with a complete overhaul and physical make over. It is much improved as some of these resources were offered prior but not nearly as organized and categorized and with no emphasis on the children and learning opportunities.
The library has become one of my son’s passions http://thehomeschoolingexperiment.blogspot.com/2007/10/finding-your-passion.html
We live in a large city and the library I want to go to is in a tiny community a distance away. They have interlibrary loan set up online and their book selection is small, but fabulous. The library that we do end up going to is run by a local church. They have a decent selection and they do not charge us “out of the city limits” fees.
Our library system is fabulous. They are very homeschooler friendly, and not only do I access my account (and my kids’ accounts) online, and have the ability to reserve any item in the whole interlibrary system, but they are also connected to 2 internet libraries, where I can download books and audiobooks. Heaven, I am tellin’ ya’.
I’m glad everyone seems to have pretty good libraries! I only realized last year that one of ours was more homeschool friendly than the others. Before that, I always just went downtown to the main branch for some of the harder to find books. But eventually I noticed that almost all of those books were available at one of the branch libraries so we went. And it is set up nicely with homeschoolers in mind.
And I love the internet. While lesson planning, I can log on and see what kinds of books are available, where they are at and whether they are checked out without ever leaving the house!
With four children, it is sometimes nice to enter the library armed with a list of catalog numbers and not have to worry about searching the catalog while children run amok.
Well, it appears that our community will be closing its library. Our county jail has been deemed “unfit” by some state board that certifies such things. I cannot remember what year, but I think it is beginning in 2010, we will not be able to legally hold anyone in the facility. Our options seem to be transport people arrested in our county to another county at an astronomical fee or build a new jail. During the last election there were two new taxes voted on… one for new schools and one for new jail. The new schools passed; the new jail didn’t.
So, there is a new plan to convert our community building which houses the public library, meeting rooms, gymnasium, etc. into a jail. I sure hope this plan fizzles on the drawing board. Marissa and I make it to the library about once a week ~
Oh, how awful! I do hope that changes!
Our new library has a big community room, which they’ve allow our homeschooling group to use free-of-charge several times a month. I think the librarians also appreciate my son and I coming to the library in the middle of the day when it’s kind of slow and checking out biographies and history books that don’t usually get much attention.
Julie, the library-turning-jail thing is criminal. Pretty unbelievable.
My small town library does fine for us. My only complaint is very personal - one particularly nasty librarian. She doesn’t target homeschoolers, she’s just snippy to everyone.
Well, at least she doesn’t discriminate. : ) We have nice librarians. They seem to like my daughter who is always looking for some kind of a book.
A library turning into a jail does have an upside - they’ll likely stage a huge book sale with all the used books, and if you’re like me you’ll swoop down like a vulture.
Now that is a way to look on the bright side, Death Mitten. Our science curriculum is based on a binder I picked up from a library sale…
Our library recently had a survey for homeschoolers to find out how they could better serve us. They’ve got a pretty good collection of secular HS books but they don’t have too much in the way of Christian ones (of any flavor). They’ve got Lisa Whelchel’s book and Michael Farris’ one on HS dads and that’s it. I made a purchase suggestion for books on the Charlotte Mason approach and was told that both “Real Learning” by Elizabeth Foss and “For the Children’s Sake” by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay were “too religious”.
One of the branches also has a subscription to “Practical Homeschooling” but they do not allow patrons to check issues out or have it sent to other branches through the interlibrary loan.
The big gripe I have about my library is that they stock many books with controversial themes aimed at young kids; what’s worse they have them mixed in with all the normal books rather than on one of the shelves behind the children’s librarian’s desk. You have to ask her to borrow the encyclopedia but any kid can stumble across “Tango Makes Three” or “It’s Not the Stork!” So I really have to keep an eagle eye on my kids when we visit.
That’s amazing, Crimson Wife. Our libraries have some of those controversial books, as well. Some prominently displayed near the children’s section, which is really the part that bothers me. But they have other materials, as well, including some quite religious items.
What are “Tango Makes Three” and “It’s not the Stork”? What about their content makes them controversial?
Sorry if that’s a wrong question, I just don’t know.
And Tango Makes Three deals with homosexuality:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_Tango_Makes_Three
I haven’t read it and don’t know exactly how it is treated…I just have heard some of the controversy.
It’s Not the Stork sounds innocuous enough, but apparently it deals not only with where babies come from, but the touchy subjects of masturbation, homosexuality and contraception which might not be the best fare for four year olds.
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/healthscience/060628a.aspx