Norwegian version

Publication No. 27: Space for play and learning. Library services for children and young people

A report forming part of the Library Report 2006

The report Space for play and learning describes the ways in which library services for children and young people in Norway are embedded in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, in the current legal framework, and in the relevant Reports to the Storting.  The report provides an overview of the services available to children and young people in the public libraries and school libraries as regards content, services and use.

The report examines the factors that influence library content and services and those that indicate how libraries for children and young people should look in the future.  This concerns above all the variety of different media and how they are employed by young people.  One of the conclusions drawn is that the children’s sections of the public libraries should be spaces for exploration and discovery.  The methods of disseminating the materials that give access to culture and knowledge must be developed further so that they equal the quality of the contents of the materials themselves.  The design of the premises of the children’s section should encourage imagination, inquisitiveness, and an interest in reading.  Both the library surroundings and the ways the materials are disseminated and delivered must aspire to challenge all the senses.

Young people are the most active group in their use of electronic media, which is at the same time accompanied by a drop in leisure reading among them.  The public libraries must meet young people with enthusiasm and involve them in a dialogue as regards what they have to offer.  The youngsters who find themselves growing out of the children’s section of the library should be encouraged to expand into a wider experience.  The report describes some interesting library programmes for and with young people.

The variety of media is a part of children’s and young people’s experience.  As cultural institutions, the public libraries have responsibility for the broad dissemination of cultural materials, where the diversity of media have a natural place.  However, literature and reading have a unique position, and the spread of literature must remain a central plank of library services aimed at children and young people.  The new school reform, “Kunnskapsløftet” (Promoting knowledge) also places reading skills, together with ICT skills, at the centre.  These are two of  the five essential skills that are necessary for all subjects.  The attention that has surrounded these two particular skills should open the way for renewed interest in the spreading of literature in schools and for increased co-operation between schools and the public libraries.

The report points out an urgent need for increased funding, especially in the primary school libraries, where there is a particular need for more hours for the professional librarian staff.  The mandate of the Library Report stresses the need for seamlessness, or the lowering of the dividing lines that exist between the different types of library.  This is one of the most important concerns of the Library Report.

The same issue of seamlessness is also important for the relationship between public and school libraries, and the report takes a particular look at certain aspects of the co-operation between the two.  A joining up of these services should go towards helping school pupils to use both types of library.

The Report to the Storting on Culture points out the opportunities that exist for children’s libraries to develop their profiles, new methods of dissemination and new professional roles for their librarians.

Space for play and learning shows how these opportunities can be used by means of practical initiatives related to organization, the use of different media, to dissemination, and to skills enhancement.

Conclusions, summary and recommended initiatives             

A public library for children is a library that takes children seriously.  This is so because of their physical size, their behaviour pattern, their communication needs, their ways of using different media, their information needs, and not least their wish for new experiences.  All this means that the libraries, when drawing up plans and determining the principles behind the development of their collections and services, must emphasize those aspects that provide children with the basis for developing knowledge, self-awareness and empathy.  A library for children should be a place for them to develop the senses, for learning and a place for meeting others.  The library should encourage curiosity, a wish to explore, imagination, and creative ability.

Similarly, a public library for young people is a library that treats this group seriously.  Their wishes and needs are different from those of younger children, their demands are different, they are more active users of mass media products and often use other more intensive channels of communication.  The interior of the library, the activities offered, the availability of different media and ways of dissemination will often be quite different from those that are appropriate for younger children.  When developing a library for young people it is very important to involve the user groups.  If they are involved in deciding the type of services to be available and are able to participate in library affairs, it will give them a sense that the library and its services are more relevant to them.

High quality public library services aimed at children and young people involve raising standards, especially in media handling, dissemination and learning.  A primary school library has features in common with the public library but the most important role of the former must be to help attain the syllabus.

The school reform “Kunnskapsløftet” is preparing the use of a broad range of publications to help achieve the standards being set for all subjects.  The school library must follow the principles set out in the Læringsplakaten (“Bill of learning) programme  when planning the collections of materials and new services.  By using different media and providing professional and individual guidance on how to handle these, the school library will facilitate access to a whole spectrum of sources of knowledge and culture.  It is the task of the library to inspire a joy of reading, a readiness to learn and to awaken curiosity, thereby contributing to an understanding of what is democracy and why one should participate in it. The library should encourage teaching which is adapted both to the individual and to groups, and to promote varied working methods.

For school libraries to operate in this way, it will be necessary to improve standards in the library profession as well as to obtain extra funding to increase the number of working hours of librarians.  This applies in particular to the primary school libraries.  In order to ensure seamless library services for children and young people and the best use of library materials, there must be active co-operation between the public and school libraries of the municipality.

Recommended initiatives

The following recommendations are made on the basis of the observations and discussions of the report.

Initiatives at the national level

Responsible body: ABM-utvikling

• Initiating a national programme for the spread of literature in co-operation with major participants in the literary field
• Promoting joint municipal library services, with school libraries and kindergartens of the municipality to be included in a combined library service or working in close collaboration with each other.  Preparing a request for the position of co-ordinator to ensure the provision of combined services at the local level
• Developing high quality digital services which can easily be used in public and school libraries, e.g. whichbook.net/ønskebok.no 
• Working to achieve central budget parity with other art forms for literature and for the spread of literature in the programme Culture in the Classroom (Den kulturelle skolesekken), with the aim of assuring quality and developing literary works
• Working for the establishment of a research programme in the field of children, young people and libraries

Competence enhancement

Responsible institutions:  Ministry of Education and research , university colleges and universities

• Improved and wider education of school librarians, through
• the expansion of existing library science and information courses
• the inclusion of a 30 credit library science course as an option within the 4 year general teacher training course
• the creation of high quality continuing library training courses for teachers
• Development of practice oriented continuing education courses in electronic games, film and music for librarians
• Inclusion of children’s library science as a speciality in at least one of the colleges of library science

Children’s and young people’s sections of the public libraries

Responsible bodies:  Library parent institutions and library management

• Entering into close and mutually binding co-operation with the municipal school libraries through agreements on joint operations and through the creation of the office of a co-ordinator
• Discussions on form and content of library services for young people
• Communication with children and young people through the media preferred by these user groups
• Development of plans of action to strengthen work with children and young people and periodic revision of such plans
• Maintaining a continuing dialogue with youth organizations in the municipality regarding activities, operations and available media, and providing easy opportunity for user input in respect of library services for children and young people
• Formulation of clear order of preference, and policies for choice, of media for young people and periodic revision of these
• Adoption of a shared library card for school and public libraries and the option of returning borrowed materials to user’s preferred library
• Ensuring the highest competence in the work in children’s library services within the public libraries, for example by employing a joint children’s librarian across co-operating municipalities
• Consideration to be given to the introduction of reading times for children’s librarians

School libraries

Responsible bodies:  School authorities, school administrators, those responsible for the school library

• Entering into close and mutually binding co-operation with the municipal public library through agreements on joint operations and the creation of the office of a co-ordinator
• Strengthen specialist library skills in the school libraries by increasing hours worked and creating more full time school librarians, to be shared across several school libraries if appropriate.
• Discussions as to the position and purpose of the school library in relation to the aims and educational structure of the school
• Formulation of clear priorities and policies in relation to the selection and discarding of media in collaboration with the teaching staff and the student council, to be revised annually.
• Enabling the school library to offer individual or group tuition during school hours and opportunities for after-school leisure reading or school work, if appropriate, in co-operation with the programme of day-care facilities for primary school children (SFO)
• Inviting librarians from the public library to talk to the pupils about books, text books, or other media
• Providing information to the teachers about new children’s literature and new media in general
• Relating writing and literacy skills to the literature used by the pupils and their teachers
• Involvement of the school library and the school librarian in the work on the achievement of pupils’ targets for the handling of digital tools