Best practices in Children's Mobile Libraries: Stock procurement

Someone has to make the decision of what to put into a children's mobile library and as can be expected, it varies according to the authority. In some library authorities the operators advised a library purchasing team about which books or items were popular and went well in their vehicles. Some purchasing teams were made up of children's librarians, but in others they were not. In some authorities, the operators had no say at all, library stock being centrally purchased from a Library wholesaler. It is perhaps no surprise to discover that the services where operators were able to advise the acquisitions teams about which books their customers liked were more successful at inspiring children to read. 

The number of requests for specific books, or even books of a certain genre, was much greater in the vehicles where the books were centrally purchased by staff who had no contact with the vehicles, staff from the vehicles, or even other children's libraries. I was on one vehicle that had no dinosaur books, which really disappointed one little boy. I also visited a CML which had no horse books, and that really disappointed a young girl. On the other hand, I found two different CMLs where the operators had a lot of say in which books to stock and they were really enthusiastic about the books, getting books off the shelf to show me, saying things like "have you seen this one?" "this one is new, I really like it", " this is great book, and the kids love it". It is that sort of enthusiasm which inspires children. I also found two vehicles on which children told me they preferred to their nearest static libraries because the CMLs had more "books that they like". There was also the vehicle that visited a tiny rural village school. The teachers were so grateful for the service, because their children were "voracious readers" and the village was so isolated it was not easy to get to another library, and as one of the children said to me, it would have been really expensive to buy all the books she read. Those children revelled in the variety of books that the CML stocked.

Unfortunately, not even children's librarians get it right. There was one CML which I visited where the books were purchased by the children's team, who no doubt were guided by general trends and new exciting authors. The operators outlined three problems with their stock, and they felt that the children's librarians were not listening to their suggestions. One problem was that there was not enough non-fiction in stock, only a tiny shelf-full. The librarians apparently were of the opinion that reading fiction develops empathy and understanding, which is no doubt a good way to introduce children to feelings and a safe way of handling them. However, they forgot that libraries are store houses of knowledge as well as stories, and sometimes it is the knowledge that inspires children to read, or helps them learn out of the classroom. The second problem was sometimes new books would turn up, which were "trendy", but the customers of that vehicle ignored them. That new series was just not to their taste. It shows that local populations have their own opinions and a book which does really well in one community may not in another. The third problem was that librarians who come onto the vehicles to read stories from a "storybook collection" frequently chose really inspiring books, that simply were not available for loan, so children who wanted to read the book they had just heard, which happens frequently, could not borrow the book.


Now, why is all this important? I feel that I have been rambling a bit with this blog, and it is a little while since I have been thinking in the terms of logical arguments. The point is that to motivate and inspire children's reading, to give them the reason to read, you must offer them things that they will want to read, however puerile, however trashy, or even however highbrow. Books about films, or television characters, or comics, or graphic novels, or about ballet or boxing, are all a way of getting children hooked on the printed word, and gives them practise and motivation to start understanding those symbols we use to convey messages. CML operators spend a lot of time talking to children about books and their likes and dislikes, and therefore know what their particular customers want. Operators who like the stock themselves, and who have had a hand in choosing it, are more likely to know which book is just right for customer "X", and which books will be borrowed, and will have the enthusiasm to "sell" a book, or an author to a child. therefore operators recommendations for stock should be heard and implemented.

Choice and variety is also important, which sounds like a contradiction to getting the right books for the right child. I can only explain the phenomena of a large selection of the right books for one community with the memory of one boy I met, taking ages browsing at the shelves standing, looking, perplexed, being hurried by the teaching staff, sighing longingly, "There so much to choose from". His problem was not that he couldn't find anything he liked, he had found everything he liked.  

The theory of Process

Of all the five "theories" that came out of the research, the theory of "Process" is the most complicated and intertwining. I labeled the theory "Process" because it was an analysis of all the things that went on inside a CML, and that not only covered what people did and how they did it, but the thoughts and educational processes that were happening all at once, in one place, that is, a children's mobile library. Of course, by looking at lots of CMLs, as I did, not all of the CMLs contained all of the events, so I used a certain amount of generalisation to understand what was going on. I think I am waffling on a bit here, so I shall just say that because this theory is complicated, I will blog it a bit at a time.

 The Theory:- A children's mobile library provides a learning environment where interaction between social actors promote reading skills.

This bit is going to be about the interactions between CML operators and children, I'll discuss the others another time. One outstanding feature of all the operators in all the CMLs that I visited was that they treated all the children seriously, with respect, as a valued and important customer adressing them directly, not going through their teachers or parents, or other carers. This sort of attitude ended up with the children feeling good about themselves and their reading capabilites and the operators convinced that they were helping to develop children's literature.

The things that the operators did were really very simple, and it all worked in a series of phases. First the operators very quickly developed a rapport with children. They spoke to children as soon as they came on to the vehicle, they learnt children's names and said "Hello Ermintrude" (or what ever their name was). They talked to children on a one to one basis, about the books they had read or borrowed, or the ones that childen were looking at. This meant that they got  know the sort of books the children liked. They made jokes with the children, making them laugh out loud. This was usually done with a group and when you all have a laugh together, it is really a bonding experience. Everything was light and informal, and apparently it seems that boys learn best under such circumstances. I personally wouldn't know because I am a girl. Humour, of course is relaxing, and I have already told you that a relaxed brain learns better that a stressed brain (see the post about Event). All these sort of interactions happened on every visit, whether the children were known customers, or even if the visit was a one off event. When children became regular customers, another thing happened.

Operators and children who saw each other regulary became to trust each other. Onora O'Neill explains that "trust" is relying that someone will act in accordance with their words, and other people accepting that you will do the same. I witnessed occasions when a child or an operator apologised to the other party because they had not fulfiled something that they said that they would do, they were so concerned about breaking each others trust. The operators keenly felt that they were seen in the role of "a trusted adult" and felt that it was their job to be another, objective adult person, different to a parent or a teacher. (We have that word different again, last used in the "event" post. I said it was complicated). This development of trust is important because it leads on to children feeling that they and their reading tastes and reading abilities are worthy of attention.

The operators showed that they valued children by treating them with respect. Children were not patronised, spoken down to, or ignored, even when they were interrupting a story. No operator told children that they had made the wrong choice of book, it was teachers or parents who said things like "you won't like that one" or "That book is too easy for you". The operators said things like "I have read that book" or "you have read that one? well done!", it was positive re-inforcement all the way. Operators act as mentors, cadjoling and encouraging, not being "book police". There was, of course, the odd occassion when a child or two wanted to borrow a book that was way beyond their reading ability, but even then the operators simply asked the children to have a good look through the book to work out for themselves if they still wanted one with all writing and no pictures. Feeling that their opinion, their reading ability and the act of reading itself, is valued by an adult gives children a sense that they are succeeding in something, and that will mean that they want to do it more and more.

So, we get to the last phase in this relationship, and here it gets rather cyclical. Children think that they have made a great achievement and know that they are "readers" because the operators treat them as such. Operators see the children progressing with their skills and tastes, and think that they have helped improve them, so the operators believe that they have contributed to the children's literacy. The operators therefore carry on acting as mentors, and so the cycle of mutal positive reinforcement make adults and children complicit in the act of achievement. I think we need a diagram here, a nice simple one, so here are the phases of what operators acutally do that helps children's literacy.