Children’s Librarians’ Conceptualizations of School Readiness

ABSTRACT

Starting school marks an important milestone for young children. Preparing children for this transition is known to many as school readiness, an oftentimes debated concept due to its meaning, which varies depending on the context and how one interprets school readiness. What is certain is that school readiness is a familiar and established term, echoed by parents, educators, scholars, policymakers and, most recently, children’s librarians. Through services and programs, such as the highly anticipated storytime, public libraries strive to support early learning experiences to foster children’s school readiness. As a result, children’s librarians play a vital role in supporting early child development as well as promoting school readiness goals, yet little is known about their understanding and conceptions of this construct. To begin to bridge this gap in scholarship, this qualitative study investigates children’s librarians’ conceptualizations of school readiness. Specifically, this study focuses on librarians’ open responses to a school readiness question embedded at the onset of an online learning module designed to support librarians’ professional development. Early literacy skills were identified as the sine qua non of school readiness, followed by social emotional skills, general skills-concepts-knowledge, approaches to learning, and mathematics. These findings demonstrate that children’s librarians have a rigorous understanding of what children should know and be able to do across multiple domains in order to be ready for school.

KEYWORDS:

• Public libraries
• school readiness
• children’s librarians

Acknowledgments

The author(s) disclose receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/ or publication of this article: This work was supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (Federal Award Identification Numbers: LG-96-17-0199-17).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services [LG-96-17-0199-17].

Notes on contributors

Renee LeFebvre

Renée LeFebvre (MA, University of Kentucky) is a Disability Services Professional with the Disability Resource Center at the University of Kentucky. Her research explores the interrelationship of children’s literature and visual communication, as well as critical media and disability studies. Her recent scholarship has appeared in the Southern Communication Journal and as a co-author of an open-access textbook about research-based strategies for preschool storytimes as well as a learning module focused on public library storytime programs.

Maria Cahill

Maria Cahill (PhD, University of Kentucky) is an associate professor in the School of Information Science in the College of Communication and Information with a joint appointment in the Department of Educational Leadership Studies in the College of Education. Cahill’s research is centered on improving literacy and learning outcomes for children and adolescents by attending to resources, services, and programs available through libraries. Cahill has published numerous articles in both library and educational practitioner and scholarly journals, and her research has been supported by funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Texas Library Association, Texas Woman’s University, and the University of Kentucky.

Gordana Lazić

Gordana Lazić (PhD, University of Denver, 2013) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at Missouri State University where she also serves as the Director of the Basic Course. Her scholarship concerns the intersection of rhetoric, politics, and pedagogy.