Skip to Main Content

Early Childhood Services for Pennsylvania Libraries

Information and resources for library staff serving children ages 0-8 and their families and caregivers.

Pennsylvania Family Place Libraries™

Family Place Libraries™ transforms libraries into community centers for early literacy, parent education, and family support. The national Family Place network includes more than 500 sites in 32 states, with about 100 locations in Pennsylvania.

Family Place builds on the knowledge that good health, early learning, parental involvement, and supportive communities play a critical role in a young child’s growth and development. The overall goal of Family Place Libraries is to develop and institutionalize a family friendly environment by transforming libraries into community centers for literacy, early childhood development, parent education and engagement, family support, and community information.

 

The Family Place Libraries project was supported by federal funds from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA).

Core Components of a Family Place Library

Trained Staff
An administrator and librarian participate in a multi-day Family Place Training Institute and related online training. Topics covered include all the core components listed below as well as child development, family support, parent education and best practices. Once trained, these professionals bring back this knowledge to share with their entire staff.

Parent Child Workshop
This fun, informal, play-based program provides a rich environment of toys, books and art activities. It is a five-week program for toddlers and their parents/caregivers. Families have the opportunity to spend time together, make new friends, and talk one-on-one with a different community resource professional each week. Watch a video about the Parent Child Workshop here!

Collections
Special collections consist of books, toys, early literacy kits, music and multimedia materials for babies, toddlers, parents, caregivers, and service providers.

Specially Designed Spaces
Family Place Libraries create fun and welcoming environments where children along with their caregivers can play, learn, and grow together. These specially designed spaces feature interactive materials for very young children and parents including board and picture books, age appropriate toys, puzzles, dramatic play items, blocks, and drawing stations providing a rich space for little ones to explore.

Collaborations And Partnerships
Through partnerships with health, education, and Human Service agencies that serve families and young children, librarians connect parents to needed community resources and enhance library services and programs.

Additional Programs For Babies & Toddlers
Expanding on the traditional role of programming for children ages birth-5 (with emphasis on birth-3). Family Place Libraries specialize in developing age-appropriate programming that supports the importance of play and healthy parent/child relationships in early childhood development and learning.

Outreach
Identifying and reaching out to new and underserved families, via in person, partner, media, and social media contacts enables the libraries to engage and build trust with new families.

 

To Join the Family Place National Network:

  • One youth services librarian/staff member and one administrator from your library need to attend a Family Place Training Institute.
  • Your library will commit to implementing the core components of Family Place Libraries.
  • The Parent-Child Workshop will be offered as a regular library program a minimum of twice a year. The first workshop is typically offered within one year of training completion.
  • Your library will complete an annual Family Place Libraries Recertification form, which will provide updated documentation of all the core components.