Europe to establish a specialist information service in conjunction with other
information providers in the fields of education, health, social services, employment and
housing. This venture became an inspiration for many librarians in the United
Kingdom. Recently, an exciting partnership has been created between the National
Youth Agency, which has developed ‘information shops’ for teenagers in various
premises throughout the country, and the children’s libraries in an attempt to foster the
development of information provision (Read 1992 and 1994). However, the issue of
teenage provision, and its planning and monitoring, remains live and contentious.
In keeping with national concern for the socially disadvantaged, many children’s
libraries have been targeting their services accordingly in both urban and rural areas.
Itinerant populations such as travellers and gypsies constitute other potential users who
have been neglected until recent years. Given that British libraries reach less than half
of the child population, there is disquiet that a significant proportion of non-users are
from these sectors. There is a belief among some authors and librarians that service
development alone is insufficient to attract these young people. What is required they
argue, is a more fundamental change to the professional ethos, and especially to our
library collections. Robert Leeson, among others, maintains that children’s libraries still
tend to reflect a privileged, middle-class literature which does not reflect the tastes and
interests of many children (Leeson 1986). This sentiment is refuted by others who
maintain that collections do offer a broad array of writing for children, including popular
titles and series as well as media inspired literature and non-book material.
A popular misconception which has now been dispelled is that the clientele of children’s
libraries is confined to the young: parents, carers, teachers, educational and local civic
officials, and members of the book trade are now among the range of groups targeted
and served by children’s librarians.
Library activitiesTo facilitate the educational, recreational, social and cultural needs of a large and
diverse child population, children’s libraries, as well as lending materials engage in a
broad spectrum of activities which has widened considerably over the past twenty years
with each library authority setting its own programme based on a specific philosophy
(Ray 1979; Eyre 1994). The promotion of activities is viewed as an integral part of service
delivery and most libraries offer a programme which responds to events in the local,
regional or national calendar, such as religious festivals, National Book Week, school
and national holidays.
Current national concern about falling levels of literacy among the young has led to
many libraries prioritising their support for the development of reading, and
appreciation of children’s literature. Reading clubs, reading games and trails, talks and
readings from authors and illustrators, story-telling (now being offered to young adults),
and family reading programmes are the staple fare.
Supporting the formal educational needs of the child remains a contentious issue and
one which has been brought into sharper focus with the cuts in educational provision.
There are increasing demands from schools for the public library to offer curriculum
related material and information skills programmes designed to develop the child’s
618 APPLICATIONS OF CHILDREN’S LITERATURE