Description
Teaching and Learning About the Library is a structured, activity-based resource that focuses on introducing children to library use. Whilst some children will have experience of visiting public libraries with their parents or caregivers, many others will encounter libraries for the first time when they go to school.
School libraries differ in terms of size and resourcing, but most will have similar characteristics; for example shelving divisions between fiction and non-fiction books, a cataloging system, access to CD-ROMS and so on. This resource takes a range of the most elementary skills required to use a library effectively and reconceives them as teaching and learning activities for children in a worksheet format. Activities are developmental, moving from What are Libraries For? to Finding Information on the Internet. It is expected that teachers will use the worksheets as required, perhaps over the course of a year.
Aims of the resource
A basic aim is to make children familiar and comfortable with the library. The early parts of the resource are concerned with learning through enjoyment in the library, library layout and
borrowing procedures. The activities then proceed, in an increasingly complex sequence, through the various resources of
the library:
- Picture books and children’s magazines
- The fundamental concepts of fiction and non-fiction
- Divisions in library shelving and cataloguing
- Alphabetical order as a basic referencing and categorising aid
- Finding fiction and non fiction books and the Dewey system
- CD-ROMs
- Confident use of the electronic catalogue
- An introduction to the Internet.