The Swinburne library book provided some insight into children's public libraries in Great Britain; ideas which motivated the early provison of children's library services here seem to be about social reform, such as preventing delinquency in boys, which is different to the ideas in the United States. There was also a small book (70 pages) about Fitzroy Public Library, Victoria which will take some time to research as there is no Index!
As print material was limited I next moved to some online researching. I found a very helpful Timeline of Literature and Publishing in Australia in the electronic Macquarie Dictionary (requires student login). Through Librarian's Internet Index I also found a United States Library History site, written by a retired Librarian. This offered several excellent links to US public library sites which include their histories, for example New York Public Library - click here for an especially cute image of Story Time for very young children in 1935. I also found a children's library history research site, see Links, which made the point that this area of library history is as yet quite unresearched as it predominently involved women and children.
I noticed that different sources claimed different cities had the first public children's library in Australia, in the United States and in Great Britain. This is curious but may depend on different definitions of what consitutes a children's public library - is it fully municipally funded; does it offer free lending, a reading room, open access to books? One source indicates that some early children's libraries in Great Britain stored books behind an iron grate which children had to point at to choose, worse still, most did not even offer this and children were expected to grapple with the catalogue - a very different picture from today's public library children's areas!
Next, I plan to search for some online articles to flesh out the questions persisting from last week.
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Hi Nikki,
ReplyDeleteI just noticed something in the Christchurch City Library website about childrens' libraries that maybe of interest to you.
http://library150.com/Articles/ChildrensLibrary/#Part3
Cheers,
Diane
Great blogging Nicola! You've got a good feel for reflecting on your research process and have outlined your strategies clearly and systematically. The blog looks great, there's plenty of opportunity with your topic to include some great images and perhaps even some video?
ReplyDeleteBy next term you should have uploaded 5 posts to your blog and be well on your way to putting your research findings together in an organised way.
Remember to read through the webCT content about images, videos and copyright issues to help you with your blogs. There is also some helpful information about organising your research material under the CUSRAD02A link on the homepage.
Regards,
Linda