Part A

Mission and purposes of children’s libraries

The mission of the children’s library

The mission of the children’s library is to serve as an information, learning, and cultural centre, that acquires and provides meaningful access to age and ability appropriate information, programmes, and services, in languages relevant to the multicultural community of children, their families and caregivers. Supporting literacy, learning and reading are universally recognised as central to the achievement of this mission.

The purpose of the children’s library

The purpose of the children’s library is to provide resources and services in a variety of media to meet the needs of children of all ages and abilities for their education, information and personal development. This includes recreation and leisure, and also supporting children’s health and wellbeing. Library services for children play an important role in the development and maintenance of a democratic society by offering the child access to a wide and varied range of knowledge, ideas and opinions. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) offers support to develop library policy and practice, related to children and young people. The Convention has 54 articles that cover all aspects of a child’s life and set out the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights that all children everywhere are entitled to. Children should be able to rely on libraries for their right to information and education and children’s librarians are at the forefront of promoting children’s rights as they play a key role in literacy development and disseminating information about the importance of literacy and reading. Universal literacy is recognised in the vision in Transforming Our World the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Opportunities to develop language, literacy and reading are important. The children’s library has a key partnership role in helping to develop these skills, by facilitating meaningful access to resources and services for children and their families.

Goals:

To facilitate the right of every child to information, literacy, cultural development, lifelong learning and creative programmes in leisure time
To provide children with access to a wide range of appropriate resources and media
To help children develop digital media information literacy skills
To provide cultural and recreational programmes, oriented towards reading and literacy
To provide various activities for children, parents and caregivers
To address barriers for children and to advocate for their freedom and safety
To encourage children to become confident and competent individuals and citizens
To facilitate community partnerships so together we provide programmes and services to all children and their families in the community, including those on the margins of the dominant group, who may be economically disadvantaged.

Governance of the children’s library

Governance is about establishing and monitoring policy and its implementation. It concerns vision, being certain about the purpose of the children’s library and what difference it intends to make. Good governance also concerns probity, that the organisation meets standards of openness and transparency, acts with integrity and in good faith.

In order to maintain the level of service required to fulfill their functions, children’s libraries should be supported by legislation and sustained funding. The managers of children’s libraries should be aware of all legislation affecting the operation of the library which will include legislation on financial management, data protection, health and safety and child protection and safeguarding. Adequate levels of funding are crucial to the success of the children’s library to enable the development of policies for service provision and to make the most effective use of available resources. This involves good stewardship in being responsible with resources, another aspect of governance. Policies must be implemented in order to have a real impact on the lives of children and their families.