Library reference work with children

In my readings this week concerning children and their information needs, some considerations that especially stood out for me were the need for preliteracy or bibliographic instruction, the importance of approaching each child as an individual, and the fact that a third-party adult is often part of the reference equation — either through being physically present, as in the case of a parent/caregiver, or having imposed the child’s query e.g. through a school assignment.

With the first consideration, Cassell and Hiremath (2023) emphasized an importance of developing children’s preliteracy skills to later support the child’s learning to read. These skills include “understanding which way to hold the book, how to turn pages, that the book tells a story, alphabet knowledge, differentiating between text and pictures, and word sounds” (Cassell & Hiremath, 2023, p. 331).

When it comes to library reference transactions, the child patron and adult librarian can have difficulty understanding each other due to a “difference in development between children and adults” (Hirsh, cited by Pattee, 2008, p. 31). As a form of “preliteracy” as it relates to being able to use a library, reference work with children often needs to include “explicit bibliographic instruction” (Pattee, 2008, p. 30).

The second consideration emphasizes the importance of treating each child as if they were an individual. Brendler and Tarulli (cited by Cassell & Hiremath, 2023) reported that “there is as much diversity within gender as across genders” (p. 336) and that a library worker should not assume that only girls, or only boys, will like certain subjects or formats. “Reader’s advisory suggestions should always follow from a complete interview with the user” (Cassell & Hiremath, 2023, p. 336).

Pattee’s K-W-L Method (2008) seems implicitly designed to treat each child like an individual — because while employing it, the library worker will determine what that child knows about their subject, what that child wants to know, and what did the child learn. Those answers will be unique to each and every child, even when a group of children are completing similar assignments.

In my third consideration, Cassell and Hiremath (2023) discuss the third-party reference interview. This is where an adult caregiver may insert themself as a “role model, mediator, and gatekeeper” (Gross, cited by Cassell & Hiremath, 2023, p. 330).

Our readings also addressed the subject of queries that were imposed by adults. One prominent example is the school assignment, “typically imposed by teachers” (Cassell & Hiremath, 2023, p. 333). Gross (cited by Pattee, 2008) noted that “many of the questions children ask at the library are not the products of their own curiosity; instead, school assignments and research projects inform the content and scope of young people’s information seeking” (p. 31). Asking a child what that child knows can uncover the context of their information need; “this context is of particular importance” when addressing an imposed query (Pattee, 2023, p. 38).

References
Cassell, K. & Hiremath, U. (2023). Reference and information services: An introduction (5th Edition). ALA Neal-Schuman.

Gross M. (2006). Studying children’s questions: Imposed and self-generated information seeking at school. Scarecrow Press.

Hirsh, S.G. (1999). Children’s relevance criteria and information seeking on electronic resources. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 50(14), 1265-1283.

Pattee, A. S. (2008). What do you know?. Children & Libraries: The Journal of The Association For Library Service to Children, 6(1), 30-39.