
by Elpidio R. Estioko
How can we encourage and captivate young children to have interactive spaces in the community?
Well, I learned from the release sent by Santa Clara County Library District’s (SCCLD) Associate Communications Officer Mariana Walker that the district has recently launched an innovative program to support this.
The support program known as Storybook SCCLD play spaces are designed to captivate young children and their caregivers, while promoting the five early learning principles of Every Child Ready to Read – talking, singing, reading, writing, and playing, all in one place. It will be played in all of its community libraries.
According to the American Academy of Pediatricians, research shows that playing is crucial to a child’s development.
Developmentally appropriate play can promote social-emotional, cognitive, language, and self-regulation skills that build executive function which contributes to school readiness, setting up little learners for future success.
The release indicated that each library’s play space is a magical environment that will reflect something special about each community, at the intersection of tech and nature.
These play spaces will incorporate interactives for little hands to practice motor skills, themed reading nooks for quiet play, playhouses for imaginative play, toddler slides for active play, a sensory learning area for babies and pre-walking children, a balance element for all abilities, plus seating for children and their families.
These spaces foster a passion for books and reading while providing valuable early literacy experiences that support grade-level reading proficiency.
This project is being designed and developed with experts in museum-quality interactive spaces, Luci Creative, Ravenswood Studio, and Group 4 Architecture.
County Librarian Jennifer Weeks said: “Storybook SCCLD creates inclusive and joyful environments where children are motivated and enthusiastic about learning through play.
We are incorporating different types of play that support early literacy skill building, featuring the alphabet, numbers, colors, plus sight and rhyming words in an enchanting space, meeting children in their imaginative worlds.”
I think this will be interesting because children love to play and they can listen, follow, and learn at the same time while the moderator is giving them instructions and other details for them to be able to carry out the play.
As part of SCCLD’s 5-year Strategic Plan, one of the district’s four priorities is to Inspire, “building the foundations of literacy within our community.
No other library in the state, and very few in the nation, offers this immersive early literacy experience,” Weeks said.
Inspiring and motivating the children by playing is one magic formula to engage young children to be more interactive and sociable. To me, this is a great project!
From January through Summer 2025, SCCLD will be working location-by-location to prepare, install, and launch the play spaces.
To keep patrons safe during construction, all or most of the children’s rooms will be closed to the public during its library’s installation.
Children’s materials will be made available in other parts of the library, or patrons are invited to visit one of our other libraries not under construction.
The first play space will be installed at Saratoga Library, starting on January 20, 2025.
Please visit the Storybook SCCLD webpage to see the play space installation schedule for your library.
This page will also introduce you to the team of friendly robots who are your guides through Storybook SCCLD.
The webpage will be updated each month with brand new information, so please bookmark it for future use.
The Santa Clara County Library District (SCCLD) promotes knowledge, ideas, and cultural enrichment.
Founded in 1914, its collection includes more than 2.3 million books, videos, CDs, DVDs/Blu-rays, audiobooks, eBooks and extensive online resources accessible from anywhere with an internet connection.
The Library Journal has repeatedly recognized SCCLD as one of America’s Star Libraries, rated it as a 5-Star library in their 2022 Index of Public Library Service, one of only five library systems in the United States with expenditures over $30 million given this honor.
In 2014 and 2019, SCCLD won the Innovator Awards from the Urban Libraries Council.
SCCLD also received a Challenge Award in 2019 from the California State Association of Counties and an Innovative Project of the Year Award (Large District) from the California Special Districts Association in 2020.
SCCLD includes two bookmobiles, an online library, seven community libraries and one branch library, serving the cities of Campbell, Cupertino, Gilroy, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Milpitas, Monte Sereno, Morgan Hill, Saratoga, and the unincorporated areas of Santa Clara County.
In 2023, SCCLD had over 373,000 library accounts, more than 1.2 million unique website visits, and a circulation of nearly 11.3 million items. Program attendance was over 183,000.
Weeks said that one can find the Santa Clara County Library District online: www.sccld.org; to like them on Facebook; follow them on X (formerly Twitter); to look for them on Instagram; and the district is now are on Threads. @SCCLD.
One can also find the district on YouTube: scclchannel or @SCCLD.
Associate Communications Officer Mariana Walker also said one can subscribe to t heir newsletter: https://sccld.org/news and could get in touch with Jennifer Weeks/Diane Roche/Mariana Walker, Santa Clara County Library District, droche@sccl.org; mwalker@sccl.org.
Maybe this program can be duplicated/replicated or a similar program be instituted in the island of Hawaii, so young children can create their own interactive spaces and be more sociable when using the community library.
ELPIDIO R. ESTIOKO was a veteran journalist in the Philippines and an award-winning journalist here in the US. He just published his book Unlocking the chain of Poverty: In Pursuit of the American Dream which is now available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Xlibris Publishing. For feedbacks, comments… please email author at estiokoelpidio@gmail.com).
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