What's new

Date: 
Tuesday, 7 March, 2017

 

 

On 27th February, the 10 Bridge Organisations, representatives from public library services across the country and national library partners came together at the Library of Birmingham in an event hosted by ASCEL to discuss the role of libraries in supporting local cultural development for children and young people.

Colleagues from Bridges and ASCEL in the North West and West Midlands shared their excellent practice. Nicky Morgan also updated on the Arts Council development and MetaValue joined with Neil Macinnes. President of the Society of Chief Librarians, to update on the development of the new cultural offer for libraries. The day closed with a celebration of poetry and words from John Dougherty.

 

All the presentaions from the day are now available to download:

The Public Library Culture Offer
Neil MacInnes: President SCL & Strategic Lead - Libraries, Galleries and Culture Manchester City Council with Selena Bolingbroke and Chris Hayes - Metavalue

 

Libraries and Cultural Education Partnerships\ Cultural Education Challenge & Notes
Nicky Morgan: Senior Manager Children and Young People - Arts Council England

 

Good practice example 1
Stewart Parsons - Curious Minds & Kathryn Boothroyd - St Helens Libraries

 

Good practice example 2: A Place Free of Judgement & Video
Susan Goodwin - Arts Connect

 

Date: 
Tuesday, 6 December, 2016

ASCEL (The Association of Senior Children’s and Education Librarians) welcomes Ambition and the recognition of libraries in the lives of children and young people.

The document provides advice and support, a direction of travel for public libraries, ideas and good case studies.

It is good to see recognition of the many children and young people’s programmes we are involved in and recognition of the work ASCEL is doing.

The report identifies that The Children’s Promise, alongside the Six Steps Promise underpins the Universal Offers and we would urge the Taskforce to ensure that children’s interests are also strongly recognised in Ambition’s 7 outcomes.

We are delighted that ASCEL’s Autism Friendly Libraries initiative is highlighted in the report. ASCEL is also currently working on the following initiatives that support the universal offers and the Ambition outcomes - Children’s Library Journeys – developing a national  library framework for parents-to-be, working with The Reading Agency (TRA) and the Universal Health offer to develop an articulation and evidence base for the impact of libraries on children’s health and well-being, working on an outcomes framework based on the Arts Council  7 Quality Principles to demonstrate the powerful  impact  of library rhyme times and working with Bridge Organisations to develop a national strategy  for libraries’ role within local  Cultural  Education Partnerships.   ASCEL, working in partnership with the Society of Chief Librarians, BookTrust, TRA and the Publishers Association are also driving ahead the  reading for pleasure strand of the new National Reading Strategy launched in November 2016 as part of Read On Get on ensuring that the fundamental role libraries play in reading for pleasure is centre staged.

ASCEL supports the Libraries First approach and the advocacy alongside this.  We believe libraries can be central to the lives of local communities and are particularly essential for families who may otherwise be isolated and unable to access services and cultural experiences.  Libraries are beginning strong and exciting shared and integrated offers with other children’s services providers, for example Children’s Centres and children and family health providers.

ASCEL welcomes the 7 design principals.  It is really helpful to have those made explicit and particularly the recognition that there is value in integrating national initiatives and programmes with the flexibility to respond to local need.

ASCEL also welcomes the opportunity for libraries to test pilot innovative and exciting projects by applying to the new Libraries: Opportunities for Everyone innovation fund.

We are encouraged by a focus on improved data and evidence gathering. This is desperately needed and needs to reflect the transforming role of libraries – not just the traditional roles.  We would also like to ensure there is a focus on impact and outcomes measurements to support articulation of the work we do and the value of libraries in people’s lives.

 Libraries Deliver: Ambition for Public Libraries in England 2016-2021 (1/12/2016)  Read the full report 

Date: 
Monday, 14 November, 2016

Chair's report to the AGM delivered at ASCEL Conference 11 November 2016

Date: 
Monday, 3 October, 2016

To celebrate the BBC's #LovetoRead campaign, libraries in the UK are asking their staff and customers to complete a poll to find the books they love and think everyone should read.

The poll is open from 3rd October to 30th November.

Vote now from the SCL website

 

On the weekend of 5/6th November all libraries will be taking part in the "This book makes me..." selfie activity. Pick a book and an emoticon and post on Twitter, with the hashtag #LovetoRead.

 

 

Date: 
Monday, 19 September, 2016

The Association of Senior Children’s and Education Librarians (ASCEL) are developing the library offer for parents-to-be.

Following the January 2014 report into the Automatic Library Membership Pilots evaluation (Siddall 2014) presented by Arts Council England (ACE), a key finding was that “the principle of having a library card is an important first step. But issuing a library card in itself does not create active library members. The accompanying outreach activities and library events were important factors in making membership real”.

ASCEL was commissioned on behalf of ACE and the Society of Chief Librarians (SCL) to undertake research to identify what those interactions should be and to present recommendations for a deliverable but innovative library offer.

This work consisted of:

  • ASCEL commissioning a freelance Cultural and Audience Development Consultant to research key interactions in a child’s library/reading life that are delivered in libraries across the country, the impact of this practice and the role of partners.  She also explored the interactions libraries would like to deliver and the barriers and gaps. Children's Library Journey Report
  • A Children’s Library Journey seminar in February 2015 with ASCEL and partners, including representatives from the Youth Libraries Group, BookTrust, the National Literacy Trust and The Reading Agency. 

A key recommendation from both the research and the seminar was to develop the library offer at the pre-natal to birth stage – promoting the benefits of reading and library use to parents and supporting and promoting parental and children’s reading journeys. 

The funding from ACE and the Society of Chief Librarians is enabling ASCEL to take this work further and develop a tool kit that will support library staff in their work with parents at the pre-birth stage and into their child’s library journey.

Tender Brief
ASCEL are looking for individuals/organisations to develop areas of the toolkit:

a.) Collate all the content for the toolkit

b.) Create or commission a fresh and exciting design in liaison with ASCEL

The areas of content required for the toolkit are:

i) An appealing presentation of the key messages (supplied by ASCEL) with guidance on how to maximize use of the messages

ii) Research into the kind of partners that will support public library staff with their work with parents-to-be and the creation of a list of partners

iii) A summary of good practice examples from libraries (ASCEL will support this research)

iv) A curated collection of 15 nursery rhymes/songs that work well for interacting with an unborn baby (recommended by parents and representing our diverse community)

Full Tender Brief Document giving expression of interest details and timescale.

Date: 
Monday, 18 July, 2016

Today (18/7/2016) Save the Children launched a report which details how boys are nearly twice as likely to fall behind at the time they start school. The research shows that boys are behind their female peers in every single local authority in England, but higher gender gaps are associated with higher levels of deprivation. It also identifies that high quality pre-school provision can help close the gender gap.

Public Libraries are crucially important in supporting all children to reach their potential. It is vital that children in the early years have free access to a wide range of books to build their confidence to engage with books and early literacy. Young children who visit public libraries are exposed to a huge variety of books and a range of reading experiences and choices.

Children need to be able to choose the books they are interested in, including stories and rhymes but also non-fiction. Libraries also offer rhyme time sessions which help to build language and communication skills and also support children’s concentration and focus through physical actions.

The Association of Senior Children’s and Education Librarians (ASCEL) and The Society of Chief Librarians (SCL) welcome this report and encourage all those working with young children and their families to support them to visit their libraries to ensure that boys and girls benefit from the wealth of opportunities they will discover.

Read the full report

Save the Children website

Date: 
Friday, 10 June, 2016

Friday June 10th marks the launch of an Autism Friendly Libraries training film for library staff. Following research showing that more than 9 in 10 people with autism would use their library more if some autism friendly adjustments were made, the Association of Senior Children’s and Education Librarians (ASCEL) is to offer training and support to all 3000 of the nation’s public libraries.

The research, conducted by social care organisation Dimensions, showed that whilst people with autism are already more likely than other people to use a library, a few changes could lead to 92% increasing their use of their local library. 

The film commissioned by ASCEL and developed by Dimensions and accompanied by fact sheets, signage and social stories, has been made possible thanks to public funding by Arts Council England. It will receive its first screening today at the Society of Chief Librarians annual seminar in Warwickshire.

View the training film

 

There are a range of support documents to download:

*NEW* 

  • Solihull Libraries  have been working with Autism West Midlands (AWM) to create a Google Earth style walk through of Chelmsley Wood Library. AWM worked with the managers in Chelmsley Wood to set-up autism friendly drop-in sessions and commissioned a filmmaker to create a walk through from the library entrance to all public areas of the library to help people with autism pre-visit the library and know what to see and where to go. There is a link to the walk through from the Library’s web page. (04/07/2016)
  • Social Story for the Big Friendly Read  A Word document that can be adapted for your library. (30/6/2016)

 Autism Friendly Libraries Sharing Good Practice

 

Full press release

 

With thanks to our partners Dimensions who worked so hard to create the film and supporting documents;  Arts Council England for making funding available; to Essex Libraries and Coventry Libraries for providing film venues; to all library services who shared their good practice with us; to the Society of Chief Librarians for their support and to the four young people and their families for giving us their time and sharing their thoughts.

Dimensions website

Date: 
Thursday, 26 May, 2016

Philip Ardagh has written an open letter to Simon Cowell in response to his comments that the books he is reading to his son are “quite boring”. Philip said “A good librarian can point you in the direction of some amazing books for your son. There really are some wonderful children’s books waiting to be shared, and a professional librarian can help you access them”. 

ASCEL never can resist a challenge and we’ve enlisted librarians across the country to provide a list of stories which have been tried, tested and loved by two year olds.

We love to see dads sharing books with their young children. Books for two year olds need to be immediately appealing. They also need to offer reassurance and familiarity, as well as new experiences. They should feature strong, memorable characters to help children build their emotional skills and support speech and language development. Above all they should be fun for children and their parents.
 
We hope Simon and Eric enjoy some of the great books in this list –available of course -from local libraries.

Sarah Mears
Chair ASCEL: The Association of Senior Children’s and Education Librarians

Books to read with a two year old

Philip Ardagh's original letter 

Date: 
Monday, 25 April, 2016

ASCEL welcomes the Cultural Education Challenge. We believe a coherent wrap-around cultural education offer that connects schools and communities and links them with arts and cultural organisations will ignite curiosity, remove barriers, and enable children and young children to pursue their dreams.

The Cultural Education Challenge is the Arts Council's call for the art, culture and education sectors to work together in offering a consistent, and high quality, art and cultural education for all children and young people.

Download full ASCEL statement

ACE Cultural Education Challenge

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