EARLY CHILDHOOD LITERATURE SHARING PROGRAMS: PUBLIC LIBRARIANS' PRACTICES AND ATTITUDES.

摘要

Since the 1970s a growing number of public libraries scattered across this country have initiated early childhood literature sharing programs, i.e., storytimes for children under three years of age and/or informational programs for parents/caregivers of children under three years of age.;The purpose of this study was (1) to develop a Schema of Early Childhood Development Literature Sharing Implications from an analysis and synthesis of information concerning child development from birth to three years of age (which was subsequently reviewed by early childhood specialists for its accuracy); (2) to query librarians in this country who offered early childhood literature sharing programs about their program practices and attitudes via a mail survey questionnaire; and (3) to determine if the practices and attitudes of these librarians corresponded to the Schema and if the practices and attitudes were independent of certain institutional and personal characteristics.;The findings show that among the 253 participants--a 78% response rate--of this study (1) the literature sharing practices to a large degree corresponded to the Schema; (2) the attitudes of librarians to a large degree corresponded to the Schema; (3) the literature sharing practices were by and large independent of background variables (exceptions included librarian's amount of early childhood development reading); and, (4) the attitudes, to a lesser extent than the practices, were independent of background variables (exceptions included librarian's amount of early childhood development reading, if librarian has taken early childhood education courses, if librarian has past teaching experience, etc.).;Concurrent with the growth of these programs in libraries, the field of child development has changed radically in realizing the importance of a child's first few years and has provided a great amount of early childhood development information based on research in the field. This early childhood development information has implications for public library programs.