The Greenville, S.C., Public Library offers afterschool programs for children ages 3-16 on topics such as first aid, important telephone numbers, dental care, home safety, how to prepare simple meals and how to handle emergencies. The Parents and Children Together Center at the Logan Square Branch of the Chicago Public Library loans toys and games that help preschoolers learn basic skills such as counting and recognizing shapes and textures. Bilingual story hours promote language proficiency in a comfortable setting. The Free Library of Philadelphia offers homework help, storytelling, arts and crafts and other after school activities at 15 branches. Most important, libraries provide librarians to listen and discuss and to introduce young people to a far bigger world.
Librarians also work closely with teachers to support the learning process.
In addition to programs at the library, America's librarians reach to children and families with special needs, often in cooperation with schools, health care and other agencies. Sponsored by the Families for Literacy program of the California State Library , the program helps fathers to be positive role models and builds their own and their children's literacy skills. The Homework Tutoring Program of the St. Joseph County Public Library in South Bend., Ind. Elementary students who previously received failing grades now earn A's as a result of volunteer tutoring sessions held at the library with students from Holy Cross College. The Oakland Public Library now provides after-school homework centers staffed by volunteer tutors as a result of federally funded surveys and focus groups held to identify needs of area young people. The School Library Media Center You may remember it simply as the school library, the place you went between classes to read, do homework or conduct research for a term paper.