Ellen Fader
Youth Services Coordinator,
Multnomah County Library Services Coordinator,
Portland Oregon
"The best thing that parents can do to ensure their children's academic success is to start a library visiting habit early in life." Ellen Fader
Can you paint us a picture of the children and young adults you serve in the greater Portland, Oregon area? From your professional perspective as librarian, do you think this generation of young people differs in any way from their parents' or grandparents' generation?
We have many low to moderate income families who rely on Multnomah County Library for books, advice on what to read, help with homework, free fun and educational entertainment program, an introduction for babies and toddlers to the world of books and libraries, and a place for both young people and their parents to make a contribution to the community as library volunteers. Today's young people look to the library for many of the same things their parents and grandparents did, but may want library service in new ways. An example is that Multnomah County Library has hundreds of free computers children and teens can use to do their homework, access the Internet, learn test-taking skills; for thousands of students who do not have a computer at home, this is their portal to the wider world. While some young people are more information and computer savvy, many struggle to gain competence in reading. In this way, they are similar to generations before them who are striving to make sense of the world and to successfully gain access to the adult world.
Can you describe your community's reading habits? Are kids reading more or less than previous generations? Do boys and girls read fiction and non-fiction equally? Does library usage wane as kids become teens? Does parental involvement influence or determine a young person's reading habits
or library use?
The Portland area is a community of readers. For example, we had 1,800 people waiting to read the newest Harry Potter book so we ordered 700 copies so that they would not have to wait too long to get it. People here love their libraries, support their libraries and use their libraries. We are one of the most-used libraries in the nation: Multnomah County Library residents check out an average of 24 books a year.
We do not notice that today's children read less than those of ten years ago, and we see boys and girls asking equally for fiction and nonfiction, which has undergone a renaissance in the last fifteen years. Young people can find books on almost any subject that interests them. But many more things compete for their time, such as sports, homework, computer games, spending time with friends and family, and for many teens, taking care of siblings or earning money for the family or college. This often means that teens' library use is limited to what they need for school or as a safe place to be in after school hours.
Parents definitely influence their children's reading and library use. The best thing that parents can do to ensure their children's academic success is to start a library visiting habit early in life. Make sure each child in the family has a library card, knows how to use it responsibly and has a supply of interesting books to read. Children need to see their parents reading since children model on
their parents' behavior.
Isn't literacy specifically concerned with learning how to read? Isn't it the local school system's responsibility to teach kids to read? Why is the Multnomah County Library System involved with literacy programs for children and young adults? Why not leave the literacy work to schools systems?
It is definitely teachers or reading specialists in the school system (or parents, in the case of home schoolers) who teach children how to read. What libraries do is open the door to the wonderful world of books so that young children will want to learn to read. Motivation is also a part of literacy. Many young people in this country are alliterate - they know how to read but do not want to because they find it boring or too hard or uninteresting. Public libraries can help turn that around.
Your youth services department offers a wide variety of outreach programs designed for children from birth through to the teen years. Libraries are free and their resources are open to everyone, so why are outreach programs needed?
Too many people do not know what their public library has available for them. Many barriers exist that prevent young people from walking through the doors of the public library. These include fear of an unfamiliar institution, language, geographic distance, and hours of operation that do
not match a family's available free time, along with the fact that most young people cannot get to a library on their own because they are too young to drive or are not allowed to use public transportation. Many newcomers arrive from countries with no tradition of free public library service and need to learn that they are welcome. Incarcerated teens are the most extreme
example. Also, many services and information sources are available without ever coming into the library and libraries need to publicize this. "Today's library is not the same as your mother's library," is a favorite librarians' saying.
The programs and services you offer are phenomenal. Your Early Childhood Programs offer parent education, professional development for child care workers, and a delivery service taking fresh books on a rotating basis to child care facilities. Your Books 2 U program sends book and library ambassadors into schools to generate enthusiasm for books and reading. Your School Corps creates links and provides services with and for school faculties and staffs. Your Youth Resources Website has an incredible
KidsPage, an OuterNet site for young adults, and one of the best Homework Centers on the web. In addition, you provide Storytime Programs, Home Schooling Assistance Services, a Juvenile Justice Outreach program, and Library Outreach in Spanish.
Libraries across the country, due to lack of funding, are laying off staff, cutting hours of operation, and even reducing the number of days of operation. How do you accomplish so much? How do you fund your programs?
I want no child in Multnomah County to reach the age of 18, or graduate from high school, without knowing about the public library and the treasures it holds. With that goal in mind, I work with an energetic and outward-looking staff who understand that that they are empowered to use almost any means possible to reach young people and their parents and caregivers and teachers
with messages about Multnomah County Library, books, and reliable information for homework and personal reading. We cultivate productive partnerships with community agencies and organizations, and work with child care centers, family home care providers and schools to reach children, teachers and parents with the library message. We use state and federal grants, and benefit greatly from the successful fundraising that The Library Foundation, an organization that helps us move from good to great, brings to us. For example, their annual Gala benefits our summer reading program, which will serve 44,000 babies, children and teens this summer.
There are many public libraries that offer programs and services similar to yours. There are also many libraries that do not, often because of limited staff and resources. Those libraries could not possibly duplicate all your fine programs. Of all the youth services you offer, is there one service or program you would highly recommend for duplication in libraries with limited resources? Why?
It is crucial that libraries help their community's children get off to the right start before they enter formal schooling. Public libraries can introduce parents and child care providers to great books, songs, and rhymes and simple techniques to maximize children's emergent literacy. These research-based practices, along with daily, fun reading to babies and young children, ensure the skills children need to succeed in kindergarten and as readers.
Do our kids need school libraries in addition to neighborhood public
libraries? If so, why?
The best school libraries are staffed with certified media specialists; these are teachers with special training who instruct students in how to find and use information in print and online, and can lead them to great books they want to read. These are the staff who know best how to connect students with books and information that support what they are studying in school. But school libraries vary dramatically between communities, school districts and states, depending on each school's priorities and funding. Public libraries are typically available for longer hours, and during school vacations, including the summer, when young people might need library service. Families need access to both kinds of libraries to ensure that their children will succeed academically.
Why did you become a youth services librarian?
Public libraries have always meant so much to me. They are a place to indulge in intellectual curiosity, a symbol of freedom and democracy, and a place that young people can learn to be who they are destined to be, without judgment or testing or outside influence. I wanted to help young people discover this magical place, free to them in most every community.
What new books would you recommend to kids and teens, books they won't want to put down?
Try Cornelia Funke's The Thief Lord, a fast-paced story of two orphaned brothers who are taken in by a band of street kids in Venice or Eva Ibbotson's Journey to the River Sea, about Mara's adventures on a trip down the Amazon River to meet her relatives after she leaves her post-Victorian private school. Fans of spooky stories won't be able to stop reading Coraline by Neil
Gaiman, in which a girl must use her wits to rescue her family and several lost children from the evil force that exists on the other side of the door. Teen author Chris Crutcher's fans will relish King of the Mild Frontier: An Ill-Advised Autobiography, which reveals the origin of many of the stories that made their way into his popular teen novels and short stories. Another great read is the 2003 Newbery Honor Book The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer. Farmer tackles the provocative topics of cloning, the value of life, illegal immigration, and the drug trade in a coming-of-age novel set in a desolate futuristic desert.
Was there one book you read when you were a kid, or teenager, that changed your life or inspired you? Why?
It's hard to answer this question since I read so widely and so frequently when I was young. As a preschooler, I loved the playful naughtiness of the monkeys in Caps for Sale. In grade school, I was inspired by Karen, a girl who led a successful life in spite of having cerebral palsy. As a young
adult, I learned about the strength of the human spirit by reading Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl.
With the wide variety of technological resources available to kids today, why should kids bother to read books?
Not all information is online, and not all information online is true or reliable information. Reading is fun, and becomes more fun with practice. And kids need to be good readers to use technology successfully. Reading is where it all starts.
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