Preface

The staff of the Saint John Free Public are committed to helping every child become a reader. When children come to our library programs, we show them the fun of reading. However, not all children come to the library.

In 2003, the idea for a fulltime Storytent was presented to this library as a way to extend our Summer Reading Club to those children who did not come to the library. The initial idea was so simple that we first doubted it could work. Library staff worried that no one would come. Wouldn't you need more to get children to take part?

The past two summers have demonstrated that, if you offer it, they will come. The research done with the Storytent project has shown that, once they are at the Storytent, children are going to read, listen to others read, talk about books and reading, engage in literacy activities, learn and have lots of fun. It also shows something we in public libraries have always believed: children taking part in SRC will maintain or even increase their reading skills. The Storytent project has also shown that children who are exposed to caring adults in a book-filled environment come to see themselves as “readers”, even when they have had negative experiences with reading in the past.

Any one of these things is reason enough to consider offering a Storytent project. But there are even more positive outcomes. SRC statistics are given a big boost because Storytent participants quickly become keen readers and many achieve their summer reading goals. With a Storytent, the library is able to offer a program to an isolated area or community, library staff become more aware of the specific needs of the some of the people in the community that they are serving. When library staff learn what the community needs and wants, they can develop more accessible programs and can help make connections between libraries and literacy programming.

This document will explain how simple it can be. I can confirm that it was lots of fun for the children, appreciated by the community and a positive way for the public library to help nurture a love of books and reading. And isn't it a goal of all public library programming to help develop a community that supports their public library?

Joann Hamilton-Barry
City Librarian, Saint John Free Public Library