Diamond Bar Friends of the Library

Family Place

All families need access to resources, information, and support in their efforts to raise healthy and productive children, particularly during the early, most formative years. These efforts are often uncoordinated, aiming at one or another aspect of family or child development and directed at individual families or specific family constituencies rather than the full range of families of very young children.

Public libraries are uniquely well suited to link families to information and education resources within the library, and also to other community services and programs. Moreover, librarians understand that the future success of public libraries may well lie in the library's ability to serve young children and families.

First developed in 1979 in New York, A Family Place provides a specially designed public place for caregivers with young children focused on literacy and education support. The Friends of the Diamond Bar Library is partnering with the Diamond Bar Library to establish such a place for parents and young children at the Diamond Bar Library. We will emphasize the role of the parents as the first teachers of their children. The parents will be taught strategies for healthy child development in a very safe and welcoming environment. It will encourage parent-to-parent support.

The Children's Librarian will partner with local service providers and educators and connect parents with the educational resources and referral information they need during the critical first years of childhood. This Parent-Child Workshop is a 5-week program that involves toddlers and their parents. It will feature local experts (literacy, nutrition, Play/Movement, speech and language development, etc.

National Coordinator Visits Family Place at the Diamond Bar Library

Pictured left to right: Jesse Lanz, Community Library Manager; Kathleen Newe, Historian, DBFOL; Rosette Clippinger, President DBFOL; Kathleen Deerr, Family Place Libraries National Coordinator; Julie McCasland, Children's Librarian

Kathleen Deerr, National Coordinator for Family Place Libraries, made a recent visit to the Diamond Bar Library. During her visit, Ms. Deerr toured the facility, met with staff and representatives from the Friends of the Library, and presented the library with a banner proclaiming it as a Family Place Library. Ms. Deerr spoke eloquently about the vital importance of parents and their key role in children's development during the baby and toddler years, and of the many ways that Family Place Libraries support early learning and literacy.

Family Place is a nationwide initiative to provide a welcoming environment for families with young children by creating an appropriate space, locating resources for parents and caregivers, and holding special programs. A signature program of Family Place is the Parent Child Workshop, which is held twice yearly at the Diamond Bar Library. These workshops are specially designed for toddlers and their parents or caregivers. Parents are able to meet and make connections with local professionals who serve as resources in areas like child development, speech therapy, and pediatric dentistry. The role of parents as the first teachers of their children is emphasized and the workshops help them gain strategies for healthy child development and early literacy.

Family Place Libraries also feature carefully planned spaces that are comfortable for families with small children. These spaces always include lots of toys, which are the tools of learning for pre-literate children, music, multimedia materials, books for babies and toddlers, as well as parenting resources for adults.

Support from the Diamond Bar Friends of the Library has been crucial to the library becoming a Family Place site. Funds from the Friends have been used to transform the Children's Area into a Family Place by adding developmentally-appropriate toys, a special parenting collection including books and multimedia materials, and comfortable seating for children and their parents. Children's Librarian Julie McCasland has also received training in an intensive three-day workshop held at the flagship Family Place in the Middle Country Public Library in Long Island, New York. The Diamond Bar Library continues to embrace its role as a Family Place and as an essential resource for supporting families and emergent literacy in the Diamond Bar Community.