Kathleen Campana's research while affiliated with Kent State University and other places

Purpose The purpose of this study was to bring library practitioners and researchers together to develop two co-designed tools for helping library practitioners gain a more holistic understanding of families in underserved groups and identify their values with the goal of developing more relevant learning experiences for them. The co-designed tools were then tested with Master’s of Library and Information Science (MLIS) students at two universities, whose feedback yielded several valuable findings and informed revisions to the tools. Design/methodology/approach A participatory, design-based approach was used throughout the study, both with engaging library practitioners in the co-design of different tools and processes introduced in the Toolkit, and to help MLIS students and library practitioners test the tools and provide feedback on the tool revisions. Findings Students indicated that the tools helped them develop a deeper understanding of underserved groups and their values and gave the students the time and space to reflect on their understanding of the socio-cultural and value contexts of their communities and the values they hold. Originality/value This study can help libraries more effectively design strengths-based learning experiences that are meaningful and relevant to underserved groups and their values, particularly for children and families from underserved communities.

Library and information science (LIS) scholarship has increasingly become aware of disconnects between the traditional curriculum and real-world soft skills employers value in future public library professionals, particularly in regards to being able to engage with underserved communities. To address this gap, MLIS students at two iSchools participated in a field-based social justice assignment that required them to identify an underserved community group they wanted to learn more about, and then collaborate with and interview a member of the group or a community organization that was working with the group. Students completed a written reflection about the experience that the researchers analyzed to understand how a field-based social justice assignment can foster soft skill development for LIS students. Findings indicate that the field-based assignment supported students’ development of three soft skills important for both LIS careers and social justice work: cultural competency, communication, and reflexivity.

This research study, part of the Institute of Museum and Library Services-funded [name of study), employed a nationwide survey of library staff to learn their motivations for engaging in outreach, the types of support library staff receive for this work, the challenges they face in serving the community outside library walls, and their future plans for outreach work. Survey analysis found that 100% of respondents believe that libraries should be engaged in outreach. Furthermore, library staff expressed a variety of purposes for their outreach, including to promote and support learning for children and families and to inspire future engagement with the public library. For most respondents, outreach is highly valued by their library, though library support can differ in terms of staff time, funding, and materials. Outreach work, particularly with families and children in underserved communities, brings with it a variety of challenges that do not seem to deter most of the respondents who indicated an intent to maintain or expand their outreach efforts. This research builds a picture of the passionate purpose underlying the commitment by library staff to meet communities where they live and thrive, while also making visible and validating the invisible labor of these dedicated staff as they transform the library from a building to a service.

Computational thinking (CT) has emerged as an important method in the United States for helping children learn to solve complex problems and develop skills necessary for coding and other computer science-related endeavors. Research has revealed that CT can be encouraged with children as young as 3–4 years of age. While some preschools and schools are incorporating CT into their curriculum for young children, ages 0–8 years, it is important to understand how environments outside of schools are using CT with young children, particularly given that, in the United States, a large percent of young children, ages 0–5 years, are not in formal school settings. This study provides insight into this area through 20 interviews with educators in libraries and museums to understand how they incorporate CT into their work with young children, ages 0–8 years, and their families. The interviews reveal that library and museum educators are using a variety of developmentally-appropriate approaches, such as play, experimentation, and narrative, to design and offer a diverse array of engaging, hands-on CT activities that allow young children to practice CT in child-centered, meaningful ways.

Research in early childhood development widely supports play as a vital learning mechanism for young children. Consequently, many libraries are beginning to embrace play as an intentional strategy for meeting targeted early learning outcomes. However, sufficient research on how play can be incorporated into storytimes to support children’s early development has yet to be conducted. This study begins to address this need by exploring how two other informal learning environments—a museum and a zoo—use educator-led dramatic play experiences in storytimes with the goal of understanding how libraries might be able to incorporate dramatic play experiences in their storytimes to create a more in-depth playful learning experience. To elucidate the nature of the museum and zoo’s educator-led dramatic play experiences, this study explored (1) characteristics of their educator-led dramatic play experiences, and (2) the learning behaviors that children were exhibiting while participating in the dramatic play. The results revealed that the educator-led dramatic play episodes in both environments consisted of one long, immersive oral story with other types of play interspersed within the larger story structure. The data also revealed that the children were exhibiting many different types of learning behaviors while participating in the dramatic play experiences. Based on these findings, implications, and recommendations are provided for libraries around designing and using dramatic play in their storytimes to help transform the traditional library storytime structure into a more in-depth playful learning experience.

This study provides initial insight into the infrastructure surrounding outdoor public librarianship, a term introduced in this article. Data from a Fall 2021 survey revealed many libraries moved programs and services outside during Summer 2021. Library workers predominantly used local infrastructure, supplemented by some extralocal infrastructure (primarily their peers within the profession), to develop and implement these programs and services. Data reveal these services are expected to continue, and possibly expand. Given this potential growth, future research to uncover effective practices is needed so that libraries can effectively help their communities benefit from being outside in nature.

This article details the findings from Project LOCAL (Library Outreach as a Community Anchor in Learning),a mixed-methods study that explored how public libraries contribute to educational equity by going into community locations to reach and serve families and children in underserved communities who cannot come into the library due to a variety of barriers. The data revealed four main aspects to this outreach work: program types, locations, goals, and partnerships. Public libraries offer a variety of program types – literacy programs, summer meal programs, STEAM programs – in various locations, like schools, shelters, housing developments, barbershops, and others. These programs and services are developed with an array of goals in mind, broadly categorized as related to access, advocacy, and impact, to serve a variety of underserved communities. Furthermore, libraries are forming complex, fruitful partnerships with different community organizations to build trust, relationships, and goodwill in these communities. Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model of human development provides a lens for situating these four aspects within the various environmental systems in families’ lives and reveals how, through outreach work, librarians are moving from outer, less visible systems to more central ones that reinforce their relevance and importance in the lives of families in underserved communities.

Preschools and public libraries are natural partners in that they share similarities in their support for early learning and family engagement for the young children and families in their communities. Because of this, public libraries often partner with preschools to offer rotating book collections and storytimes to increase book access and literacy skills for the young children who attend the preschool. However, libraries and preschools could be expanding their partnerships beyond these two services to have a greater impact for the preschool children and families, but both organizations typically struggle to find the time and space to work on deepening the partnership. This study worked to cultivate and deepen a library-preschool partnership by offering two workshops for the library and preschool staffs to provide them with time to build a community and develop ideas for working together to support the preschool children and families. Ultimately, these workshops were successful in deepening the library-preschool partnership and helping to enhance the preschool’s early learning environment and increase whole family engagement for the preschool families.

Purpose This study aims to offer insights into the presence and nature of an information environment provided for young children to support their learning and explore how an information environment for young children can be characterized. Design/methodology/approach Observations of video-recorded public library storytimes were used to investigate the presence and nature of an information environment for young children’s learning. Findings The observations revealed that storytimes provide a rich, multimodal information environment where information is shared with young children and they are encouraged to interact with it in a variety of ways. The storytime participants take on several different roles that help to foster and sustain the information environment. Originality/value This study tests the applicability of Eisenberg and Small’s (1993) information-based education framework for exploring an information environment and recommends revisions to improve the framework’s effectiveness for characterizing information environments for young children.