Wei Ting, School of Education Science, Sichuan Normal University

During my four years of study in Australia, my family and I lived in a city called Geelong in Victoria. As a small city with a population of only over 200,000, Jilang has no towering buildings, no crowded people, and its choices in terms of clothing, food, housing and transportation are relatively limited. But when it comes to the "child-friendliness" of the city, Geelong is no different from any other major city in Australia. The urban public facilities in Jilang, ranging from museums, art galleries, libraries, schools, hospitals to parks, zoos and botanical gardens, although not large in scale, everywhere reflect the concern and care for children. Today, I'd like to share with you all the child-friendly libraries that I have seen, felt and understood.

A child-friendly library system

In Geelong, children can enter any public library and use all the open resources and services within it. As long as local address and identity information can be provided (international students and travelers are also acceptable), children can apply for a free personal library account just like adults. With this account, children can borrow and return books at any public library and also use the library's electronic resources.

The entire public library system in Geelong City consists of one municipal library and 18 community libraries. The municipal library is located in the center of the city. A large dome-shaped building houses both the municipal library and the art gallery and museum. Community libraries are scattered in different locations throughout the city. Thus, no matter which area people live in, they can conveniently access the resources of community libraries nearby. Children are also accustomed to going to the community library not far from home with their parents on a daily basis. Meanwhile, the city's public library system has provided mobile book resources and collective borrowing services for primary and secondary schools, thus enabling the services of public libraries to reach more children. Many students in the lower grades of primary school (including Prep grade, that is, preschool) keep their library cards at school. Every week, teachers take the students to the nearby library collectively to read, borrow and return books.

The public libraries in Jilang City are not only numerous but also have established a relatively complete network system. Through inter-library cooperation, resources have been integrated, and 19 libraries have become one. Children can either go directly to the library to select books and apply for borrowing, or log in to the library's website with the assistance of adults to search for the books they want to borrow. No matter which library he selects, he can pick up the book at the nearest designated library. After the books are delivered to the designated library by the staff, parents will be notified to pick them up within one week. After finishing the book, the child can also return it to any library nearby.

Perhaps because the library has an excess of books in its collection and people also hope that children will read more, the library has not imposed any restrictions on the number of books children can borrow. It only requires them to return the books on time or complete the renewal procedures upon expiration. In addition, public libraries are open every day of the year except for major holidays. Among them, the municipal library is open until 8 p.m. every day, and the community library is also open until 8 p.m. on three days a week. Therefore, after dinner, the library remains a great place for many children to do activities.

Child-friendly library facilities and resources

The municipal library has three floors of space, with the children's area taking up an entire floor. The same is true for each community library, with basically one-third of the space dedicated to children. The 19 libraries vary in size and have different collections. However, the facilities in the children's areas are all very child-friendly, meeting children's needs and being convenient for them to use. Meanwhile, these libraries all offer children a large number of books suitable for them to read and rich game materials. This is also one of the reasons why libraries are loved by children.

The furniture in the children's area is specially designed for infants and toddlers, as well as for adults. In addition to the regular tables and chairs, as well as sofas of various shapes and sizes, the children's area also features small stools shaped like elephants and lions, which children can ride to read. In addition, the reading area is carpeted all over and there are large, movable bean bag sofas. Children can sit, lie down or lean on them to read freely and easily. The glass Windows in the adult section of the library are of standard size, while the children's section usually has a full glass exterior wall. In this way, when children read inside, they can see the outside view. When children pass by from outside and see the wide variety of books and game materials in the library, they are also easily attracted in.

The library has set up a self-service borrowing system. Borrowing and returning books are all completed on a device equipped with scanning, sensing devices and touch screens. When in use, simply scan the book card, then place the book in the sensing area of the device. The sensing device will automatically recognize these books. Click the screen to confirm and the borrowing or returning process will be completed. In this way, even children can operate it, thus easily achieving self-service borrowing. The self-service borrowing equipment was placed on an operation table that was suitable for the height of an adult. The library staff then provided a movable footstool for the child to use. I find that many children are very enthusiastic about borrowing and returning books by themselves, and generally speaking, both parents and library staff are willing to let children do it by themselves.

The book resources in the children's section include a large number of picture books suitable for children who have not yet learned to read, bridge books suitable for children in the transition period between text and images, and children's books with a higher proportion of text suitable for older children. These books are not only numerous but also very diverse. Whether children love reading stories or comics, are interested in history and culture or natural science, enjoy cooking, gardening, handicrafts or programming, they can find the book resources they want when they come to the library and will surely not be disappointed. What's particularly interesting is that books on family education in the library are also placed in the children's section. In this way, when parents accompany their children to read in the library, they can conveniently obtain the parenting information they want. In addition to paper books, the children's section of the library is also rich in electronic resources, such as various children's TV and film works, children's game software, etc.

The children's area in the library will also provide children with a variety of game materials. For instance, every library has costumes and props for children to play dress-up games. I often see children in the children's section dressed up as princesses, monsters or animals, and playing the roles in the stories together with their parents and peers. In addition, tabletop games are also a standard feature in all libraries: game boards, jigsaw puzzles, building blocks, and stack high-draw building blocks, with a wide variety of types. Some libraries have relatively spacious areas and even set aside large zones for building block games.

Another popular area in the children's section of the library is the computer section. Although there is some controversy among parents over whether children should be exposed to and use electronic devices, libraries still provide this resource for children and families. The computer area provides desktop computers equipped with children's learning software. Children will sit in groups of two or three in front of the screens to operate them. Some desktop computers are equipped with touch screens to facilitate the use of younger children. In addition, the computer area is also equipped with a varying number of video game consoles as well as creative and motion-sensing game discs. The computer software or video games provided by the library are all carefully selected. The software on desktop computers mostly focuses on mathematics, reading and writing, and creative activities. The video games on the game discs have also been rated for safety and are suitable for children to participate in. Meanwhile, there is a time limit for children to play video games. Children need to borrow the game controller from the library staff with their own library account and return it within one hour. However, from my observation, the vast majority of children do not play video games for a long time in the library because there are simply too many interesting things there.

Child-friendly library activities

The various resources in the library are undoubtedly very attractive, but what actually attracts children more are the rich and colorful activities organized by the library. Every library offers a parent-child story time for infants and toddlers every week, encouraging parents to bring their children to the library to listen to stories and socialize. The library also regularly organizes activities together with kindergartens and primary schools. For instance, at the kindergarten near my residence, teachers regularly take the children to the community library, where the library staff tell stories to the children and organize them to play games. The library also arranges activities such as Lego building and writing exchanges for children after school.

The students' vacation is the time when the library activities are the most abundant. One month before the holiday, the library will distribute the holiday activity schedule to the community and publish it on the website at the same time. Parents can choose activities that their children like to sign them up for and bring them to participate on time. Generally, the holiday activities provided by libraries are divided into three different age groups: under 5 years old, 5 to 8 years old, and over 8 years old. The content involved ranges from doing handicrafts, creating stories to learning about foreign cultures and programming, and so on. All the activities are free of charge. The materials for the activities are prepared by the library. Besides the library staff, many parents also take the initiative to volunteer and help organize the activities.

Because there are so many and very fun activities in the library, every holiday, the library is always particularly lively. People of different ages gather and interact in the library. I once took my child to participate in activities provided by the library, such as instrument making, creative painting, Lego building, programming, castle making, and story creation. Each activity was full of fun. Among them, a treasure hunt organized by the community library left the deepest impression on me. The library staff had hidden pictures featuring classic characters from picture books in different locations inside the library in advance. After listening to the stories in the picture books, the children carried lists and wandered around the library in search of these pictures. I still remember that the children were quietly searching in the public areas of the library, trying not to disturb the strange adults reading nearby, and these strange adults were hinting to the children who had searched everywhere but found nothing in various ways. This scene was particularly touching.

In addition to daily activities and regular events organized during holidays, the library in Geelong City also hosts some large-scale events every year. Victoria holds a Reading Week every October. On the weekend of that week, libraries usually integrate surrounding resources and arrange two full days of reading-related activities for children. For instance, the art gallery adjacent to the municipal library will hold art exhibitions related to children's books. Outside the library, there will be classic children's book reading activities. Inside the library, there will be separate meetings between children's book authors and children: children's book authors will tell stories to the children and perform the plots in the stories. There are illustrators of children's books coming to guide the kids in drawing... The children unconsciously came into contact with and read quite a few books during the activities, and they also became more fond of reading.

The library will also organize some workshops and other activities for parents. Victoria has a program called "Let Every Child Read a Thousand Books Before starting School", and libraries play a very important role in this program. On the one hand, it is to invite professionals to have a discussion with parents and promote the significance of early reading to them; On the other hand, the children's section of the library will also be filled with many promotional posters. These posters will feature infectious slogans such as "No matter how much money you have, you won't be richer than me because I have a mom/dad who reads to me." Meanwhile, the library will also provide parents with a list of recommended books for their children to read, making it convenient for parents to choose.

A child-friendly librarian

The reason why the library in Geelong is popular among children is also attributed to those excellent librarians. By participating in library activities, I found that there are quite a few libraries in Geelong

The librarian with extraordinary skills: There are those who are particularly good at telling and performing stories. As soon as they sit down on the chair and open their mouths, the children's eyes are firmly captured. There are those who are particularly good at designing activities for children. A librarian's Chinese calligraphy experience activity really opened my eyes as a Chinese person. There are those who are particularly skilled in programming and can create particularly interesting animations with children by using commonly used software. There is also a grandmother-level librarian in her fifties or sixties. She often plays the ukulele in the children's area and sings for the kids, incorporating storylines and characters into her songs. Many children in the community are her loyal "fans"... These librarians will travel around various libraries during the holidays, interacting with children from different communities.

In terms of the number of people, there are not many librarians. For instance, in the community library near my residence, which is about 300 to 400 square meters in size, there are usually no more than four staff members at the same time. They are responsible for borrowing and returning books, answering inquiries, online borrowing, and returning books to their original locations, etc. The affairs are rather complicated. But I found that they all have the habit of taking the initiative to communicate with others, especially when they meet children, they are warm and considerate. As soon as the children walk into the library, they will show excited expressions: "I'm so glad to see you here again. What a child who loves reading!" When they see their children come to borrow books after they have picked them out, they will give a thumbs-up and say, "Wow, they have chosen such good books!" When they find their children wandering in front of the bookshelf, they always ask considerately, "Do you need my advice?" When they have free time, they can often catch the points that interest the children and interact with them.

I remember once, I accompanied my child to the library to borrow "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets". We walked back and forth among the bookshelves but couldn't find anything. When we turned around, we saw an auntie librarian come up to us with a smile. What can I do for you? She asked the child kindly. The child replied, "I'm looking for 'Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets'." After hearing this, she said, "OK. Let's look for it." Do you know who the author of the "Harry Potter" series is? The child replied, "It's J.K. Rowling." She said, "Right, it's her. Her surname is Rowling and the first letter is R. So, where are you going to look for it?" After hearing this, the child followed her prompt to the bookshelf marked with the letter "R", and she followed closely behind. After a thorough search, we found that this book was indeed not on the bookshelf. She said to the child, "Haha, you're really good at choosing books. You picked a popular book that everyone likes, but it was borrowed by someone else. But it doesn't matter. Let's go to the system and see if other libraries have this book." Then she led the child to the computer, helped him enter the library account and password, and demonstrated to him how to search for the books he wanted and how to queue up in the library's network system. After this interaction, the child not only learned to search for books on the library system by themselves, but also developed a more positive attitude towards the library. It can be said that in this process, "people" play a more important role than "books".

From the interesting environmental decoration to the wonderful activity arrangement and the warm interpersonal interaction, the library in Jilang has been loved by children of all ages and has also ignited the enthusiasm of many children for books, reading and knowledge. Although the library is not a standard preschool education institution in the strict sense, the "child-friendly" features of the library in Jilang from the inside out offer great inspiration to every preschool educator. Whether it is a kindergarten or a library, providing children with convenient and comfortable Spaces and facilities, offering them ample choices and opportunities to participate, and allowing them to fully interact with adults who understand and respect them, is the inherent meaning of all high-quality children's environments.