This essay was written by Caitlin Burns, who oversees Children’s Services at the Joel D. Valdez Main Library where she is a supervising librarian, and Holly Schaffer, the community relations manager for Pima County Public Library. They invite you to check out all the library has to offer by visiting www.library.pima.gov today!
By now, hopefully you’ve heard the news.
Pima County Public Library has been awarded $57,800 from the Arizona State Library, Archives, and Public Records to upgrade the Children’s Room at the Joel D. Valdez Main Library.
It’s no simple upgrade, though. Think of it more as a transformation decades in the making. This project will be the first significant change made to the Children’s Room, which apart from minor adjustments and standard upkeep, has remained the same since it opened in 1990.
You can read more about the grant and what it entails in some of the generous media coverage we’ve received since it was announced (our gratitude to #ThisIsTucson, Arizona Daily Star, La Estrella de Tucsón, and KGUN 9).
What we want to tell you about is just how much it means to us at the library.
I’m reminded of a quote from literacy champion and former President Barack Obama. He said, “At the moment that we persuade a child, any child, to cross that threshold, that magic threshold into a library, we change their lives forever, for the better.”
How true! We see this every day in our libraries. Wide-eyed and excited, children come to the library to sing, read, play, learn, and of course, be inspired. With the library as a backdrop, they engage with others, question the world around them, and forge bold paths into the future.
But what if we could do even more to help them along the way? What if we could offer an innovative destination where a focus on learning, play, intentional literacy building, technology, and emerging independence are combined to support our community’s eager young learners?
With this grant, that’s exactly what we’re going to do!
The future Grow and Play Space at the Joel D. Valdez Main Library is poised to help us accomplish many great things that will benefit all Pima County families who come to visit.
According to Cradle to Career, an initiative founded by leading educators in Pima County, only 20.6 percent of 3- and 4-year-olds in Pima County are receiving quality early education. This creates major barriers down the road for many children in our community and it puts them at a disadvantage before they’ve even set off on their educational path.
Research also shows that the earlier a child falls behind, the harder it is for that child to catch up. They enter school lacking such vital skills as problem solving, creative thinking, social skills, and even letter and number awareness.
Now for the good news! As free, welcoming, open, and safe spaces, public libraries foster early childhood success by providing equitable, hands-on learning experiences outside of the home and beyond the classroom.
By promoting early literacy and brain development through age appropriate learning, the Grow and Play Space will offer support and education to not only children, but their parents and caregivers — a crucial piece to ensuring a child’s bright future.
In addition to all the great things you’ve read about in the news (touch table donated by our friends at Cox Communications, early literacy and After School Edge stations, discovery centers), the upgraded space will engage parents and caregivers (complete with couches for co-reading and playing!) by giving them the tools to help their children achieve important benchmarks.
They’ll have access to the knowledge, education, programs and resources to flourish and fully engage in the lives and school success of their children.
The space will offer the best of all worlds, intentionally-planned. Separated into zones designed for Early Literacy (0–5), Elementary Learners (6–9), and Pre-Teens (10–12), it will excite, inspire, and engage across age levels and abilities.
A warm and welcoming environment, the Grow and Play Space will be outfitted in all the ways that benefit 21st century learners. Books, play areas, tablets and computers will be fully accessible as will programming that highlights STEM activities, creativity, and social skills.
By renovating the iconic Main Library Children’s Room, we hope to establish a destination in the heart of Downtown Tucson that will excite and inspire Pima County children and families for generations to come.
Entering a library, as Obama said, is like crossing a magic threshold. Libraries are amazing places where people not only dream of better futures, but actively create them.
We can’t wait to see what you and your family achieve at our future Grow and Play Space.
