CHAPTER ONE Helping Parents Get It Right from the Beginning Libraries have been connecting with parents and providing storytime for generations. In the early 2000s, the Public Library Association and the Asso- ciation of Library Service to Children, two divisions of the American Library Association, joined together to study how to incorporate early literacy skills into workshops for caregivers and daycare providers and into traditional sto- rytime programs that public libraries offer. As defi ned by the Cedar Mill Community Libraries website, “Early Literacy is what children know about reading and writing before they actually read or write” (Cedar Mill Commu- nity Libraries, Early Literacy 2017). Fundamentals of Early Literacy Just as this initiative was getting under way, I started my fi rst children’s library job as an assistant in the Children’s Department of the Parma Heights Branch of Cuyahoga County Public Library, Ohio. During those fi rst few months, I was trained on the storytime best practices for Cuyahoga County Public Library. We were doing traditional storytimes for babies, toddlers, and preschoolers. The emphasis was on songs, rhymes, repetition, and age- appropriate books. At the time, I was the most nervous about conducting storytimes with parents in the room. Who was I, a twenty-something with no children of my own, to tell parents how to interact with their baby? I defi nitely had a fear of making a fool of myself in front of the parents or saying the wrong thing.
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