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A new report, Public Libraries: A Vital Space for Family Engagement, released by Harvard Family Research Project and the Public Library Association, issues a call to action for libraries to strengthen their efforts to engage families in children’s learning. The report is available as a free PDF download to PLA members.

Harvard Family Research Project (HFRP) surveyed public library leaders from around the country about their family engagement practices, convened a learning community of librarians, and reviewed research to closely study family engagement practices in public libraries. This report highlights five promising ways that libraries engage families in children’s learning from early childhood and through the school years.

* Reach Out: Libraries reach out to families to promote the programs, collections, and services that are vital in a knowledge economy.
* Raise Up: Libraries elevate family views and voices in how library programs and services are developed and carried out.
* Reinforce: Libraries guide and model the specific actions that family members can take to support learning, reaffirming families’ important roles and strengthening feelings of efficacy.
* Relate: Libraries offer opportunities for families to build peer-to-peer relationships, social networks, and parent-child relationships.
* Reimagine: Libraries are expanding their community partnerships; combining resources and extending their range; improving children’s and families’ well-being; and linking to new learning opportunities.

The report is the work of HFRP and the PLA Family Engagement Task Force, which was established in 2015 to help public libraries learn about and implement successful family engagement practices. According to Clara Bohrer and Kathleen Reif, Task Force co-chairs, “family engagement goes well beyond the support of early literacy and our youngest children, and encompasses the wide range of services offered by libraries for families and children of all ages.”

The report was funded by a grant from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation for the project entitled Libraries for the 21st Century: It’s a Family Thing. Later in 2016, HFRP and the PLA Task Force will release additional tools to help public libraries learn about and implement family engagement programs.

Read more about PLA’s Family Engagement Task Force and its work on PLA’s Family Engagement web page.