Welcome to the homepage for Instruction and Pedagogy for Youth in Public Libraries, a collaboratively written textbook licensed for reuse and sharing under Creative Commons. On this site, you can:

What is this book about?

There seems to be little resistance to the idea that children and teens learn in public library spaces. However, many public librarians do not see themselves as teachers. This implies that much of the learning that happens in public libraries is incidental—tangential to the “real” purpose and design of these spaces and programs.

In this book, we make the case that public librarians should embrace an explicit instructional role as a core part of their professional practice. Inside, you’ll find both a comprehensive review of what is known so far about instruction for youth in public libraries and a primer on core educational concepts and frameworks for current and future public librarians. Each chapter includes real-world examples of libraries and librarians who are already practicing powerful teaching.

We hope that this text will inspire a new group of students, practitioners, and researchers to expand on our ideas, create innovative forms of teaching and learning that are unique to public libraries, and engage all children and teens in powerful and meaningful learning experiences.

Who are the authors?

This book was written by the instructor and students of a graduate-level course for preservice school and public youth services librarians titled Instruction for Youth in School and Public Libraries. The instructor, Dr. Casey H. Rawson, edited the text and wrote or co-wrote several chapters. Other chapter authors include:

For more about the authors, see the About This Book page.

How can I use this book?

This book is published under a CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 license, which means that you can copy, redistribute, remix, transform, and build upon the content for any non-commercial purpose as long as you give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.

License details: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

If you use this book for a course you teach or as a personal or organizational professional development text, we would love to hear about it! Please let us know by emailing the editor, Dr. Casey Rawson.

Image Credits

Header images licensed for reuse under Creative Commons by Clearwater (FL) Public Library, Madison (WI) Public Library, San Jose (CA) Public Library, Lester (WI) Public Library, and Rapid City (SD) Public Library.