New PLA Document Shortchanges Children, Critic Says

Staff -- School Library Journal, 5/1/1998

Planning for Results (ALA, 1998), the new public library planning tool from the Public Library Association, no longer offers the popular preschool door to learning role introduced in 1987. And that's a mistake, says Virginia Mathews, a well-known advocate for early childhood library services.

The preschool role is gone not out of a desire to ignore children, but because PLA's ReVision Committee felt that it kept youth services out of the bigger picture, said Chair Sandra Nelson. As the only role tied to an age group, it "ghettoized children's services," said Nelson.

That doesn't wash with Mathews, who feels that removing what has become a popular and essential planning role is shortsighted. To have left out the preschooler role when public interest in child development is at an all-time high was "very bad judgment," said Mathews.

Will planning committees be less likely now to focus resources on preschool services? MaryKay Dahlgreen, Youth Services Consultant at the Oregon State Library and a Planning for Results trainer, believes it's too early to tell, but thinks that the 13 new "service responses," which replace roles, offer librarians "more latitude." The ability to apply any of the 13 responses to youth services should be more effective than being limited to one role, said Dahlgreen.