Library Launches “No Girls Allowed” Program
By Joan Oleck -- School Library Journal, 8/6/2007 6:00:00 AM
The words "No Girls Allowed" have adorned the entrances of countless boys' bedrooms, tree houses, and clubs. Now the phrase is inscribed (temporarily) on the door of the Crawford Room at Natrona County Public Library in Casper, WY.
"A definite attention-grabber," acknowledges reference librarian Kevin Kocur, who's in charge of the "No Girls Allowed" program, which debuted at the library on August 2 and will repeat August 30. "It's something where boys can come and just be boys."
But isn’t banning girls just a teensy politically incorrect?
Kocur says no. The program, he says, is one of several initiatives focusing on the literacy needs of boys. That focus was prompted by a visit last March by Michael Sullivan, a former library director whose book Connecting Boys with Books (American Library Association, 2003) pointed out how little contact young boys learning to read typically have with men.
Indeed, most elementary school teachers are women, and less than 20 percent of children's librarians are male, highlighting the paucity of male role models who can influence boys with good reading habits.
Fathers often don't fill the bill, either."[Sullivan's] big deal is that boys never see their fathers reading; and if they do it's a newspaper," Kocur points out. A newspaper is "a barrier. You don't see the reader's expressions."
Initially, "No Girls Allowed" will feature games such as Runescape and Chess. Young attendees, in grades three and up, will also be encouraged to choose books. But the library wants to avoid any school-like book discussions. Instead, activities will move outdoors and follow the themes of various boys' books.
"We hope to have fathers and sons engage in activities where we have a book that they read, then go to the park to blow some rockets or go for a walk in the woods related to the [book's] theme," says Kocur.
"Then, when we're walking along, we'll ask, 'Hey what did you think of the book?'"
