The Model of an Active Library Promoting Children’s Books
Libraries’ cultural offers created in the years 2000-2015 for young people seem particularly interesting as Polish public libraries were undergoing changes driven by the surroundings at that time. The communication system changed, and readers’ interests and needs evolved.
The 21st century library cannot just implement new technologies for acquiring, cataloging and circulating library collections. First of all, libraries have to provide services essential for contemporary readers, making the library offer more and more attractive. The library should be a meeting place, a venue of upbringing and inspiration. Library events may change stereotypes of this institution and encourage young people to visit the library on a regular basis. Within fifteen years libraries reached the height of promoting children’s books, however, stagnation is not possible in this regard. Increasingly demanding readers of the Z generation prompt librarians to enhance library resources and raise their own competence.
The dissertation presents the typology and functions of the most popular library events for children and adolescents. The activities of Polish and foreign libraries have been compared and presented as part of the book promotion system. Different types of sources have been analyzed: responses from national and international surveys, librarians’ and readers’ responses, promotional materials collected in libraries and book fairs, public library websites, library and statistical documents, monographs and journals, and also reports on the status of readership and libraries. The modeling method was used to show the activities of libraries in the culture system. The paper concludes with a summary taking into consideration the main findings presented in the previous parts and proposes a library activity model in the context of the promotion of cultural offers for children and young adults.