Read More! It’s the Doctor’s Orders

June 26, 2011

For my last session today, I attended “Reach Out and Read: How Libraries Can Work with Doctors Who ‘Prescribe Reading’ to Achieve Common Goals.” I am not a children’s librarian, and I am definitely not a doctor, but I was interested in this session because it brought in perspectives from outside of the library world and I was curious to see how doctors and librarians could work together.

The two program speakers, Dipesh Navsaria who has his MSLIS along with an MD and practices pediatric medicine, and Christine Caputo, MSLS and assistant chief officer of public support at the Free Library of Philadelphia, educated the audience on the Reach out and Read program.

The program, which was founded over 20 years ago, aims to prepare America’s youngest children to succeed in school by partnering with doctors to prescribe books and encourage families to read together.

Now this is probably not a case that needed to be made to a room full of librarians, but Dr. Navsaria did provide some staggering statistics as to why early reading is so vital: “Reach out and Read costs you $50 a year, reading recovery programs in schools cost $500–$5,000 a year, and juvenile detention programs cost many thousands more.”

After about an hour of impressive statistics and videos and case studies, we were put to work. We broke up into groups of 3 or 4 and brainstormed ideas about how libraries might get more involved with this program. There were lots of wonderful and innovative thoughts coming out of the groups. This is just a taste of what the attendees came up with.

Volunteer to read a book out loud in the waiting room. Not only will the kids be entertained, but parents and caretakers will get a great demonstration on how to read aloud to children.
Put up a picture of the local children’s librarian. During the wellness check, doctors should encourage parents and children to go see their friendly librarian.
Assist the doctor’s office or the local Reach Out and Read headquarters with choosing titles. Who know what books are best for kids learning to read than we do?

These are just a few of the ideas that were tossed around, but you can visit the Reach Out and Read website for more best practices and statistics on the importance of early childhood literacy.

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Camruinn Morgan-Rumsey and Lexi Lepof write: “On December 3, Knox County (Tenn.) schools received a list from the district of books to be removed from school libraries under Tennessee’s Age-Appropriate Materials Act. Knox County’s board of education voted in July, passing a policy to remove ‘explicit’ books from everyday student access in response to the new law. Some of the books on the list of nearly 50 titles might surprise parents. Among those to be removed are Shel Silverstein’s A Light in the Attic and Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five.”

WVLT-TV (Knoxville, Tenn.), Dec. 4
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Joe Foley writes: “Copyright rules vary from country to country and have changed over time. In the US, works created between 1929 and 1963 that gave notice and renewed copyright have 95 years from their first publication date. That means that on January 1, 2025, a host of works from 1929 will enter the public domain. This means that copyright will expire on Buck Rogers, Captain Easy, Horace Horsecollar, Tintin, Hal Foster’s first Tarzan comic strips and, yes, Popeye.” Other notable works entering public domain in the United States include the Marx Brothers’ first film, The Cocoanuts, contralto Marian Anderson’s first record, and Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms.

Creative Bloq, Dec. 7; Everybody’s Libraries, Dec. 3, Dec. 7; Public Domain Review, Dec. 10
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Brittany Adams writes: “The digital landscape of libraries is expanding rapidly, with an increasing shift towards electronic resources and online services. As members of the library community, we’re witnessing a transformative era where physical collections are complemented—and sometimes replaced—by digital ones. This transition offers new opportunities for enhancing accessibility and engagement, but it also presents challenges, especially for young patrons and their families. It is essential to equip children and their caregivers with the tools and knowledge they need to navigate this evolving space confidently.”

ALSC Blog, Dec. 9
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Karen O’Grady writes: “I am the embedded librarian for the Hahn School of Nursing at the University of San Diego. I am surrounded by nursing faculty, staff, and students rather than by librarians. This has proven to be an incredible gamechanger for the way I see things. Every student in my school knows me by name. I am often stopped in the hallway to answer questions. Every correct answer I give increases my authority and builds trust. Through these casual mini-lessons, this foreign animal called ‘librarian’ slowly becomes an approachable, knowledgeable person.”

College & Research Libraries News, Dec.
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ALA has selected 46 participants for its 2025 class of Emerging Leaders (EL). The EL program allows library staff and information workers to participate in project planning work groups, network with peers, gain an inside look into ALA structure, and have an opportunity to serve the profession in a leadership capacity early in their careers. The group will take part in a day-long session during the 2025 LibLearnX conference in Phoenix this January and work for six months, culminating in a poster session at ALA’s 2025 Annual Conference and Exhibition in Philadelphia in June, where they will highlight results of their project planning work.

ALA Office for Human Resource Development and Recruitment, Dec. 4
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On December 9, ALA announced a $25 million bequest by James W. Lewis, of Washington, D.C. The gift, the largest individual bequest in ALA’s history, will fund scholarships for aspiring librarians with demonstrated financial needs. Throughout Lewis’s career at Merrill Lynch, where he leads the Lewis Group as senior vice president and senior relationship manager, he has demonstrated his commitment to libraries and their communities by generously volunteering his time, including as a member of the Board of Visitors at the library of his alma mater, Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He also served as a Library Trustee Board member at District of Columbia Public Library for 10 years.”

AL: The Scoop, Dec. 9
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Tess Prendergast writes: “I will never forget the surprised look on one mom’s face during storytime when I dropped a tip—technically called an aside—about how rhyming helps babies differentiate sounds and prepares them for reading. “You mean that all this singing will help her in school?” she asked. “I thought we were just doing this for fun!” Early literacy activities are certainly fun—but also valuable. Many parents and caregivers aren’t aware that simple, everyday activities can benefit their child’s early language and literacy development and have a lasting positive impact on their learning.”

American Libraries column, Nov./Dec.