The Demand for Childrens’ Developmental Bibliotherapeutic Services in Public Libraries: A Study of Senior Students in Taipei County and Taipei City Elementary School
Date Issued
2009
Date
2009
Author(s)
Cheng, Shu-Chen
Abstract
Abstracthis study is conducted to explore the demands for children and their significant others on the developmental bibliotherapeutic services provided by the public library. The main purposes are: 1) to understand the types of emotional problems experienced by children and the types of books children would read when they experience emotional problems, 2) to find out the difficulties children could encounter while searching for emotional healing literature and the possible solutions for the difficulties, 3) to inquire the viewpoints of children and their significant others on the provision and expected content of the developmental bibliotherapeutic services, and 4) to provide useful insights, derived either from literature review or data analyses, as references for public library when planning and providing developmental bibliotherapeutic services for children.tructured interviewing method was employed that amounts to 30 participants, including 10 ten-to-twelve-year old children, their parents (10 persons), 10 teachers of grades five and six in Taipei County and Taipei City. The results show that, the emotional disturbances experienced by the children can be classified into three categories: school, familial, and personal. The main types of books read by children when experiencing emotional disturbances are novels and comics. The primary way children resort to get the needed books is “to borrow from library”. The participants chose to read novels or comic books as a way of emotional healing when under emotional disturbance.esearch found that children’s emotional healing books in the library can be categorized into four types: shelf-glancing, librarian-inquiring, OPAC searching, and asking help from others. When the children had difficulty finding the book they need, they often solve the problem by inquiring the librarian, followed by asking help from other people, searching OPAC, glancing through other books, giving up, and trying to search the book on the internet or to buy the book in the bookstore. Most of the participants stated that the librarians did not provide such service actively.s far as the demands and contents of developmental bibliotherapeutic services that the library should provide, the types of books needed as expressed by the individuals are comic books, novels, story books, picture books, and joke books. The participants felt positive about librarian arranging specific bookshelves according to the kinds of emotion involved. They believed that the library would be very helpful for them to find the books needed if related bibliography or annotated bibliography were provided. The participants welcomed the establishment of specific corner and professional staff for developmental bibliotherapeutic services for children. They also suggest that the space should be comfortable and bright, and the plate or tag of the corner should be properly labeled. As far as the provision of distant bibliotherapeutic service, the participants opted for utilizing the bibliography or annotated bibliography on the website of the library. Prized Q&A was nominated as the most hoped-for activity for the library to hold. The interviewee thought that, since the emotional disturbance is a privacy issue, it would not be easy for the kids to share their problems with the librarian through book discussion. The participants reflected that the librarians who serve for bibliotherapy purposes should be warm, enthusiastic, empathetic, and book loving. People with professional background in child development, library and information science, counseling and guidance, literature, or education are preferred. Skills in communication and social interaction, as well as program design and execution are also critical. Moreover, the public library should work cooperatively with schools, governmental departments, book venders, and collegiate counseling programs in the provision of childrens’ developmental bibliotherapeutic services.
Subjects
public library
bibliotherapy
bibliotherapy with children
developmental bibliotherapy
emotional healing
Type
thesis
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