Suffolk Libraries are launching three new exciting projects to engage with more children and young people this summer.

imagination

Imagination

ImagiNation is a reading and arts activity aimed at young people aged 11-18 which will be available to visitors to Suffolk’s libraries this summer, alongside the Summer Reading Challenge. 

ImagiNation encourages reading for pleasure and provides an opportunity for young people to create their own original art, inspired by reading. It’s a great way for libraries to engage with young people who’ve never been to a library or younger visitors who may be a bit too old for the Summer Reading Challenge which will be running across all libraries this summer and is aimed at 4-11 year-olds.

Anyone can take part in ImagiNation by signing up in their local library and collecting a free ImagiNation log: ‘Read Me! Awesome Art and Refreshing Reads’. The idea is to then read at least two books and then choose from a range of arts activities and use the log to express their ideas. Young people can also share their ideas, art and book reviews and find out more at www.imaginationeast.org.uk

The ImagiNation project is running in 11 library authorities across the East of England in collaboration with the Arts Council and was developed with the help of young people.

autism-friendly-libraries

Autism Friendly Libraries

Suffolk Libraries are also getting behind a new scheme to make libraries accessible and inclusive as possible for children and young people with autism.

The new Autism Friendly Libraries scheme was launched at the recent Society of Chief Librarian’s conference. It was developed by the Association of Senior Children and Education Librarians (ASCEL) working with a social care organisation called Dimensions with funding from the Arts Council.

The aim of the scheme is to create spaces within libraries which are inclusive for children who have autism and to support parents and carers of people with autism. It will involve creating and displaying autism friendly resources and changing library spaces to become more autism-friendly.

Research by Dimensions showed that whilst people with autism are already more likely than other people to use a library, a few adjustments could lead to 92% increasing their use of their local library. The scheme is very new and Suffolk Libraries is currently in the process of looking at libraries to see what improvements could be made to ensure they are as autism-friendly as possible.

Bear’s Reading Adventure

Bear’s Reading Adventure

Suffolk Libraries will also soon be offering an exciting new resource from the BookTrust aimed at 0-5-year-olds.

‘Bear’s Reading Adventure’ is a new sticker storybook which has been developed to encourage families to visit libraries and read together every day. The project has been developed to help libraries achieve the Association of Senior Children and Education Librarians (ASCEL) ‘Children’s Promise’ to provide opportunities for families to participate and engage with their local library and to make library visits inspiring and exciting.

The aim is to give young children their own sticker storybook with ten missing stickers to collect every time they visit the library. When the child has collected all ten stickers they can download a certificate to celebrate their success. Bear’s Reading Adventure also contains tips for families on how they can have fun reading together every day.

The sticker storybook has been created specifically for families with children aged 0-5 years old and has been safety tested for babies. Bear’s Reading Adventure will be available in the county’s libraries in September.

Krystal Vittles, Innovation and Development Manager and Suffolk Libraries, said: “These three projects will all help us to offer something new to children, young people and families and hopefully encourage more people to discover what their library service has to offer.

“ImagiNation will enable us to provide a new opportunity in libraries alongside the summer reading challenge. It’s something that will appeal to a different group of young people and will help us to engage with children as they get older. Our Bookstart sessions are already very popular with parents of young children and Bear’s Reading Adventure is something new we can offer these families.

“It’s important to ensure the library service is accessible as possible to everyone so we really want to support the Autism Friendly project to ensure our libraries are friendly and welcoming places which everyone can benefit from and enjoy.”

www.suffolklibraries.co.uk