A Reflection on Chinese Storytime at Hurstville Library

I observed a Chinese Storytime program at Hurstville Public Library which is conducted in Mandarin. An extremely popular program at the Library, Dragon Tales is run every Monday during Term time over two half hour sessions and celebrates the sharing of cultures in the local area, a culturally diverse community. Over sixty Chinese families attend the storytime each week and it is presented by a Chinese member of staff.

Dragon Tales is conducted in a different format to other children’s programs at the Library, with a greater focus on performance than Pre-school storytime. The presenter uses a microphone and background music while singing and encourages the children to move and dance during rhymes and songs. Puppets and props are also used to enhance the experience for the children attending. Following a number of songs and action rhymes three stories were read to the children in Mandarin on the themes of the beach and holidays. There is a different theme every week which gives the children information about the world around them through age appropriate literature (Williams, 2007, p. 27). Due to a smaller budget allocation than for Pre-school storytime, there is no craft activity after the storytime, but toys such as puzzles and Duplo are brought out several times a term for children to play with for twenty minutes at the end of the session. This did not occur the week I attended.

Bi-lingual storytimes, run in Public Libraries, provide children with opportunities to learn about their culture and heritage in a fun and friendly environment while also supporting their language and literacy development (Alakus, 2009, p.27). They give people from diverse backgrounds the message that their language and culture is valued by the community and that they can find support at their local Library (Alakus, 2009, p. 27). Such support can include opportunities for social inclusion, increasing a parent or caregiver’s skills and confidence to share songs, rhymes and books with their children, and help in maintaining a child’s first language. Parents can, through observing and modelling a Library professional’s skills, learn new skills to help them play with and teach their children, and gain more confidence to read in an expressive manner to their children (Alakus, 2009, p. 28).

Dragon Tales at Hurstville Library provides informal learning opportunities for members of the local Chinese community. Social interaction and engagement with residents who are recent arrivals to the area are positive outcomes of the program (Kelly, 2012, p. 181). When I attended the storytime sessions, I observed a lot of interaction and conversation between the parents and children before and after the program.  This can be important to community members who are socially isolated (Kelly, 2012, p. 181). There was increased activity in the children’s collection and Chinese collection areas during the morning with many parents borrowing picture books and toys for their children.

Chinese storytime is a celebration of diversity and the sharing of cultures. In observing the program I was able to see that the program met the cultural, information, education and linguistic needs of the Chinese families who attended and provided an opportunity to promote Hurstville Library collection, resources and activities. In meeting the challenges of cultural diversity when planning children’s services, Hurstville Library has provided a positive connection with the community.

References:

Alakus, R. (2009). A fun way to connect with the community. Incite 30(4), 27-28.

Kelly, C. (2012). Building a learning community: the Brimbank libraries strategy. Australasian Public Libraries and Information Services 25(4), 181.

Williams, A. (2007). Storytime model for large groups: implications for early literacy. Children and Libraries: the Journal of the Association for Library Science to Children, 5(2), 27-29