Feature Stories
Business Startup Basics Workshops at Dayton Metro Library
Libraries Connect Ohio Partners to Issue Database RFP
OSU Rewards Faculty for Integrating Library Services
Promoting KnowItNow Survey - The Media Kit
October 2007
Marsha McDevitt-Stredney
State Library of Ohio - Director, Marketing and Communications
Learning Express - A powerful Tool for all Ages
Two years ago Libraries Connect Ohio added Learning Express Test Prep Library to its core set of databases. Learning Express is an online test preparation and tutorial service available to Ohio residents 24/7 to use where and when it’s best for them. This resource has a plethora of high quality tests and tutorials but hasn’t achieved the brand identity through promotion in Ohio necessary for attracting large numbers of users.
One of the challenges we have faced when promoting Learning Express has been reaching target users. The very nature of the service with its wide range of practice tests and tutorials casts a huge net of potential users. Unless an individual specifically requests tutorial help or strategies for preparing for one of the available tests it can be difficult for librarians to know where and when to suggest it to library users.
State Librarian’s Report
Jo Budler
State Librarian
Lifelong learning
Living beings learn from the moment of birth. In fact some researchers have documented cases of learning before birth; one such informational piece can be found at www.birthpsychology.com/lifebefore/earlymem.html. Several books are also available through the library or Amazon.com on this subject (search terms: learning before birth). This process -- the opportunity to learn -- continues throughout their lives.
Libraries of all types play a very important role in this process. The State Library and the Ohio Library Council are promoting the Ohio Ready to Read program across our state and hope that through this we will be able to reach parents and caregivers so that they can better understand the role that reading plays in their children’s learning. Reading to children helps them develop the six pre-reading skills that they need (see www.secstate.wa.gov/library/libraries/projects/pdf/ColorCircles.pdf) in order to be prepared to learn to read when they enter kindergarten.
While we are trying to encourage parents and caregivers to read to children, we are fully aware that public libraries are often the site where a young child is introduced to reading for the first time through storytime. It is here often that a child discovers the joy of books, and finds delight in the colorful pictures and the adventures of the book characters. I was so pleased to hear Wayne County Public Library Director Greg Lubelski talk about how much the children of Wooster enjoy their new Children’s area. He recounted that there have been many times since the opening of this new building that children have been seen screaming and yelling as their parents dragged them out of the children’s area because they had another appointment to keep and those children had just not gotten their fill yet! While no one likes to see children upset, it is certainly nice to know that they are enjoying the atmosphere and the material so much that they just do not want to leave.
