In 2010, Salt Lake City Public Library created a strategic outcome called Ensuring Early Literacy, with the intention of supporting and advancing early literacy for all children and parents in Salt Lake City. This outcome states, “Every child has an equal chance to succeed. The youngest children in the community have expansive early literacy and early learning opportunities.” A focus on early literacy is particularly relevant in the Salt Lake City community, as the city has high numbers of children who may be considered to be at risk. There are over 17,000 children ages 0-5 in Salt Lake City. 62.1% of children in SLC School District live in low-income or poverty-stricken households, with 36.7% living in ELL homes. In fiscal year 2012-2013, the library offered 1062 early literacy programs within our buildings and 618 early literacy programs in community classrooms. A similar number of scheduled programs is slated for this year and the following. Each year, the Start Smart program helps put over 6000 books into the hands of children from low-income families. The early literacy program is fully funded through the library’s operating budget, and is supplemented by donations from our Friends of the Library group and various external groups.

The main strategies used to work toward this outcome are: putting books into the hands of children, ensuring that parents have the skills they need to be their child’s first and best teacher, developing an early and strong connection for young children with their neighborhood library, and taking early literacy tools and experiences to young children in the community, with an emphasis on children in need. The SLCPL Early Literacy team created an expansive storytime outreach program, which lead to the development of formal partnerships with the Salt Lake City School District Title 1 pre-k program, area Head Start classrooms, the local YWCA and various shelter classrooms. Librarians take monthly literacy-rich storytimes to these classes, along with a deposit collection of library books that stays in the classroom until the next month. During one of the visits, the children receive a donated book from the library, intended to ensure that each low-income child has access to a book they can keep in their home. Parents receive a glossy, library published brochure that offers tips on reading, recommended books, and a child’s “First Library Card” that they can bring to any of our branches to exchange for a real library card and another free book. Librarians also offer early literacy workshops, in English and Spanish, to the families of these children.

The Start Smart program is considered a successful endeavor. Educators and school administrators provide positive feedback regarding the quality and impact of the storytimes, particularly by teachers who voice appreciation of the storytelling skills modeled by well-trained librarians. Children drag their parents into the library to meet “their” librarian and check out books. Another positive outcome has been the incredible partnership that has developed between the library and the school district. This initial collaboration has led to more partnership opportunities with the school system, and has strengthened the library’s role as an integral partner in education. There is no doubt we are positively impacting the community. A lesson learned with our Start Smart program has been how difficult it is to measure community impact. The City Library is motivated to determine if monthly storytimes and personal connections with children, parents, and teachers are making a difference. We want to know if early literacy behaviors or skills have increased due to the influence of SLCPL’s program, so we can adapt and move forward in providing support and opportunities. Our commitment is to increase literacy in our community, and we need to be certain of our methods. In partnership with the University of Utah, we have received an Education Research Service Projects grant to study the efficacy of the Start Smart program. The library is committed to using the information gleaned from the study to improve our current early literacy program and ensure that it provides meaningful impact on our community.