Calling All Early Literacy Librarians!

It is such an exciting trajectory to look back to when I was in library school (in the olden days) where we talked about storytime without talking much about learning to read–to the early 2000s when we started to learn about early literacy concepts via Every Child Ready to Read–to to the late 2000s, when state libraries and other organizations started to partner together to launch statewide early literacy initiatives–to the last few years, when more and more libraries are adding dedicated Early Literacy Librarians to their youth services departments. How cool is that? How much fun to be a part of such an amazing groundswell of learning and sharing and supporting families!

I’m really curious how the jobs held by those Early Literacy Librarians are shaping up and if you are one of them, either by title or by fact, I would love to hear from you! What are your days like? What goals and objectives are you charged with meeting in your community? What is in your official job description, and what do you actually do? Do you mostly work with collections, or programs, or training, or outreach? Or something else?

I realize that this should properly be a survey, and that I’m asking a lot! But if you are an Early Literacy Librarian, would you please share a few sentences about your job in the comments? I’m particularly interested where your tasks diverge from a more traditional children’s librarian’s tasks. Do you have any advice for libraries considering adding an Early Literacy staff member?

Thanks in advance!