Getting into Play: Cataloging Toys, Games and Puzzles

Washechek, Evan

BASTIANSEN, C. Y., & WHARTON, J. (2015). Getting Ready for Play!. Children & Libraries: The Journal Of The Association For Library Service To Children, 13(4), 13-29.

This article goes into great detail to show the positive effects which “free play” or allowing children unstructured time with games, puzzles or toys can have. There has been a serious reduction of the time that children have to discover things on their own. The article goes on to state all of the benefits of free play and talks specifics with regard to studies that have been done on children who have had notable increased “exploration skills, language skills, social skills, physical skills, and creativity activity”. These skills, the study goes on to note are even more important for those in poverty settings. This compounds with the sad reality of a lack of money for such toys, games and puzzles in poverty situations. The Public Library is shown to be an example for a possible solution. The Author also note just how much of the budget was spent toward the collection of the studied library. It was particularly relevant to myself as a public library employee and someone who feels strongly encouraged to help specifically those economically disadvantaged patrons.

Reflection

By expanding the collection and adding (or simply barcoding existing) toys, games and puzzles to the collection we would facilitate and foster these outcomes that are so valuable to the community. There is a certain amount of person hours which goes into a project such as this, which would be cataloging items, creating shelving/space, labeling the items as well as creating policies for their lending. This would be in addition to extra time that would be spent keeping these items sanitized. Germs would be a major factor in some libraries not lending out these kinds of items. All libraries have some responsibility to maintain the cleanliness of their items on a professional level, but items specifically for children (some of which are at high risk for disease) is even more important.