Preschool Outreach Plus
Rapides Parish Library

Every three weeks, a colorful van pulls up in front of 60 day-care centers throughout Rapides Parish in Louisiana. Inside the van are canvas bags filled with books, videos, puppets, flannel board stories, audiotapes, and CDs designed to provide the centers' teachers and children with everything they need for a story time. Taking the library to the children is the core of the Preschool Outreach Plus (POP) program, created by the Rapides Parish Library.

In 1997, librarians noticed a dramatic decrease in the number of preschool children using their resources. Knowing that exposure to literature and reading is important at this critical time in children's development, library personnel talked to teachers at day-care centers and Head Start programs throughout the parish. Based on their conversations, the POP program delivers customized packages of library and teacher resource tools, without charge, to the facilities. Program representatives also train day-care teachers onsite in how to create engaging and stimulating story times for their students. The contents of the bags are organized around such topics as "children of the world," "rhyming words," and "the solar system," enabling the teachers to adapt them to other subjects and activities. The themes and materials reflect the community's ethnic and cultural diversity and serve as a catalyst for activities that reinforce and extend the reading experience.

POP reaches more than 3,000 children annually, delivering more than 50,000 items to the children of Rapides Parish. The program expanded in 2000 to include the delivery of crates of books for school-aged children attending day-care centers after school and during the summer. Because success in school is closely related to how well and how much a student reads, the enhanced program greatly benefits elementary school children who are unable to visit the library.

The Rapides Parish librarians understand the significant role that libraries play in encouraging children to read. Exposure to books is a key ingredient in children's learning of language and gives them an advantage when they enter school. The innovative POP program, prepares the young children of central Louisiana for a lifetime of successful learning.