Library Services for Children

All four branch libraries in County Sligo hold a comprehensive collection of childrens’ books.  There are quick reads, chunky reads, demanding reads, scary reads and funny reads.  The quality, range and sophistication of childrens’ books is astonishing and your local library is the perfect place to visit as you can take an armful of books home and wallow in the different worlds they reveal as you turn the pages.

For the younger child there are picture books, concept books and novelty books, there are also a wide range of books aimed at the child who is just beginning to read alone and gaining confidence in reading.
We hold a broad range of books aimed at some of our more reluctant readers and of course, whole sets of Series Fiction for the child who enjoys the comfort of the familiar.
There is also an amazing collection of dual language books and books reflecting other cultures, books on CD and even a DVD collection.
Reading is a lifelong adventure and library staff are always delighted to offer advice, guidance and support in the area of book selection to both children and their parents and guardians.

Sligo Library Service tries to make our services, for children in particular, an exciting and stimulating experience. As such, from time to time, we may embark on a different approach. One such path was the new resource developed by Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership which was temporarily installed in Sligo Central library.

The Travelling Library aimed to provide a space where children and young people could engage with books made by their peers and to take part in their own response activity or participate in book-making workshops, facilitated by Kids’ Own.

The Travelling Library can help to increase children and young people’s interactive participation within libraries and aims to create a temporary dynamic space with specific focus on books made by children. As an interactive response area, children who engage with the Travelling Library can contribute their own work to the Travelling Library and help us to build on the genre of books made by children, for children, and see their work travel with the Library to other locations for other children to enjoy.

To strengthen the Travelling Library programme and as a facility through which to build resources throughout Ireland, Kids’ Own delivered professional development to Librarians to provide guidance for engaging children with books and book-making activity. As part of a new tour, funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs, Kids’ Own delivered a workshop to the Librarians involved in this programme. This took place in Sligo Library on Monday 14th June,  and  co-incided with the launch of the project which took place later in the day.