New Technology in the Children’s Department (Jul/Aug 1996)

By Mark PetruzziniMany of us can remember, as children,
talking into an aluminum can, our voices carried on string to the ear of a friend.
Youngsters at the newly remodeled Children’s Department at the Carnegie Library of
Pittsburgh are still talking to friends — only their string reaches half-way around
the world. The aluminum can is a computer now, networked with other systems around
the globe through the Internet, that can bring their words to computer screens in
places like Turkey, India or Japan.
On April 15, 1996, the opening of the new Children’s Department and Technology
Center marked the fruition of a project to create a family environment that incorporated
what Director Robert Croneberger described as a balance between the traditional book
library and new technology. Three new “Technology Centers” consist of 20
computers running Microsoft” Windows 95. Each computer has a CD-ROM drive and
a wide variety of educational programs for users up to eighth grade.
The lure for children is unmistakable, for the computers offer an amazing world
of new possibilities. Dallas Clautice, head of the Children’s Department, contributed
to the design of the new room and hopes to encourage new kinds of learning there,
through the use of computers and CD-ROM packages like “Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing”
and the Encyclopedia Britannica. Many of these programs represent a growing movement
among software designers and educators to use interactive games to teach math, reading
and foreign languages. Clautice notes, “A lot of schools are already using computers
in their curriculum. We are bringing what we have up to speed with what they have
at their schools.”
Youth Services coordinator and project manager Molly Kinney says the designers
wanted a room that would be “welcoming and enticing for both children and parents,
and would also be a functional place that children could feel was their own.”
This philosophy is evident all over the room, as in the egg-shaped kiosk where designers
thought children could hide away in a cozy space comfortable for their size. In a
newly added non-fiction area, a chair and sofa encourage parents and children to sit
together and read. Before, librarians used three desks to manage the flow of incoming
and outgoing books, audio and video cassettes, but this has been consolidated into
one streamlined station.
Each computer is connected to the Internet, so kids can gain access to the growing
number of educational sites around the world. A youngster in the Children’s Department
can now communicate with someone else halfway around the world, talking in real-time
or by sending e-mail. The Internet, via the World Wide Web, provides children with
a limitless wealth of constantly changing information. Kinney notes,”Information
is exploding around us. The Internet holds more information than all of the books
we could ever hold on our shelves or could afford to buy — it’s a great investment
for our kids to have.”
The technology in the Children’s Department has been there for only a short time,
but young patrons are already drawn in. On one recent Saturday afternoon, eight-year-old
David Wilson was searching the Internet for information on his favorite basketball
player, Michael Jordan. Seven-year-old Gregory was busy playing “The Way Things
Work,” while his twin brother, Jeffrey, enjoyed “Winnie the Pooh.”
The twins’ father, John Rosser, believes that the variety of software and access to
valuable educational resources makes the Children’s Department a useful community
resource. He adds, “I think it really benefits the kids who don’t have computers
at home or who can’t afford them.”
Other additions include a large-screen television with a satellite feed in an area
for both parents and children, offering educational programs otherwise not available.
Video-cassette viewing stations allow families to view any of the 500 new video cassettes
now in the collection.
The renovations to the Children’s Department were made possible by gifts from the
Three Rivers Lecture Series, the Friends of Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, and the
Board of Trustees of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. Benefactor Laura Cathon made
a generous bequest to the new room. Thanks to diligent work by members of the library’s
automation staff and organizers of the Electronic Information Network, the vision
of the new Children’s Department has become a reality. On April 13, the Carnegie Library
of Pittsburgh hosted a benefit, “An Evening of Culinary and Literary Delights,”
that included a visit by Governor Tom Ridge. Part of the proceeds went to finance
the facilities of the new Children’s Department.
To learn more about the Children’s Department and Youth Services online, or visit
other children’s links, try these sites on the World Wide Web: Children’s
Department Homepage — http://www.clpgh.org/CLP/Childrens/childrens.html or the
Youth Services Homepage — http://www.clpgh.org/CLP/Childrens/yskids/.
Mark Petruzzini is electronic editor of Carnegie Magazine.
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