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2.
Early Years Librarians
31 (34%) library authorities
had a recognisable early years specialist. 12 of these librarians have a specific
to Bookstart or Bookstart Plus in their job title, suggesting the centrality
of the programme to libraries’ early years work.
One authority (Derby City)
mentioned 3 specialist posts – a Bookstart Plus Education Action Zone librarian,
a Bookstart Plus Sure Start librarian and a Books for Babies Librarian. South
Tyneside also recorded 3 library based early years posts.
Sure Start was the most
popular funding source for these posts (9 posts), library funding was supporting
5 and SRB funding was named by 5.
Some of the library job
titles explicitly linked libraries with literacy, for instance Bromley’s Early
Years Literacy Development Officer.
Against a background of
the static or even gradually decreasing numbers of children’s specialist posts
[ 1 ],
the widespread creation of these new posts dealing specifically with
early years work, which have been financed by recent funding streams, demonstrates
the importance of this area of work to the future of children’s librarianship
in England. It also suggests an emerging pattern of specialist librarians’
posts, and perhaps of the children’s specialism itself, where specialist work
is more closely linked to specific projects and defined audiences rather than
more generally at the young client base within a library authority.
[ 1 ]
Creaser, Claire A Survey of Library services to Schools and Children
in the UK 1999-2000 LISU Loughborough University, November 2000
3.
Early Years Childcare Development Partnerships (EYCDPs) 
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