Libraries Are For Babies

Find out how this woman is making libraries family-centered spaces. In this episode of Learn With Less, we speak with Suzanne Flint, child development specialist and principal architect of the California State Library’s early learning initiative, to discuss what public libraries are doing to promote library programs for families. Suzanne Flint is a child development specialist with a Masters in Health Education. Over the last 30+ years, she has worked directly with children and families and in leadership roles with nonprofit organizations & public agencies, helping families navigate information and educational needs. During her time at Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford, she creat ed one of the nation’s first consumer health libraries and started California Reach Out And Read, a statewide pediatric early literacy program. Currently, she is the principal architect of the California State Library’s early learning initiative, Early Learning with Families @ the Library (ELF). As a part of this initiative and in collaboration with the Brazelton Touchpoints Center, Ms. Flint has helped to develop a professional development curriculum specifically for library staff based on the Touchpoints model of strengthening family-child relationships. The ultimate goal of the ELF initiative is to support the continued evolution and advancement of library services to young children and families – helping to create services that are developmentally appropriate and family inclusive. Great resources we mentioned in this podcast episode (in order they were mentioned): Early Learning with Families Brazelton Touchpoints Birth to Three  Learn With Less: Music For Families Connect With Us: Ayelet: Facebook / Instagram / Pinterest Suzanne Flint and Early Learning with Families: Facebook / Pinterest / YouTube / Twitter Text transcript of the episode Ayelet: I am so thrilled to share this conversation with you all – Suzanne is an absolute powerhouse, and is a wealth of knowledge about early literacy, early learning, infant and toddler education, and parent education. I was so happy to have the chance to sit down and speak with her about the ways libraries are changing – the movement she’s played a big part in is largely based in California, but is part of a national and international trend toward making libraries much more family-fri...