Report Author / Margaret Street – Early Years Librarian
Hertfordshire Libraries and Heritage Services
Date / September 2017
1. / Purpose of the report
To present the findings of the pre-birth pilot which was funded via a £500 grant from Association of Senior Children’s and Education Librarians (ASCEL).
2. / Background – a time line
2012 - Hertfordshire Libraries and Heritage Services began to explore ways to engage with parents prior to the birth of their child. Margaret Street devised a simple activity based on parents making a simple black & white book to share with their child from birth.
At the time, Hertfordshire County Council had just produced a countywide initiative for professionals working with families called “My baby’s brain – five to thrive” (MBB). Staff such as health visitors, social workers, and children’s centre teams were trained to give the MBB key messages which highlight how the positive interactions and attention that a care giver gives to a baby can have a huge impact on their brain development. The black & white book making sessions enabled library staff to link the benefits of sharing books and rhymes with babies, to the MBB initiative.
2014 A report into the Automatic Library Membership Pilots evaluation (Siddall 2014) was presented by Arts Council England. A key finding was that “the principle of having a library card is an important first step. But issuing a library card in itself does not create active library members. The accompanying outreach activities and library events were important factors in making membership real”.
2016 - ASCEL was commissioned on behalf of ACE and the Society of Chief Librarians to undertake some research to identify what those interactions should be and to present recommendations for a deliverable but innovative library offer, including a pre-birth offer for parents-to-be.
ASCEL held a workshop to explore existing good practice and Margaret Street gave a presentation showcasing the black & white book making sessions.
ASCEL, with funding from Arts Council England, decide to develop a toolkit to support library staff in providing the best possible support for parents to be. Library Services are invited to apply for funding to develop three pilot projects that will support parents-to-be, strengthen a child’s library journey before they are born.
2016 – Hertfordshire Libraries and Heritage Services submit a bid for a pilot study to assess the impact of Pre-birth black & white book making sessions on library membership.
2.1 / The bid summary
To work in partnership with Stevenage North and Stevenage South children’s centre groups who were looking to create a MBB– five to thrive awareness session for parents-to-be. The pilot would track the attendees at these sessions and to identify if they took out library membership for their baby.
Hertfordshire were awarded £500 to help track the outcomes from the black & white bookmakingsessions.
3. / Running the pilot sessions as part of the pre-birth project
3.1 / Our partners
Stevenage town has a birth-rate of 1300 babies a year. The two children’s centre groups already work closely with the midwives and have contact with parents-to-be through their clinics. Both centre groups were in the process of extending their antenatal offer with talks covering all the usual subjects such as childbirth and breastfeeding but also to explain more about how to support bonding and baby’s brain growth though the MBB key points. They were keen to offer a pre-birth session like the black & white book-making to encourage the families into the children’s centres before the baby is born.
3.2 / Timescales
December 2016: / Children’s Centre partners contacted
January 2017: / Bid submitted
February 2017: / Funding announced
January to September 2017: / Sessions timetabled and advertised
August to September 2017: / Feedback sought
27 September 2017: / Interim report published
31 October 2017 / Final report published
3.3 / Spending of the grant money - £500
Expense / Cost
Materials for the activities / £75.00
Printing costs for handouts and feedback forms / £5.00
Bears and books for the incentive offer / £70.00
Travel expenses for session leader / £76.00
Staff time: delivery of sessions / £200.00
Staff time: project evaluation / TBC
3.4 / Format of the sessions
3.4.1 / Stevenage North children’s centre
These sessions were developed as a one session talk by the centre and covered the key messages of MBB. The sessions were promoted to parents-to-be as an opportunity to learn about their baby’s brain development both antenatally and once born. They were advertised via the midwifery team and on the centre’s social media. They took place mid-week. For the first hour of the activity, a member of children’s centre staff talked about MBB and the importance of communicating with both bump and baby. This was followed by a 40 minutes practical session covering the specific benefits of book sharing, promotion of the library service and demonstration of rhymes particularly suitable for new born babies / baby bump as well as the making of a simple black & white book.
3.4.2 / Stevenage South children’s centre
These sessions were run on a Saturday morning and were created as the last session in a series of four sessions in their “Preparing for baby” course. The format and advertising was similar to Stevenage North.
3.4.3 / Sessions held and number of attendees
Date / Children’s centre / Number of mothers to be / Number of fathers to be / Total attendees
Thursday 23 February / Stevenage North / Cancelled due to no take up * [see section 6]
Monday 6 March / Stevenage North / Cancelled due to no take up
Friday 24 March / Stevenage North / Cancelled due to no take up
Saturday 25 February / Stevenage South / Cancelled due to no take up
Tuesday 27 June / Stevenage North / 4 / 1 / 5
Monday 31 July / Stevenage North / 3 / 1 / 4
Tuesday 5 September / Stevenage North / 5 / 0 / 5
Saturday 27 May / Stevenage South / 3 / 3 / 6
Saturday 24 June / Stevenage South / 6 / 5 / 11
Saturday 22 July / Stevenage South / 5 / 5 / 10
Saturday 26 August / Stevenage South / 5 / 5 / 10
Total / 31 / 20 / 51
4. / Initial feedback from attendees at the activity
Questionnaires and “consent to share” forms were given to each person attending the session. Where people had come as a couple we only had one reply so the return of replies does not match the total number of attendees.
Fig 1 / Fig 2
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4.1 / What ideas will you take away from the activity today?
Attendees gave a variety of responses – mostwith similar themes. The key responses were:
- Now knowing the benefits of using black & white books specifically, to stimulate their baby and that it can be helpful for their development
“Good to know about early baby stimulation e.g. Black and white images”
- Singing/reading to bump and baby, and having more ideas of what to sing or read was mentioned by eleven people. Six people specifically mentioned they will now be getting books to read to their bump/baby
- Singing rhymes specifically during nappy change time was highlighted by three respondents
- The importance of repetition and how reading books again and again will help babies learn
- What babies can achieve at different ages and stages
- Importance of early brain development through communication from the womb onwards
- Although a few people mentioned they were going to get books to read to their bump/baby, only four attendees specifically mentioned taking their baby to the library as a result of the promotion. Two fed back that it was useful to know what was available in libraries
- Only one person replied in a negative way to say that “Nothing was very interesting.”
4.2 / Do you feel any differently about sharing books and rhymes with your bump/baby as a result of attending this activity?
The response to this question was overwhelmingly positive with replies such as:
“Yes- I will definitely be singing to baby.”
“Yes- I am very interested to join the library and join activities in helping the baby to learn rhymes and be more into books.”
“We feel we have different ideas of what books and rhymes to sing to our little girl”
“Yes I do – it helps communicating with your baby before he comes out and when he is born before he speaks.”
“More positive and excited to start.”
“Yes – I don’t feel as silly because I know how much it will benefit bump/baby.”
“Yes! It’s also good to be informed of all the great services that the library offer.”
“I feel much more confident about singing to my baby now”
A number of people said they did not feel any different as a result of attending the session because they were already communicating with their bump and were looking forward to sharing books and rhymes with their baby when he/she arrives.
One parent told us:
“I did it with my first child and it was beautiful.”
Other comments include:
“No – my daughter already reads and sings to the bump.”
“More ideas but was planning to go to the library classes (Baby Rhyme Time) anyway.”
A number of attendees spoke a language other than English, including Albanian, Spanish and Lao. As part of the talk we promote the importance of starting straight away with speaking all relevant languages to help the baby learn them. Children are born with the ability to pick up on, and learn to communicate in, any language but need to hear it antenatally and from birth or they lose that ability to recognise the differences and it is much harder to learn later.
One participant was new to England from Laos. She told us:
“That is so interesting.I was not aware that babies could pick up on any language. I was going to wait until my child was five until I started teaching them Lao but I will start straight away now”
5. / Strengths of the pilot project
- We were able to work positively in partnership with the two children’s centre groups and dovetail onto their planned activities for expectant parents
- We have a captive audience and the parents-to-be attending want to do the best for the baby, so are very interested
- Attendees reported increased levels of knowledge regarding the benefits of sharing books and rhymes with their bump/baby – and were more encouraged to do so as a result of attending the activity
- As it was a pilot, sessions were led by the Early Years Librarian or a Service Development & Project Librarian who were able to work on the required Saturday mornings
- Where the black white book making sessions were run on a Saturday morning (in partnership with Stevenage South children’s centre, and as part of their four weekly antenatal “Preparing for baby” programme) we found that attendees came mainly in couples so we had a high proportion of fathers-to-be
- A number of attendees have English as a second language. The sessions raise awareness of the benefits of using all relevant languages from pre-birth to enable the child to be multi lingual more naturally.
- The children’s centre staff cover the ‘My Baby’s Brain’ aspects, so the member of library staff can concentrate on books and libraries, and expand on, or reinforce, what has already been covered
- The practical aspect of the library session goes well after the theoretical hour presented by the children’s centre staff
- All attendees gave permission for follow-up questionnaires
6. / Lessons learned from the pilot project
- The initial sessions booked for February and March were cancelled as the children’s centres were unable to generate sufficient interest from parents-to-be to enable the sessions to run.This resulted in a delay in starting the pilot
- Through discussions with the children’s centres it was agreed that the promotion of the sessions needed to be improved, both around selling the benefits of attending the activity and also how the session were advertised. Increased support was gained from the midwifery team and a greater use was made of social media. The improvements in promotion resulted in viable sessions from May
- The number of attendees at each session was less than 12 making it an expensive activity to run in terms of staffing costs
- The original bid included inviting the families to a special celebration Baby Rhyme Time at Stevenage Library. As the babies were due to be born over a period of 5 months and we only have a small number of babies in our sample, we decided instead to invite attendees to collect their “Thank you gift” from the library at a general Baby Rhyme Time of their choice
7. / Have the pilots resulted in library membership for the new baby?
It is too soon to say conclusively whether the pilots have resulted in library membership for the baby due to the challenges of gaining feedback from parents with babies due at different times. These challenges are explained below:
- These pilot sessions were a new venture for both children’s centre groups as part of their offer to parents-to-be. The centres were also on a learning journey to identify the best way to develop and advertise the sessions. Fortunately, despite the initial set back, both groups went away to assess the offer and the method of promotion, resulting in improved links with the midwifery team and more targeted promotion
- Attendees at the May/June/July sessions were due to give birth in June-August. However it was felt more appropriate to leave a few weeks before contacting attendees in case their babies arrived late and to give them time to settle as a family
- It was also considered important to confirm that the babies had arrived safely before contacting the family, and this involved asking the children’s centres, who in turn had to confirm with the midwifery team, adding a time delay
- By 23 September 2017 a total of 10 families were sent a follow up survey asking if they had been to the library with their baby. At the time of the report submission, only one feedback had been received and no incentive gifts had been claimed.
A final report publishing the membership results from the pilot study will be sent to ASCEL on 31 October in time for the Conference feedback on 10 November 2017.
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