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Family Place Library
In 2023, Parkland Community Library became a Family Place Library. As you know, libraries are not just about books. Becoming a Family Place Library is joining a national library network supporting families with young children. This national initiative increases outreach efforts to families with young children, particularly those under 3. While the program aims to engage parents as their children’s first teachers and help them understand the importance of play and learning, we also strive to introduce them to local community resources.
New Educational Toys
March 2025
Through a Family Place grant, PCL received many items for the kids’ area, will host more Family Place workshops, and will purchase new board books. Seeing the kids play with the latest duck wall toy, the light table, sensory floor tiles, and the hopscotch rug was neat. More new items are coming soon.
PCL is thrilled to offer you free access to ParentTV.
ParentTV offers thousands of on-demand parenting videos and courses, with content designed to support those who care for children from pregnancy through teenage years.
ParentTV works with leading psychologists, pediatricians, mental health specialists, nutritionists, occupational therapists, and parenting educators worldwide.
Search for and find videos on general parenting, play, behavior, child development, mental health, sleep, nutrition, technology, and more. Some of the 2000+ videos are available. Most videos are under 10 minutes long and can be accessed on your computer, tablet, or smartphone. Videos are also available in Arabic, Cantonese, Mandarin, Hindi, and Spanish.
Topics of Interest and Most Popular Videos
ParentTV provides insightful tips from qualified experts and offers 2000+ helpful videos on various parenting questions.
Anxiety and Our Kids
My Partner and I Parent Differently–What Do We Do?
Managing Technology in the Home
The Parent’s Guide to Bullying
Supporting Under 5’s with Emotions and Tantrums
Tips for Getting Your Child Ready for School and Learning
ParentTV, How to access these resources:
To access this incredible resource, all you need to do is log in with your PCL barcode (and pin if applicable) by CLICKING THE LINK.
What is a Family Place library?
PCL is now part of the Family Place Libraries.
At Parkland Community Library, we want to strengthen the community by supporting the parent-child relationship. We feel that we can use our resources, coupled with Family Place’s, to collaborate with and reach a wide array of families and help improve all families’ lives.
PCL will offer programs to educate parents and families on the importance of early childhood development. We are providing a supportive and non-judgmental environment where families can learn to build strong family bonds.
Like you, the library supports literacy. We have found a new way to use play to build pre-reading skills. Babies and toddlers learn through play, so we look forward to providing a unique space and workshops where families can play and learn together.
Why a Family Place library?
Family Place Libraries transform libraries into community centers for early literacy, parent education, and family support. Our network includes more than 500 sites in 32 states.
How does it help families?
Family Place builds on the knowledge that good health, early learning, parental involvement, and supportive communities are critical in a young child’s growth and development. Family Place Libraries aims to develop and institutionalize a family-friendly environment by transforming libraries into community centers for literacy, early childhood development, parent education and engagement, family support, and community information.
Trained Staff
An administrator and librarian participate in a multi-day Family Place Training Institute and online training. Topics covered include all the core components listed below: child development, family support, parent education, and best practices. Once trained, these professionals bring back this knowledge to their entire staff.
Collections
Special collections include books, toys, early literacy kits, music, and multimedia materials for babies, toddlers, parents, caregivers, and service providers.
Parent-Child Workshop
This fun, informal, play-based five-week program is for babies, toddlers, and their parents/caregivers. It provides a rich environment of toys, books, and art activities. Families can spend time together, make new friends, and talk one-on-one with a different community resource professional each week.
Family Place Libraries create fun and welcoming environments where children and their caregivers can play, learn, and grow together. These specially designed spaces feature interactive Materials for young children and parents, including board and picture books, age-appropriate toys, puzzles, dramatic play items, blocks, and drawing stations, providing a rich space for little ones to explore.
And Partnerships
Through partnerships with health, education, and Human Service agencies that serve families and young children, librarians connect parents to needed community resources and enhance library services and programs.
For Babies & Toddlers
It is expanding on the traditional role of programming for children ages birth-5 (with emphasis on birth-3). Family Place Libraries specialize in developing age-appropriate programming that supports the importance of play and healthy parent/child relationships in early childhood development and learning.
Outreach
Identifying and reaching out to new and underserved families via in-person, partner, media, and social media contacts enables the libraries to engage and build trust with new families.
Source: Family Place Libraries
Stories in the Schools
Your library would like to welcome everyone back to Stories in the Schools 2025. Discover a nearby school and join in on this enjoyable family event. Photo by USA Architects About The Parkland Community Library will host Stories in the Schools as part of the Parkland School District’s Summer Library program. PCL staff and volunteers…
July Library News
2025 Get ready for an exciting July at the library! We’re thrilled to invite you to join Libby’s Library Big Read, featuring the captivating book “The Storyteller’s Death.” The best part? You can borrow it instantly without any wait time or holds. The Summer Reading Club is in full swing, so be sure to log…
Helping Our Community with Plant A Row
Get involved in your community by participating in Plant A Row with PCL! Whether you have a green thumb or are new to gardening, Plant A Row is an excellent opportunity to make a positive impact. Donating just one row of your garden or some produce can help provide nutritious food to those in need. …
General Grant Award Acknowledgement
“This project is made possible in part by federal funds from the Institute of Museum and Library Services administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education, Office of Commonwealth Libraries.”
The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation’s libraries and museums. We advance, support, and empower America’s museums, libraries, and related organizations through grantmaking, research, and policy development. IMLS envisions a nation where individuals and communities have access to museums and libraries to learn from and be inspired by the trusted information, ideas, and stories they contain about our diverse natural and cultural heritage.
The views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this (publication) (program) (exhibition) (website) (article) do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Pennsylvania Department of Education, or the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
“This project is made possible in part by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education, Office of Commonwealth Libraries.”