The reason I am interested in picking this topic is because I used to work as an Administrative Assistant type position in a local foster care agency in Columbia. It was an eye-opening experience to say the least. I definitely have a lot more respect for adults who open their homes up to total strangers in an attempt to change their lives for the better. I've seen the kids that come into the program and are transferred from home to home with only a few suitcases and some trash bags full of all their worldly possessions. And out of 60 kids, I only saw two teenagers who enjoyed reading. I wondered if the reason for this was because of their constantly moving lifestyle, of which they have little or no control over, or if it was something else. I thought it would be a great idea for public libraries to reach out to this population group and try to encourage them to read and/or find some way for them to be involved in the library.
I've not seen any articles or research done on my proposed subject matter, so I went to Thomas Cooper Library online to look through their databases, through Gamecock Power Search. I searched for the keywords "foster children, libraries, and literacy." It came up with mostly articles on early childhood literacy, general public outreach programs for Children's Departments, literacy programs for below poverty level kids, information literacy skills, and adult illiteracy. I will have to narrow my search.
The only article so far that may prove useful is one from:
Morrow, Lesley Mandel. "The Impact of a Literature-Based Program on Literacy Achievement, Use of Literature, and Attitudes of Children from Minority Backgrounds" Reading Research Quarterly Vol. 27 No. 3 (Summer, 1992), pp. 250-275.
I searched again, this time only using the terms "foster children" and "library" and got better results. On target resources include:
Terrile, V. C. Where They Live Now: What Public Libraries Can Do for Teens in Foster Care. Voice of Youth Advocates v. 32 no. 5 (December 2009) p. 374-6
The Terrile article led to a website for the foster children magazine called Represent: The Voice of Youth in Care, which I'm hoping maybe I can find on the library's journal listings. This article also pointed the way to another article by VOYA called:
Rex, A. Home for a While [Bibliographical essay]. Voice of Youth Advocates v. 31 no. 5 (December 2008) p. 396-9
Neumark, Victoria. "Something Worth Sharing" TES CAMPAIGN; Time To Care; Pg. 31 No. 4706
This article was about a mentoring/reading program in the UK for foster kids
McClellan, K. From Classroom to Courtroom: Our Role in the Community. Public Libraries v. 48 no. 1 (January/February 2009) p. 62-5
This article was about a program that was started in Kansas, to read to foster kids at home and to give out books for kids that go to court, and also about fiction books on foster care.
I then decided to try to search "foster children" and "reading" hoping that I could get more hits this way. That search was not that helpful, mostly giving me back Social Work essays and articles. One of the only useful articles I found was:
The Letterbox Club: The impact on looked-after children and their carers of a national project aimed at raising achievements in literacy for children aged 7 to 11 in foster care.
I've not seen any articles or research done on my proposed subject matter, so I went to Thomas Cooper Library online to look through their databases, through Gamecock Power Search. I searched for the keywords "foster children, libraries, and literacy." It came up with mostly articles on early childhood literacy, general public outreach programs for Children's Departments, literacy programs for below poverty level kids, information literacy skills, and adult illiteracy. I will have to narrow my search.
The only article so far that may prove useful is one from:
Morrow, Lesley Mandel. "The Impact of a Literature-Based Program on Literacy Achievement, Use of Literature, and Attitudes of Children from Minority Backgrounds" Reading Research Quarterly Vol. 27 No. 3 (Summer, 1992), pp. 250-275.
I searched again, this time only using the terms "foster children" and "library" and got better results. On target resources include:
Terrile, V. C. Where They Live Now: What Public Libraries Can Do for Teens in Foster Care. Voice of Youth Advocates v. 32 no. 5 (December 2009) p. 374-6
The Terrile article led to a website for the foster children magazine called Represent: The Voice of Youth in Care, which I'm hoping maybe I can find on the library's journal listings. This article also pointed the way to another article by VOYA called:
Rex, A. Home for a While [Bibliographical essay]. Voice of Youth Advocates v. 31 no. 5 (December 2008) p. 396-9
Neumark, Victoria. "Something Worth Sharing" TES CAMPAIGN; Time To Care; Pg. 31 No. 4706
This article was about a mentoring/reading program in the UK for foster kids
McClellan, K. From Classroom to Courtroom: Our Role in the Community. Public Libraries v. 48 no. 1 (January/February 2009) p. 62-5
This article was about a program that was started in Kansas, to read to foster kids at home and to give out books for kids that go to court, and also about fiction books on foster care.
I then decided to try to search "foster children" and "reading" hoping that I could get more hits this way. That search was not that helpful, mostly giving me back Social Work essays and articles. One of the only useful articles I found was:
The Letterbox Club: The impact on looked-after children and their carers of a national project aimed at raising achievements in literacy for children aged 7 to 11 in foster care.
Dymoke, Sue; Griffiths, Rose.
Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs (1471-3802)Mar, 2010. Vol.10,Iss.1;p.52-60
This looked really interesting, but I was unable to find anything more than an abstract on it. I will try at my local public library once the server comes back online.
So then I searched "foster care, teenagers and libraries," which didn't really show any promising results. After exhausting the article search, I decided to look for books available through Thomas Cooper Library. I searched under "foster care" and "libraries" and found mostly government documents. However, I did find an updated book about foster care in Children's literature:
Meese, Ruth Lyn. Family matters : adoption and foster care in children's literature. Santa Barbara, CA.: Libraries Unlimited, 2010.
This looked really interesting, but I was unable to find anything more than an abstract on it. I will try at my local public library once the server comes back online.
So then I searched "foster care, teenagers and libraries," which didn't really show any promising results. After exhausting the article search, I decided to look for books available through Thomas Cooper Library. I searched under "foster care" and "libraries" and found mostly government documents. However, I did find an updated book about foster care in Children's literature:
Meese, Ruth Lyn. Family matters : adoption and foster care in children's literature. Santa Barbara, CA.: Libraries Unlimited, 2010.
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