I-Comm
- Celebrating Information and Communication
South Carolina Center for Children's Books and Literacy
Open House - Monday, Oct. 8, 2012
New home for children's
books, Cocky By Megan Sexton, USC Times
The literacy research is clear: The No. 1 indicator
of whether children will be able to read at grade level
is tied to whether they have access to books.
For South Carolina’s children, parents, librarians
and teachers, that access got easier this week, with
the opening of the new home for the South Carolina Center
for Children’s Books and Literacy.
Now located in the South Carolina State Library building
at 1430 Senate St. (with the entrance on the Bull Street
side of the building), the center offers twice as much
space as its previous location across the street. An
outreach of the University of South Carolina’s
School of Library and Information Science, the center
features a literacy lab with space for continuing education
workshops and child literacy classes.
It also houses the library’s
permanent and special collections, including award-winning
books, children’s poetry, folk and fairy tales,
holiday stories, three-dimension books and books targeted
at children and teens. There are books for reluctant
readers (meaning they are written on a lower grade level
yet cover topics that would be interesting for teen readers).
There are books for every age, reading level and topic – offering
teachers and student teachers the chance to figure out
lesson plans and introduce high-quality books to their
students.
And Cocky lives there, too.
The
center is home to Cocky’s Reading Express,
the popular literacy program that provides quality books
to children in schools throughout South Carolina, along
with visits from USC student volunteers and the Carolina
mascot. (The program just gave out its 50,000th book
last week).
The Center for Children’s Books and Literacy held
its grand opening Monday, showing off its new home to
the community.
“It has made us more accessible to the university
and our community partners. It gives us greater visibility
and access,” said Kim Jeffcoat, the center’s
director. “As we train our future teachers and
librarians, we need to give them maximum access to quality
children’s books and young adult books. As a teaching
and learning tool, books are not going away.” The
center also is getting set to add to its collection of
books — by adding “book publisher” to
its list of responsibilities.
For the first time, the USC Press will publish children’s
literature in 2013, with the start of Young Palmetto
Books. Jeffcoat said the press plans to publish five
children’s or young adult books about South Carolina
or written or illustrated by a South Carolinian next
year.
Jeffcoat is the series editor for Young Palmetto
Books, and she is joined by USC faculty members and
outside authors who help in selecting the books to
publish.
“We can publish the things we are looking for,
the things the fit in our curriculum,” she said. “And
we have such wonderful writers and illustrators in South
Carolina. It’s a win-win-win.”
