The Young Adults Program (YAP), at the Palmerston Public Library is delivering educational and enjoyable activities to motivate children and young adults to not only make more use of the facilities in their local library, but read more books. YAP was first launched in August 2000 with a Teen Week coinciding with the Darwin Fringe Festival.
“The project is also designed to include parents and educators, to encourage older as well as younger children to read for enjoyment,” said Palmerston Public Library’s Children and Youth Services Coordinator, Sally Howarth. “It is not a fallacy that non required, self selected reading can be fun.”
To assist funding for the program, Palmerston received an Innovative Grant from the Northern Territory Library and Information Service valued at $15,200. As part of the grant, the Library was asked to prepare a package for other libraries that would include a step by step guide on the program.
A YAP Steering Committee was established to oversee the program and its activities. The Steering Committee comprises 25 members, with eight active members from local schools. Among some of the activities that the YAP group have undertaken are forum/information nights with Parks and Wildlife on how to look after injured or orphaned animals, assisted with the organisation of the ‘Ghosts in the Dark in the Park’ Festival, which was a story evening in the park, as well as story time sessions at the Library.
“Participants have acknowledged the fact that being part of YAP has helped them with their studies because of the access that they have received to particular information and databases and the help from staff in the library,” said Sally Howarth.
For further information, contact Sally Howarth on (08) 8935 9999.
