Case Study: South Tyneside Library

South Tyneside Library is a busy central library. Adviser Pauline Martin, led a World Book Day Arts Award project with children from a local school, Marine Park Primary. The school visited the library once a week, over a four week period, working towards achieving their Discover award.

Approach

The project was inspired by World Book Day, with the library using storytelling to engage the group. The class explored literature as an art form, as well as examining the bigger picture of arts provision in South Tyneside. Each child was signed up as library member, and they chose their own books to take home at the end of each session.

For Part A 'Discover' the group looked at, and discussed, all of the different art forms they had taken part in, and the arts organisations that the children were already aware of. This was recorded in their Discover log books.

The group looked round the library to see what examples of “art” existed within the building, and then went on a walking tour of South Shields, identifying pieces of art and arts organisations around the town. 

The children decided which areas of the arts they would like to engage with in the future and recorded this in their logs.

On World Book Day the group came to the Library to see a traditional storyteller from Animal Story, who illustrated his stories by using real animals! He told a rainforest story and showed the children frogs, millipedes, snakes and spiders.

The children took photographs at all of the sessions, and put the information into their log books, reflecting on what they enjoyed most about their experiences.

For Part B 'Find out', the children researched two authors. The first session was using the library computers/books etc. to research an author of their choice. The information they found included a biography, bibliography and interesting facts. They reflected on why they had chosen this particular author.

The second session was to research a different author. This was done on the library’s iPads and the group presented their findings on an app called Memory Box.

At the end of each session the group showed their work, described the authors they had researched, and presented their portfolios or memory boxes to the rest of the group. This also completed Part C Share.

This led to a general discussion on books/authors and the role of the Library Service as an arts organisation.

Impact 

Through the project the children learned about literature and its place as part of “the arts”, and became more aware of the arts being all around us. The young people learned to present their work using different forms, a useful transferable skill!

The project also benefited the library, leading to increased library membership.

Comments

`Arts Award is a good framework to build into what we do. Discover is a good stepping stone for exploring the arts as a whole, and then concentrating on literature, an art form which ties into what we deliver on a daily basis.’

Pauline Martin, Arts Award adviser