Scholars@Home: mini-libraries for children
San Francisco Public Library (SFPL)
Innovation Synopsis
One of the most important elements to support early literacy is ensuring regular access to books, particularly ensuring they are in the home, San Francisco Public Library started an initiative called Scholars @ Home to offer mini-libraries for at-risk children. The initiative originally started by working with San Francisco’s social services agencies to provide board books and early literacy information materials to families of infants and toddlers. In 2024, we expanded offerings to children who are eligible for Transitional Kindergarten (TK) classes in our public school district, SFUSD. Each of these library kits are placed in small cardboard suitcases so they are easy to carry and include a rhyme book in one of three languages; a multilingual welcome letter for grownups; two sets of decodable books in English and/or Spanish; a mix of easy reading books in English or one of two target languages: Spanish or Chinese.
Challenge/Opportunity
Among the biggest challenges of any such initiative is ensuring the books reach the target audience. San Francisco Unified School District is gradually increasing its Transitional Kindergarten program to meet California guidelines that ensure all young children who qualify can access a high-quality Kindergarten-readiness program. In San Francisco, 45 elementary schools and early learning centers offered Transitional Kindergarten classes and 15 more schools will be added this year. The Library works to connect with each TK program and coordinate direct deliveries with school librarians.
Teachers are very receptive to receiving the kits. One key point we have is to make sure they understand is that we are giving these away forever; we do not want them to be returned or tracked. A second challenge is shipping them to the schools as they are self-contained kits, and so are bulkier than just boxes of a single book title.
Key Elements of Innovation
To make it easy to build literacy skills at home with parents and caregivers, who may have limited English language skills, SFPL makes Scholars @ Home kits for English learners, bilingual English/Spanish learners and bilingual English/Chinese learners. SFPL also recognizes the importance of supporting caregivers so they can share the joys of reading aloud in the home language as well as in English. We encourage caregivers to build their home libraries by offering a varied selection of books for their children to enjoy. The cardboard suitcases that the Scholars @ Home kits arrive in are sturdy and beautiful and intended to provide portability as well as usability for building a home library. In addition, SFPL always includes some hardcover books in the Scholars @ Home kits so that the books can be cherished, handed down to younger children and kept forever in the home.
Achieved Outcomes
In FY 2024, San Francisco Public Library distributed 2,345 Scholars @ Home kits to learners. Children, teachers and parents have expressed delight with the kits. Teachers have continued to reach out to us when new students enroll so they can give a kit to every early learner who comes to their school.
Teacher responses:
John Muir School: “I saved them until the 100th Day of School to add to the excitement of the festivities. The parents and students were thrilled. On behalf of the John Muir community, I would like to send my appreciation to all that made this special gift possible and for creating an opportunity for our students. We loved the literacy kits.”
Tenderloin Community School: “We received the beautiful boxes! Thank you so much-the kiddos and teachers alike were so grateful.”
McCoppin School: “I just wanted to let you know how happy and grateful the TK teacher, students, and families were for the Scholar@Home boxes. Thank you so much!”
