Watch: Weltevreden Park librarian brings stories to life
Story time reaches global audience
Every Thursday morning at 9am, librarian Gwyneth Perry adjusts her camera, reaches for a book and hosts a virtual story time for children.
Story time has been an activity that children and parents have enjoyed at the Weltevreden Park Community Library for years, but when the country went into lockdown last year, Gwyneth took a page out of late night TV show hosts and connected with her young audience online. She began the digital story time series in April 2020 at her home because she hoped the children missed the activity as much as she missed them.
Started on the Joburg Libraries’ Facebook page, the activity garnered a strong audience and soon branched out to other libraries in the city – with many librarians joining and partaking in story time. The books are aimed at children aged from two to 10 years, although according to Gwyneth the adults enjoy them just as much. “The videos are up to nine minutes long because if they are too long then people will run out of interest or their data will run out,” she said.
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Gwyneth said she always tries to look at different upcoming themes to go with each book. With May being Africa Month, they will be reading a lot of African stories. The growth and resulting expansion of digital story times also mean that avid readers can choose their favourite story tellers. She explained that, “My thinking was to try and present it in a way that looked like I was reading to a group of children”.
As urban areas move to become more digital and tech savvy, screen time (TV, tablets and smart phones) has rapidly increased among young children. Depending on the content they consume, too much screen time has been linked to bad sleeping habits, tantrums, short attention spans and lack of exercise. As a result book shops and libraries in particular, have just about become a rarity.
How are librarians such as Gwyneth instilling a love for reading and literature in children? “I think it depends a lot on whether the parents are readers themselves because if they are readers and they are willing to bring their children to the libraries, then they become more enthusiastic. Unfortunately, I think children have started to see books as ‘school work’. There is not this joy of reading,” she said. Gwyneth added that books and stories about African animals are always big hits and are the most requested.
She advised that reading to children from as early as six months old is a great way to instil a strong culture of reading. She admitted that she would love for the community library to be full of children and get back into the community. The glimmer of hope is that the number of people who log onto the Facebook page to join the virtual story times has doubled since lockdown, and reached book lovers across the world including New Zealand, United States, Australia and Europe.
