Branka Dragosavac
Biblioteka grada Beograda
bebadrag@gmail.com

No. 29 (November 2016), p. 30-38

Legal Acts Regulating Work of Children’s Libraries
and Children’s Departments in Public Libraries

Summary

The establishment and work of children’s libraries and children’s departments are related to the formation of public libraries within which they are operating. The first, as well as most of the later laws that are defining their functions and tasks, are within the framework of regulations for the operation of public libraries. The first Public Libraries Act (England, 1850) contained the basic assumptions about the need for the establishment of children’s departments within public libraries. All the subsequent international as well as national legislation, standards and guidelines for the operation of public libraries have dealt with defining their functions and tasks, emphasizing children as the most important category of library users.
This article provides a historical overview of the laws, standards, rules, policies and regulations on children’s departments of public libraries and independent children’s libraries in the world, the former Yugoslavia and Serbia, and seeks to show the efforts of all the relevant institutions and individuals who contributed to their development, institutionalization and standardization of jobs. New Standards for Public Libraries in Serbia, initiated and adopted by the leading librarian associations in the Republic of Serbia, were adopted and published in 2010. The Standards stipulate that all the public libraries (central and municipal) have departments for children and young people with adequate reading room. The Law on Library and Information Science Activities was passed by the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia in 2011. The Ordinance on National Standards for Performing Library and Information Science Activities, which includes standards for public libraries, appeared shortly thereafter. When it comes to children’s departments, these standards comply with the Standards for Public Libraries in Serbia (2010), and specifically emphasize that most of library collections should be placed in free access, library funds must contain literary and non-literary works for adults, teens and children, as well as computer games, toys, games and puzzles and learning materials.

Keywords:

children’s departments, children’s libraries, public libraries, legislation, standards, guidelines, library services

Submitted: 9th September 2016
Correction to the manuscript: 24th September 2016
Accepted for publication: 2nd October 2016.

Legal Acts Regulating Work of Children’s Libraries and Children’s Departments in Public Libraries by Branka Dragosavac is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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