Use Design Thinking To Raise Up Family Perspectives
Engagement | Raise Up | Watertown Free Public Library
Human-centered design thinking is an approach that opens new possibilities for how libraries can partner with families. The approach involves asking librarians to put themselves in families’ shoes and to develop and refine services from the family perspective. Child Services librarians at the Watertown Free Public Library (MA) used this approach to reimagine how families with very young children experience story time.
To understand families’ needs and feelings, librarians observed a story time for children ages birth through twelve months, and then talked with families about why they come to the library, what they like, and what improvements they would like to see. After the observations and interviews, librarians synthesized their notes, discussed family needs, and brainstormed ideas for how to meet them.
From listening and raising up families’ voices, librarians became more aware of how families with young children need to feel connected to other parents with new babies and have a way to get and share information in nonjudgmental settings.
Librarians are now planning to dedicate a portion of their story time sessions to a collective conversation among families about questions they have, such as when babies can change car seats and the best foods for babies to try first.
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