The implementation of developmental bibliotherapy in working with children and young adults in public libraries

Abstract

Purpose. The purpose of this paper is to present how developmental bibliotherapy can be applied in the children and youth departments in public libraries. Approach. The use of developmental bibliotherapy contributes to the development of emotional and social competencies in children and young adults, and is often practiced by children librarians as a part of different library programmes in modern libraries. This paper is the result of many years of experience of the authors, and it is structured using the method of text analysis and comparison. Results. It is important to provide certain preconditions for the successful implementation of a bibliotherapeutic process, such as successful communication with children, good group coherence, understanding of group dynamic, and the selection of appropriate reading materials. The results show the need for developing a number of competencies in the librarians working with children and young adults. Orginality/value. The paper shows how implementation of developmental bibliotherapy helps children and young adults in solving the problems that they encounter while growing up. To test the efficiency of the solutions found through the bibliotherapeutic process, this paper emphasizes and presents the techniques of drama and puppet play.