“The Importance of Play: A Selected Bibliography of Resources Related to Learning Through Play” was funded by a 2015 ALA Carnegie-Whitney Award (http://www.ala.org/offices/publishing/sundry/alapubawrds/carnegiewhitney). This resource list includes materials for a variety of age groups, and the online resource center includes professionally created videos from experts, links to online resources, and pdfs of the brochure and construction plans. These resources are geared toward the general public with children and to librarians, particularly those in public libraries, school libraries, and academic libraries with programs of Child and Family Studies and Education.

In the current educational climate, there is a strong emphasis on increasing learning standards and on testing, even at the youngest end of the spectrum. Additionally, many states—all but 7—currently have adopted the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), which places more stringent educational standards and goals on school age children. While the point of this project is not to debate the merits of CCSS, many will agree that the resulting tightening of the curriculum has left even less room in the school curriculum for learning through play—even at the youngest age where Kindergarten standards and Kindergarten readiness testing influences what goes on in the Pre-Kindergarten classroom.

It is the hope that this resource will allow parents and librarians to help address the gap and create learning through play activities in their homes and libraries.

Stacy Creel, Ph.D., Associate Professor
School of Library and Information Science
The University of Southern Mississippi
118 College Drive #5146
Hattiesburg, MS 39406-0001
Email:
Phone: 601.296.4228