Librarian earns national recognition
Children around Butler County may recognize the face of educator Tiffany Harkleroad, no matter what school district they attend.
Harkleroad is the youth services librarian at the Butler Area Public Library, and even if a child couldn't make it to her regular reading sessions in person, they could watch an adapted version of her storytimes online.
“On March 14, (2020) we got a stay at home order, and on March 17, I started doing storytimes in my attic,” Harkleroad said. “We were away for about eight weeks, and I really had little to no face-to-face interaction with these kids I watched grow up. I needed to do something.”
People across the country may soon start to recognize Harkleroad, because she has been recognized by PBS as an early learning champion for her innovation in children's education through the library. She is the first librarian to be awarded by the program since its inception in 2018.
Liz Kostandinu, manager of the Inquire Within project at WQED, nominated Harkleroad for the award after collaborating with her for more than four years. She said she chose Harkleroad because of her enthusiasm for working with children, and her innovative teaching methods that moved her programs and ideas online during the coronavirus pandemic.
“She's a phenomenal human being, passionate about community and really sets the bar very high,” Kostandinu said. “I never walk away from a conversation with her without learning something and being inspired.
“I don't think there is a better spokesperson for children's librarians.” According to Kostandinu, all affiliates of PBS across the country could nominate someone as an early learning champion, and 11 people were selected this year. She said typical nominees and winners include mainly teachers.
WQED had another winner in 2018, Children's Museum of Pittsburgh educator William Tolliver Jr., and he worked with the other 2018 champions for a two-year period, as is standard for the program.
Harkleroad will work with PBS and the other 10 early learning champions for the next two years to develop new learning ideas and strategies, Kostandinu said.
Kostandinu said there is a lot of crossover in function between public access television and libraries, which is why she wanted to promote a librarian as an early learning champion.
“Public media and libraries collaborate in the same spaces,” she said. “They both sink deeper roots into communities. A public library can meet every segment of a community and work with all different age groups.”
Although the library was closed to browsing for a while, Harkleroad continued working on new projects to keep children engaged in reading throughout, some of which were collaborations with Kostandinu and PBS. She distributed take-home family literacy kits in late-2020, recorded more than 100 storytime videos for the library's YouTube page and together with PBS created a special interactive website for Mr. Rogers' birthday.
Harkleroad said she enjoys being able to work in an educational “sweet spot.”
“I really have a lot of freedom to be playful and outside the box,” she said. “It really has changed, and we want to be a center of the community — we're not just books.”
Kostandinu said librarians can get left out of the educational conversation because they may not work as closely and as frequently with children as teachers. However, she said libraries are a prime community center for public education to flow and evolve through.
“I think primarily we really want to get all educators to focus in on the importance of partnership and collaboration,” Kostandinu said, “and leveraging the resources that your community has to offer to make your programming content better for the communities you serve.”
Harkleroad agreed that libraries can be powerful resources to everyone, and said she is looking forward to using PBS' resources to further the Butler library's offerings.
“We identify the needs in our community and get resources to fill them,” she said about public libraries. “I really believe in this partnership between public TV and public libraries, and really want to bring attention to it on a national level.”
Kostandinu said she may plan a celebration for Harkleroad in the near future to congratulate her on earning the award.
