Abstract
Early childhood programs in public libraries provide a multitude of benefits to children and parents/caregivers and also create positive flow-on effects for communities. Past research has identified the benefits that children gain in the form of early literacy development and increased socialization. However, little research exists on social and cultural benefits of these programs for accompanying parents/caregivers. This paper examines the educational, cultural, and social affordances of two early childhood literacy programs' children and accompanying caregivers: Giggle and Wiggle and Story Time. Using an interpretivist paradigm, semistructured interviews explored the experiences and perceptions of librarians and caregivers about the impact of these programs. The findings demonstrated that these programs have significant and wide-ranging educational, social, and cultural impacts as participants positively perceived the role of public libraries in promoting learning. The findings have implications for public libraries advocacy, design of early childhood programs, and research on the impact of libraries.