The two-day South Island Children and Young Adults Librarians' conference, which started yesterday and continues today has attracted about 75 participants to the Opera House in Oamaru.
Yesterday, after the official opening by Waitaki Mayor Alex Familton, Auckland School of Arts, Languages and Literacies senior lecturer Wayne Mills set the theme for the conference: "Libraries Matter - They Matter a Lot".
Mr Mills, founder of the Kids Lit Quiz, which has become a global event, emphasised that libraries in schools and public libraries were a key element in improving literacy in New Zealand.
Research had shown that libraries were the best indicator of children's reading success and that more money invested in school libraries related to a higher success in reading scores.
But libraries needed to attract children by being more attractive, safe, offering a full range of both printed and electronic media and having fewer rules in regards to borrowing and returning books.
The key was also how librarians interacted with children in encouraging them to read for pleasure.
Mr Mills dispelled the myth about comics and their relationship to improving reading skills, particularly those of boys.
He said Finland, which had a high readership of comics, also had the highest reading scores.
Today's popular comics often contained text that was more complicated than books, the visual aspects helping children to read.
Librarians should be well paid for their skills, schools and the public needed to recognise the role of libraries in educating children and they needed to be well-funded and stocked.
