It’s no surprise to anyone that local libraries and museums are key players in exposing children to books and expanding their opportunities to learn. But in recent years, these community institutions have become more and more intentional about how they approach early learning, especially among children from low-income families.

The GLR Campaign and the federal Institute for Museum and Libraries Services (IMLS) today released a report documenting 10 key ways that libraries and museums are supporting young children. Growing Young Minds: How Museums and Libraries Create Lifelong Learners also offers case studies and provides a clear call to policymakers, schools, funders, and parents to make full use of these vital, existing community resources.

The report release event at the Anacostia Library in D.C. began with story time for toddlers. Kids were pointing and shouting and jumping up as the children’s librarians led the reading. The  building, set in a neighborhood with pockets of poverty, is a brand new one and draws a big crowd every day. But across the country, low-income children are less likely to visit libraries than their peers. An IMLS analysis showed that 33 percent of the poorest children visited a library in their kindergarten year, compared to 66 percent of the most affluent. The trends are similar for museums. IMLS released maps showing the concentration of museums and libraries and the population density of children under age 5.

Thursday’s event drew officials from the White House, the U.S. Education Department and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services extolling the value of libraries and museums for building early literacy. It also highlighted the partnership between the GLR Campaign and IMLS. Last year, IMLS issued $2.5 million in grants  to institutions seeking to improve early literacy and has committed another $2.5 million for 2013. Several of those libraries are working with partners in the GLR Communities Network.

“With built infrastructure in nearly every community, we must fully leverage the capacity of libraries and museums to provide opportunities for high-quality early learning,” said IMLS Director Susan H. Hildreth. “I urge the early childhood development community to reach out to libraries and museums and make full use of their trusted place in communities, their partnership capacity and their skills and talents.”

Here are the 10 ways libraries and museums can help.

• Increasing high-quality early learning experiences
• Engaging and supporting families as their children’s first teachers
• Supporting development of executive function and “deeper learning” skills through literacy and STEM-based experiences
• Creating seamless links across early learning and the early grades
• Positioning children for meeting expectations of the Common Core State Standard
• Addressing the summer slide
• Linking new digital technologies to learning
• Improving family health and nutrition
• Leveraging community partnerships
• Adding capacity to early learning networks