Children and Libraries

[AlteFrau]

How many of you take your children to the library? Is there one near you that you enjoy using? Are you happy with the range of books that your library offers? Or do you have any concerns/complaints?

(Am wondering whether to take a child I'm looking after to a library near her house and would be very interested to hear about other parents/carers experiences.

The ones by me are great and all have kids sections with toys and colouring in. They do loads of events over the half terms. The main library in my area even has a magician in every day in the holidays. I do have to say my children love going as they have child friendly computers where they can play cbbc games

The one near my SIL’s house is great, very community minded and lots of kids books for all ages.

I'd recommend visiting your local library and seeing what it is like. I love taking my kids to the library and have done so regularly since they were babies. We have a great local library with lots of books at each age range and lots of activities for children too. Before we lived her our local library was also very child/young person friendly and felt more like a youth club than a library. I know that in other parts of the UK libraries aren't as well funded though.

I loved taking my DCs to the library years ago. Makes me quite teary thinking about those days.
They are now 28, 19 and 17.
None of them read for pleasure though the youngest, just today, said that she’d like to get back into it!!!

Am wondering whether to take a child I'm looking after to a library near her house

Why wouldn't you take her? I can't think of any reason not to.

All the time, even though she’s only 10 months! Check what’s on at your local library, mine has rhyme time and story time for younger children and Lego and crafts for older children. Also a cup of tea and a biscuit for parents 😊

Why would someone’s opinion on a different library sway where or not you went to another library?

The kids section of libraries are wonderful! The best bit. We used to go every week, it's a no brainer, check it out asap!

It's like taking them to a bookshop, but they can pick whatever they like to take away and read. How could that not be amazing?

My DDs are 21 and 20 now and we used to go to the library every week to get books out when they were nursery and primary school age. They both loved it. DD1 now always has a book or two on the go and DD2 doesn’t read much at all but that time when they were young and we read all those library books together was really special.

I am sure the child will love it.
It's a library. They're generally designed to encourage children 🤷

@AlteFrau when was the last time you went to a library?
Out of curiosity.....

The library near us has a wonderful children’s section with loads of choice. We go every week and get a pile of books for our almost 4 year old. It’s her favourite. They sometimes have a table set too with colouring which is great.

Last year we spent 3 months at my parents and used the library there too. It was a tiny little library but they managed to fit a heck of a lot of children’s book in there. There was also a lovely nook built in the wall kids could climb and sit in with teddies which was super sweet.

With both the books were rotated across the country so every time we go the stock is different, which is great as we get through books very fast!

It’s honestly one of our favourite parts of the week and it really makes me appreciate that we have such a great resource available for free.

I take the kids to our local library. I'd love to pretend it was the books, but if I'm honest it's the craft table, lego and toy corner they like. We do some reading to, but I very much have to push it.

How old is the child? It might be worth checking if the library run any activities. Mine used to do 'rhyme time' (singing nursery rhymes) and 'toddler tails' (listen to a story then do some related colouring)

Despite being a voracious reader and enthusiastic pursuer of Waterstones children’s books collections, I don’t enjoy library visits with children at all. It’s worth doing if you want to but equally it’s not the only way to promote and enjoy reading.

I went a few years back to my local library and it was full with the homeless and underhoused sitting in all the chairs with a book on their lap sleeping. Although the kids section was fine it just made my skin crawl.

We're very lucky to have a lovely library near us. Not sure why you wouldn't take a child? They're such an important resource - books are expensive, very few people could keep their children who like reading in stocks of new books.

Ex librarian (who hated the job and found it was nothing like i thought it would be), who loves books and has two children; one with severe disabilities. Take your children, words, books, stories etc will give them a leg up in every way of life. Show themnthe enjoyment that people can get from reading. Give them the escape, the other lands, the different words, people and characters. Nothing bad can come from taking your children to the library and sharing a story/ book with them.

our local library is fab! Regular engaging activities on weekends and holidays plus knowledgeable librarians. It’s warm , inviting, community oriented and lovely! I wish we had more time to spend there

I used to love going to the library when I was a child - a haven of peace and quiet. Whilst my local library is wonderful in terms of resources, I take issue with people eating there and generally being too loud. This applies to both children and adults. Where are the quiet study rooms?

I’m biased as I work in a library and love my job! All the libraries in my area bend over backwards for kids, at mine we do story time, Bookbug sessions, craft sessions, Lego over the weekends & holidays, class visits.

Unless they are screaming their heads off
dont tell them to be quiet! There’s no need for silence unless it’s an actual reading room (which you wouldn’t be taking kids to anyway!) Telling kids to shush for talking just makes them feel like a library isn’t for them.

Take them, there’s literally no reason not to. You can take books home for them or just sit and read for a while in the library. It’s never, ever too early to start visiting the library.

I did quite often when DDs were younger - they had a story time session and a nice children’s section. They used to like doing the summer book challenge. Don’t go anymore (probably should make more effort)

Why wouldn’t you? Not getting the angst.

Make sure they have access to a ticket so they can borrow materials that they find - either yours or their own - or disappointment and potentially tears will ensue. Maybe the library will do a special childminder ticket, ring and ask beforehand. Also remember to return them.

Yes, we go all the time. We have a tiny one nearby run entirely by wonderful volunteers and a much bigger one a bit further away. Both do free rhyme time for little ones. Why wouldn’t you go? There are free books.

My littlest joined the library at 9 days old. They had a library card before they had a birth certificate.