For a library that is this small and in a small town - they sure do their best to engage readers at every level from toddler to teen, adult and elderly. I LOVE this Library for many reasons! Primarily because of their natural and pleasant demeanor toward toddlers & children. They are friendly, responsive and VERY PATIENT with young children and they have a huge area in the library dedicated to toddler aged children. The toddler area contains: books, puzzles, shape sorters, stuffed animals, games, and a few age appropriate toys. My son is a little over 2 years old and he isn't really too keen on books/reading so I am always trying to engage him in that aspect of his development- so this is a great place to start. The library also has 2 turtles in a tank and my son LOVES to look at the turtles- so that's always cool for him & other kids I'm sure! During Christmas Time the library was fully decorated with a small model town complete with snow, lights, & tiny little stores- too cute!
My son has done it ALL at this library (ran around/ran up and down the aisles, yelled/babbled (he's learning how to talk & is just now testing what is appropriate), broke this coin thing (repeatedly), tried going into the employee area (bottom floor is off limits), has thrown puzzles/books/games, has repeatedly played with the bubbler (needs a stepping stool and ends up making a mess). Now as his mom he has always been closely supervised but toddlers can be difficult! I can say with confidence that we were never once even SPOKEN TO, disrespected, yelled at, or even redirected. So MAJOR kudos to the librarians/staff. My son is a toddler so that was really important because there is nothing worse then adults who are mean to children (especially those children who don't technically know better and are still learning)!
We were going to this library EVERY Friday around 1:00 pm and we have NEVER seen another toddler- let alone another child. The library was pretty quiet with primarily elderly individuals gathering there on Friday afternoon's in a beautiful conference room that I believe can be rented out. I love that this library is CLEAN (immaculately so) and the bathrooms have changing tables (toddler friendly AND clean- YAY)!
I also love the fact that this library is interactive and tries to engage you with all different methods ! The library has little "stations" at certain times of the year like this winter there was a "Make Your Own SnowFlake" station and once completed they were hung throughout the library. The library is also constantly having different contests (ie. find the elf in the library) and giveaways (on Valentine's Day they raffled off 2 baskets & I've seen them raffle off plants before). They have a ton of information on the town of Scituate (pamphlets and what not).
The ONLY reason I gave 4 starts instead of 5 is that this library currently lacks an activity director (I believe they are in the process of getting a new one), because I did see a sign up sheet for something related to children - which seemed old and only had only 1 signature! When my son was younger we used to go to "story time" quite frequently but would have to travel to other towns such as Cranston. I think if they have finally hired someone that they could get a lot of children involved if they did a story time or craft time. Almost every library has activities or days/nights dedicated to specific tasks with children. If they added a child calendar I would be really excited and I'm sure the kids of Northern Rhode Island would be happy too! read more