Eva K. Bowlby Public Library

The Eva K. Bowlby Public Library went through several major staff changes in 2023, but was able to rally and pull off three Parent/Child Workshop Sessions, the latter of which was expanded from the basic five-week P/CW into a ten-week Family Place Play program, offering the same enriching play opportunities as before, but more of them, with outside Community Resource Professionals joining us for four of the weeks. The Children's Department is now dependably staffed by a full time certified Children's Librarian and a part time Early Childhood Professional, who work to ensure a variety of rewarding programs for all ages, especially the very young, and to provide a bright and welcoming environment for families. While some toys are always available to play with in the main area of the children's library, such as the Duplo table and a new playhouse/tunnel/photobooth (which briefly transformed into the Polar Express for the month of December), other toys rotate out, including kits through WQED's Inquire Within Program (which last summer completely enraptured dozens of young children with Viewmaster slides of amazing bugs). Attendees of the youngest storytime programs also get some extra time to explore the larger Family Place Dramatic Play area in the storytime room.