Harlingen Public Library

Our Family Place Library has such a positive impact on our community, especially for families who are looking to make connections with other families. Our Family Place play area has been a very popular spot to visit, but renovations began in our children's area during October 2024 and we have less visitors now that we are in a smaller temporary space. Our renovated children's area will open in 2025 and we believe we will see even more families spending time in our play area with the changes we are making.

Families are grateful to have a safe space where their children can play and learn and where the adults can connect with other caregivers in our community and organizations that can assist them in their parenting journey. It’s a joy to see the kids grow and learn as time passes and to hear their caregivers express gratitude for our Family Place program. We know the connections caregivers have been making at programs like our parent-child workshop, toddler play dates, and story times are important to them because we continually see those people using our Family Place play area for play dates together at non-program times and hear them discussing time spent together outside the library as well. In addition, we see some of our parent-child workshop families at other programs for which we partner with our community resource professionals, so we know the connections families make with these organizations are having an impact as well.