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© 1999 Seattle Public Library

Universal Branch Building Program:
9.0 Children's Services Area

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9.1 Function

This is the major public service area serving toddlers, preschoolers, and elementary and middle school clients as well as parents, teachers and caregivers.

The area serves diverse age groups and therefore is comprised of a wide variety of collections and activities. Care must be taken to provide an attractive, inviting atmosphere, to offer a variety of seating and display spaces, to allow physical and visual differentiation of the various children's collections and spaces, and to provide ease of movement for adults, children, and strollers.

9.2 Adjacencies

Primary:

Circulation Desk or Reference Information Desk
Children's/Family Restroom in 10,000 and 15,000 square foot buildings

Secondary:

Multipurpose/Meeting Room
Restrooms and Drinking Fountain

9.3 Design Issues

The location should be readily evident upon entering the library.

Children should not have to pass through other areas of the library except circulation to reach the children's area. Shelving or a partial wall should be used to partially enclose the children's area to prevent young children from easily wandering out of the building.

This is one of the noisier areas of the library and the design should include appropriate acoustical treatment. It should not be located near the quieter areas of the library.

Natural light and windows are desirable.

The children's area should be within line of sight supervision from the circulation and/or reference/information desk.

Staff at the reference desk will assist children, so the desk must be nearby and approachable by children. The lower segment of the desk should face the children's area.

The furniture needs to be sized to children and should include lounge seating for parents and children and nursing mothers. The design needs to keep the safety of children in mind. Furnishings should have rounded corners.

The design should appeal to children and should contain some element that sets the area apart from the rest of the library. Consider a manipulative, touchable area such as a play wall or end of stack treatment to provide an opportunity for children to have a tactile interaction with the building.

Incorporating permanent art into the design of the children's area is highly recommended.

Open space for children to sit on the floor for informal program activities for preschool groups and school tours is needed.

The design needs to provide enough space for strollers to be moved about easily.

If the building design allows it, a lockable door leading directly from the children's area to the meeting/multipurpose room is desirable.

The area will house the entire spectrum of materials for children: books, media, and magazines. Some branches will also have toys. All types of materials should be housed on regular shelving with specialty insert shelves, racks, and bins.

The 10,000 and 15,000 square foot branches will have a parenting collection of books, magazine and related materials in the children's area.

Several types of display spaces are needed:

• for books on shelving units, either on top or on the shelves
• slot wall with acrylic bins for graded booklists and other library materials
• tackable surfaces for seasonal displays and children's art (this should be distributed throughout the children's area rather than being one large space to fill)

The children's/family restroom should incorporate the design issues described in Section 11, Public Restrooms. The fixtures should be the lowest standard size available in order to be included in the fixture count required by code.

9.4 Components and Furnishings

Display areas for books, library publications and theme displays
Clock at appropriate level for children
Wastebasket and recycling bin

9.41 Picture Book, Readers, Easy Fiction and Non-Fiction

Shelving, 45" high, slotted, canopy tops
Book bins for board books
Parent/child lounge seating
Reader seats at 4-place tables, 24" high
Open space for picture book reading/informal activities

9.42 Older Children

Shelving, 66" high for books, magazines, paperbacks, media, software and parenting collection in larger branches
Computer workstations
Reader seats at 4-place tables, 30" high

publish date: 14 March 2000