[Publib] Children's Services -- what do you provide?

[Sarah Samson]

Hello,

I am the Public Services Manager at a medium-sized library in Texas.  Our
city has a population of about 100,000, we are the only public library in
the city (no branches). We do not have a children's desk in the Children's
Room.  For years, the children's librarians' responsibilities have been on
programming (storytimes, Summer Reading activities, puppet shows, etc) and
collection development.  The storytimes are hugely popular--often 100
children with parents come to a storytime on any given day.

We just formed a committee to discuss purchasing a children's desk and the
staffing of the desk, in other words, start providing children's reference
and readers advisory in the children's room.  Our children's librarians are
not thrilled about doing children's reference, they don't think there is a
demand for it and they feel they have enough to do with programming and
collection development.

I'd like to hear from other libraries of cities my size.  Do you have
children's reference or does the reference department handle any children's
reference/readers advisory questions?  Our reference department is on 2nd
floor, children's is on 1st floor, so when Reference librarians do get
children's reference/readers advisory questions, they can't always leave the
desk to show the child and parent where the books they are looking for are
located. Plus, the reference librarians don't feel they have enough
knowledge and experience to provide good service to children (it's not their
expertise).

How does your library provide children's services? Any feedback is Much
appreciated!

Thank you!

Sarah Samson
Public Services Manager
Round Rock Public Library
ssamson at round-rock.tx.us
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