[Publib] Children's rooms upstairs?

[Elizabeth Thorson]

We have a three-floor building, with the second floor designated for
children and teens. It works well for us. 
 
The first floor and second floor are the noisier floors (first floor is
popular materials like fiction, music, movies, etc), and they are
connected by a stairway and an atrium-like space (relatively small, it's
basically the "roof" of the gallery which connects the two sets of doors
to the building, two meeting rooms, the cafe, and first-floor restrooms
with the "real" entrance to the library). The third floor is designated
as the quiet floor.
 
We do have some children playing on the stairs and elevators, but it's
not a huge problem. I'm not sure what you mean by children's librarians
carting things up and down - of course our shelvers do have to move
materials around the building, but we included a storytime/craft room on
the second floor so the staff doesn't have to go far to do programs.
 
Feel free to contact me if you have more questions. A map of the
building can be found here: http://www.lclsonline.org/building/lcmap.php

Elizabeth
 
Elizabeth Cuckow Thorson
Manager, Reference & Collection Services
Laramie County Library System
2200 Pioneer Ave., Cheyenne WY 82001
307-773-7230

>>> "Su Epstein" <sepstein at columbiactlibrary.org> 9/1/2009 7:28 AM >>>

Hi all, 
 
Me again, wanting more feedback from the collective mind.
 
I know the trend of late has been to put Children’s Rooms on the second
floor of a building.  This has not worked out so well for the places
I’ve worked in that have done this. (Noise below, children playing
and falling down stairs and elevators, and children’s librarians carting
a great deal up and down).
 
What’s your opinion?  Would you design it this way?  Praises and
pitfalls if you didn’t mind?
 
As always, thank you and I’ll be happy to share responses.
Su
 
 
Su Epstein, Ph.D.
Library Director
Saxton B. Little Free Library
Columbia, CT 06237
sepstein at columbiactlibrary.org
860.228.0350
 
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