About Us

The Children's Library

The Children's Collection

Computers in the Children's Library

Services for Children, Parents and Teachers

Children's Events

FAQ

Materials and Services at the Children's Library of the Denver Public Library

The Children's Library has a long history of service especially geared to the young people of Denver, the state of Colorado and beyond. This commitment began in 1889 with the appointment of John Cotton Dana as Denver's first official City Librarian. Dana was one of the first people to suggest a separate reading room for children within a library. He formed the first children's room in the public library, then located in Denver's East High School. It contained materials just for children, including books and picture files, and featured a gold and red inscription on one wall from Robert Louis Stevenson that read "The World is so Full of a Number of Things, I'm sure we should all be as Happy as Kings."

Denver Public Library has continued that tradition of excellence in service for children in the 100 plus years since Dana resided as City Librarian. Each of DPL's 23 branches has a dedicated juvenile space, the largest of which is the Children's Library in the Central Library building. The mission of the Denver Public Library, to "connect people with information, ideas and experiences to provide enjoyment, enrich lives and strengthen our community" is reflected in its juvenile resources and services for children.

Children's Library

	The Children’s Library is located in the Central Library building at 10 West 14th Avenue Parkway, on the corner of 14th Street and Broadway, very close to the State Capitol building. The Children’s space is situated prominently on the first level of the seven-story Central Library, covering 12,500 square feet.
The Children’s Library and the furniture in it were designed by Michael Graves, the architect that designed the 1995 Central Library addition. The furniture and shelving was custom-made for the space and designed with little people in mind. The room is large and bright with lots of areas for quiet reading, sharing stories, and playing.
It also features the Claire McMenamy Berger Memorial Children’s Pavilion, a spectacular, octagonal-shaped space for storytelling and other children’s programs.

Children's Collection

Books

The Children’s Library houses over 100,000 items for children in many formats. The materials in the Library are intended for children ages 0-12 and include a juvenile non-fiction section on a broad variety of subjects, a separate collection of biographies, board books for the very young, a large picture book collection for pre-readers, “readers” for emergent readers, and longer “chapter” books for grade-school aged kids. The Library houses a comprehensive reference collection for in-house research. The collection also features a small “parenting” section of adult materials that includes videos and magazines.

Audio/Visual Materials

Other formats are popular such as educational movies on videocassette and DVD, books on tape and CD, bookpacks (picture books accompanied by an audio of the text), CDs of music for kids, computer software, and juvenile magazines.

Materials in Other Languages

The Children’s Library is home to the largest collection of Spanish juvenile materials in the DPL system. The Spanish collection features reference books, fiction for ages 0-12, non-fiction, audio CDs of music, and popular and educational videos. The Library also houses books in French, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, and Vietnamese. Many branch libraries have considerable collections of juvenile materials in foreign languages, including Valdez-Perry, Byers, and Woodbury.

In addition to the regular, circulating collection, the Children’s Library has a small historical collection featuring many original McGuffy Readers, and other historical books of note for children.

Computers

There are 12 networked computers in the Children’s Library, as well as two computers that play CD-ROM games only. The networked computers offer access to the Internet, as well as Denver Public Library’s online catalog and homework help.

The computers in the Children’s Library are for children 12 and under only. There are two courtesy terminals next to the reference desk reserved for use by adults when looking for juvenile materials. The computers in the Children’s Library are self-service and offer filtered access to the Internet. It is the expectation that parents/caregivers will assist their children when necessary and monitor what they are viewing on the World Wide Web. No filtering software is totally accurate. Filters may falsely block constitutionally protected speech or they may fail to block access to illegal or objectionable material. For further information, read the Library’s Internet Use Policy.

Services for Children, Parents and Teachers

The Children's Library has a full-time staff of 5 librarians who staff the busy reference desk, plan and execute programs, and maintain the collection. The librarians in the Children’s Library are specialists available to help the public in a variety of ways including research, homework help, book recommendations, and general library information. In addition to these services, the Children’s Library offers a few more specialized services.

Children's Events

In addition to educating young customers through a strong collection and great services, the Children’s Library hopes to entertain and inspire them through a variety of programs including storytimes, crafts, read-alouds, and family programs.