Salem Public Library

I have to admit that before about a year ago, I had only been to the Salem Public Library maybe twice. We actually don’t live in Salem so I’d been used to going to a smaller library. We started coming a year ago for story time because our library didn’t offer one for kids under 3. Salem offers lots of different events that we have yet to try out.

The kids area is upstairs and has computers, places to sit and read and areas to play. They also have totes available that are theme-based backpacks organized by age, gender and language (English and Spanish). They usually include a couple of books, maybe a music CD or movie and usually a toy. They also have their ever-popular Discovery Room, which is a room setup in a certain theme that changes about every 3 months. The current theme going on right now is Grandpa’s Garage: “It’s time to tinker in Grandpa’s Garage. Kids are invited in to build a project at Grandpa’s workbench, experiment with levers and pulleys, learn about simple machines, and pedal around in a vintage car.” I’d hoped to get inside the Discovery Room today, but unfortunately when they do not have a volunteer to staff the room it is closed.

On the way to the story time room, they have a fish tank and though it didn’t have any fish in it today, it still entertained Bug for several minutes while I told her that the fish were “sleeping.” Judging from the amount of kids always hanging out in that area, it is a favorite place for a lot of others as well.

They have several different story times for different ages and even have a family story time in the evening. Bug still barely fits into the age group now to go to their “Lap Sit Story Time,” which is for kids up to 30 months. I really like that they offer 2 Wednesday story times – 10:15 and 11:00 – so that if we’re running late we always have the option of going to the 11:00 instead, which is exactly what happened today.

The story time room has graduated steps/stadium seating so that it can fit a lot of kids and parents. I love that they have a childproof gate at the door to keep kids from escaping. They have water fountains (with a foot stool!) and bathrooms right outside the door. The room is always neat and tidy. I do think though that they could easily add more story times for this age group. Today the room was completely packed, which makes it harder for parents to wrangle their little ones if needed. The room also gets really hot and sometimes gets a wee bit stinky. Other than that, story time is a blast. They read books, sing songs, do finger play and dance. Thirty minutes is the perfect length of time and ends just before kids start to get antsy. At the end, kids get a stamp on their hand(s), which is a nice treat.

We decided to hang around for a while and let Bug play afterwards. They have carousel horse chairs, hand puppets, legos and phone booths to play in. We stayed so long that we forgot we’d only paid the meter for an hour, but luckily the meter maid hadn’t caught us yet.

I’ve heard great things about the Queen of Tarts Bakery and Café downstairs as well, but we have yet to try it. I’ll save that review for another day…