The Free Library of Philadelphia Rocks

The Kids Section

My son goes with our nanny almost every day. I go with him ~once a month. The first time I went, I expected it to be a library, similar to the suburban library or school libraries I grew up with. A quiet place with books, organized in rows. Some computers, some free internet, some CDs/ways to listen to music. I wholly expected it to be unremarkable.

I was wrong.

The main branch - on Vine St in Spring Garden - is not that. It has a dedicated space for babies/young kids down in the basement, where there is also a separate space for teenagers (generally no adults allowed!). The kids section has tiny tables with computers (which my son climbs to hack away joyously on the keyboards, to hear the clicking sounds. It has bookshelves (duh). It has a play kitchen, with a fake stove, fake plastic meat, fake plastic fruit, fake pots, and a fake sink. But kids love playing with it. There are alcoves for parents to read to their kids, and there are stepping stools for kids to reach the higher shelves safely. There is a sign saying after you read a book, don't put it back, the library will do it for you.

My son goes there literally every day. Most of the parents, nannies, and older kids know him. He is known for being the "crazy" one climbing onto the computer desks designed for 5-year-olds when he was seven months.

If I didn't have a kid, I would not have seen any of this. I went 100% digital / eBooks with my reading over a decade ago. I have hundreds of books, from comics to serious literature, all digitally on my Google Play Books.

The Basement Theater

Last year we caught the very tail end of a Nutcracker performance in the basement theater. I mean very tail end — people were just exiting the theater and we ran into friends of ours who have a kid a few months older than ours. The library has a basement theater that does children's performances. I didn't even know it existed, much less that it did performances that were kid-friendly.

My son once threw up randomly - he wasn't even sick. I wasn't there, but I heard it was gross. I was mortified — it disrupted a book reading for all the other kids, and I think he threw up on the nanny too. It's funny how we're embarrassed by perfectly natural things our kids do.

Instrument Lending

The library also has an instrument lending program. I don't know the details — checkout periods, eligibility, what happens if you break a string. I discovered it by accident - last winter it was cold, we were in the library to warm up, and I walked to the left from the main entrance. There were racks of instruments, some turntables, some places to listen to music with fancy headphones. And some signage that you could borrow an instrument. There were some guitars and standard instruments, but also weird instruments I'd never seen.

I didn't grow up with access to instruments. My parents didn't play, they were expensive, and you basically had to know you really wanted to play something to make the investment to buy one. So I can't play a single thing. Imagine if it had been possible to borrow or rent one - I still probably wouldn't have been a musician, but maybe I would have appreciated music more. Who knows. (I wrote about three failed attempts at guitar — exactly the kind of thing an instrument-lending program might have prevented — in a piece on failing to learn guitar.)

Regardless, it's cool to know this exists. Obviously, I'm older now, I have responsibilities, and obligations and my neuroplasticity has decreased - so I am unlikely to get very good. But now I know I can try out an instrument whenever I want without spending $500.

The Rest of the Building

I don't spend much time on the main floor or in the teen area because I'm usually chasing a toddler, but every time I walk past both I notice the same thing: the staff are present. I keep expecting this to stop being true and it doesn't. The teen area has computers and counselors — kids working on things, staff who look like they're paying attention rather than just supervising. The main floor is the same. The reference librarians actually help people find things.

What surprised me most is that almost none of the things I like about the library are books. The books are great. But the play kitchen isn't a book. The theater isn't a book. The instrument lending program isn't a book. The counselors in the teen section aren't books. The library turns out to be one of the few places left where the city simply provides things because they're good for people to have.