Have you noticed a new option on our website’s main menu, called “Kids’ Corner”? Well, it’s up there—right at the top right corner, in big bold letters. That’s a small “surprise” we have for our patrons this week: a section totally created for our users aged 6 to 12.

Public libraries in general have their websites written with grownups in mind, and we are no exception to this rule. But we decided to give kids a little corner all their own. Our long-term hope is that the Kids’ Corner will bring children closer to their library and help them grow up as full and competent library users.

In the short term, the subsections we’ve envisioned for Kids’ Corner will not only introduce them to a how-to on getting the most out of their library, but also provide them with some extra guidance geared toward improving their information literacy and helping with their day-to-day informational needs.

Our plan is to add more subsections in the near future, but for now there are four main parts to Kids’ Corner:

Your Library explains to the kids about the process of getting started as a library member, such as how to get a card, what you need to do to get set up online, and how to write a good password for your account.

Homework Help contains good places for kids to go to when they want to research something. This section is intended to be a bit like the research equivalent of training wheels. As all but one of the resources are about a variety of subjects, your kiddo will still have to put their research skills to use, but we’ve already pointed them in the right direction to get them started.

News for Kids is, as its name suggests, this is a section where kids can visit to get access to kid-friendly news content written just for them. They are great resources to help get your kids into the important lifelong habit of checking the news on a regular basis.

eResources introduces them to all the online resources we have to offer that may be of interest to them.

Please introduce the children in your life to this new section of our website. Read along if they’re still reluctant readers, go through a few of the links with them, talk about all that’s great about public libraries, and how libraries can help kids right now and throughout their life. Our budding mini-patrons now have a place of their own on our website—let's make sure they know about it!