YOUth serviceS
ABOUT THE CHILDREN's ROOM

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Girl in chair The Library Children's Room is the most safe, friendly, and welcoming public facility anywhere for youth. It is a haven for play, learning, socializing, and information seeking. No where outside their homes are children freer, or safer, or more welcome; no where are children surrounded by better influences (thousands of them!) or helped by more caring adults.

This Library plays a key role in the education of Albany's citizens, of all ages. The Children's Room and our collections work together to further this educational goal. We offer help with homework and research and with leisure and assigned reading. We gather special collections on request for teachers and students, as well as for caregivers and families.

Communication

If you wish to contact the staff of the Children's Department with requests, materials purchase suggestions, or any special inquiries, call 541-917-7583, or E-mail directly to youthservices@cityofalbany.net.

Collections

More than 30,000 items fill the Children's Room to answer questions, entertain, teach, and spark the imaginations of Albany's children.

We offer tens of thousands of picture books, beginning readers, board books, and fiction and nonfiction titles. Other collections include more than 100 circulating puppets, 1,500 feature films and informational videos, phonics instruction materials, Spanish language shelves, music on CD, and the latest CD-ROMs for home computers.

Our parents' shelf contains a broad array of helpful books on parenting, homeschooling, child development, social problems, and home-based caregiver materials to enable children and their families to thrive in a changing world.

The Room

For toddlers and prereaders and for older kids needing to relax, we offer stuffed toys, houses and barns and fantasy toy islands, toy phones, chess, checkers, 30 sets of Brain Quest cards, wooden puzzles, board games, coloring books, scratch paper, and crayons.

The Children's Room is furnished with comfortable, age-appropriate furniture, with lots of seating, secluded reading areas, and even a quiet study table.

We are generous with our office supplies for students who need them.

Computers

The Children's Room offers three computers for public use. Two are public computer catalogs to look up material in the Library's collections, and one is a Homework Station, offering games for recreation and tools for word processing and desktop publishing. All computers are available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Unattended Children Policy

While we welcome children to visit anytime, we do enforce our unattended children policy, which follows:

To provide for the general welfare of all persons and to ensure the safety of children using the Albany Public Library, the policy of the Albany Public Library is:

The Library cannot be responsible for children left unattended in the Library.
Children age five and younger shall, at all times, be attended and adequately supervised by a responsible caregiver at least 12 years old who shall be responsible for the child's activity and behavior.
Children aged 6 to 9 may be left unattended in the Library, but their parents or caregivers must remain in the building.
If a child is left in the Library, or outside the Library after closing hours, an attempt will be made to reach the child's parents or caregivers. If they cannot be reached, the Albany Police Department will be called after 15 minutes.

The Oregon Revised Statutes (163.545) state: "A Person having custody or control of a child under 10 years of age commits the crime of child neglect in the second degree if, with criminal negligence, the person leaves the child unattended in or at any place for such period of time as may be likely to endanger the health or welfare of such child."