Madison Public Library System Finds Success with New Approach to Service

If someone taps you on the shoulder and asks, “Can I borrow your cowboy?” you might have reason to take a step back. However, questions like these are commonplace at Madison’s Central Library, where one night a month the focus shifts from reading books to exploring hundreds of tiny toy pieces. 

The event is called Lego Club, and it provides a time for children of all ages to come together for educational play. It’s just one of many new activities held at Madison Public Library’s nine branches. While the city’s library system has existed for more than 135 years, a new model of library service now focuses on providing the community with free educational events.

In fact, the library changed its mission statement in 2012, now focused on being the community’s place to learn, share, and create. The library’s website, madisonpubliclibrary.org, offers details of the system’s three-year plan, including a focus on offering more events for “at-risk children and their families; college students and young professionals; empty nesters and seniors; new readers; and technology learners.”

“I think the library’s role is definitely changing,” said Krissy Wick, youth services librarian at the Central Library who also runs its Lego Club. “I think a lot of times people think library and they think books. That is still definitely a very important part of what we do, but it is also literacy that we are focusing on. And not just on the literacy of reading books, but also technological literacy. There are so many different kinds of literacy and so many different kinds of learning.”

The library weaves in an educational component to its free events. Other events include computer training, art galleries, hands-on science experiments, and film showings. Even something as simple as playtime can serve as a learning opportunity.

Groups like the National Association for the Education of Young Children also promote the idea of play as learning. The group advocates for early childhood education and insists children learn through play. Researchers at Utah State University found that cognitive stimulation in early play can have long-term effects on children’s academic success.

Wick said that Lego Club helps introduce engineering and mathematic concepts to young children in the forms of patterning, sorting, and sequencing. The new down Central Branch of the library is the most recent of seven area public libraries to offer the event. Held in the lower level of the library at the corner of Fairchild and Mifflin Streets, the supervised event provides parents with a chance to sneak off and explore the library, or time to play alongside their children. Lego Club reflects the library’s focus on providing more education-driven, free events to local families.

So far, the response has been overwhelmingly positive.

Talan Hanson, age 7, recently attended the Lego Club. “What I like the best is how we get to build with them and play with them. That is what I like the best.”

Lia Jaber, age 8, also attended the event. “I come here to read books,” she said. “I just like building.”

Lego Clubs are held at the Central, Hawthorne, Pinney, Alicia Ashman, Lakeview, Sequoya, and Meadowridge locations.

“Having these free events at the library is so important to provide an equal playing field for kids,” said Wick. “We really want to try and make it a learning place and a community place where everyone feels welcome, where everyone can find something that they are interested in.”

The Madison area has a higher-than-average library attendance. Last year children’s programs brought in over 70,000 people throughout the year. That’s the third largest attendance of any library their size in the nation, according to Wick.  

Looking forward, the library plans to expand its program offering and add venues outside of traditional library space. Community centers or apartment complexes may be the next mode of transport for the library’s unique approach to educating families.

“So far it’s working,” said Wick. People have really been responding to this new model of library service.” 

For more information on the library and a schedule of upcoming events, including Lego Club, visit madisonpubliclibrary.org.