The Collection
The Children's Department collection is a microcosm of the larger Pratt collection. Materials span the entire range covered by the Library of Congress classification system. The collection is particularly rich in juvenile fiction and picture books.
- Over 70,000 items including books,
audio books and music.
- An extensive reference collection of
historic children's materials.
- Computers reserved specifically for
children 12 and under.
- A fish pond with a fountain.
- The “Day Room,” which has a large
clear skylight ceiling,seating for 60 patrons, plenty
of floor space for gross motor skill activities, and various toys for scheduled unstructured play.
- The “Night Room," an auditorium space with seating for 100 patrons, a large screen for showing movies, and a
wonderful lighted dome that looks like a starry night sky, much like a
planetarium.
- Artwork by Maryland artists.
- Friendly librarians willing to help
you explore!
In addition to these physical resources, the Children's Department
provides educational programming, both in the library and on visits to
schools and other institutions in Maryland. Our librarians do
presentations for visiting classes on a broad range of topics and we do weekly pre-literacy programming for infants,
toddlers and preschoolers.
State Library Resources
The Children's Department has resources for patrons from around the state of Maryland. They include:
- An unparalleled collection of folk and fairy tales useful to parents, caregivers, and other practitioners of the art of storytelling.
- A retrospective collection dating from 1930 that contains out-of-print authors and titles unavailable in the rest of the state.
- Extensive resources for Maryland students of education and children's literature.
- Hard-to-find items to support home school curricula.
