Children's and Young Adult Open House: October 10

The University Libraries invite CU community members, families and K-12 teacher partners to celebrate the Children’s and Young Adult Open House, on Wednesday, October 10, 2018 at 4 p.m., in Norlin Library.

As CU Boulder's School of Education leads innovation in teacher preparation, a strong Children’s and Young Adult Collection (CYAC) is essential to support those programs. Librarian Lindsay Roberts sought input from youth, students, and faculty in the School of Education’s Social Justice Learning Group while updating the CYAC. While the collection especially serves School of Education graduate students as well as undergraduate Education majors and minors, picture books and young adult literature appeal to all ages and majors. 

"We often see college students studying with their laptops and a picture book open in front of them," says Roberts. "We are especially happy to make Norlin Library more inclusive for CU community members with children and families, as well as the wider Boulder community."

Since 1991 the children’s and young adult materials were housed on Norlin’s third floor, near the Special Collections Reading Room. It was known as the Virginia Westerberg Juvenile Collection and featured many historical children’s books. In 2012,  the Libraries made the decision to move the fiction books into the Norlin Stacks and move the non-fiction materials to PASCAL, our off-site storage facility to make room for more study space. This made the collection more difficult to browse and few patrons knew where it was located.

We are excited that the Children’s and Young Adult materials are now easier to browse, closer to the second floor entrance, restrooms, and security, and in a space with natural light.