Yardley-Makefield Branch, Bucks County Free Library

Lauren Kvalheim

We love coming to this library with our kids. The renovated play area is wonderful and I enjoy the librarians' reading recommendations. ♥️

Judy Thompson

The BCFL Vision at the Yardley branch is harshly lacking in embracing this BCFL Vision, Mission & Values. The "materials and services" that are present in the library to help young children are apparently restricted. I shall describe my experience: my children were playing in the Career Corner at the Yardley Branch. It is wonderful, imaginative, and creates curiosity for sure. Only apparently per the signage that I was directed to, myself and my two older children would need to stand on the sidelines and "watch" my five year old play by himself. As a parent of a neurodivergent child, this direction and suggestion is cruel, humiliating, and ignorant to the needs of special needs children. My five year old thrives on imaginative play and his sister and brother allow him the opportunity to feel safe and comfortable while he explores imaginative play. My children were playing very enthusiastically together as they were cooking in the kitchen and taking turns making "order-ups." As I am standing one foot from where they are at the book table, I see a librarian walk briskly past me and enter the children's play area. I see she’s bothered and emphatically says to all of my children as they are playing, "ARE YOU FIVE?" They look at me, and I look at her questioningly and she says, "because this area is ONLY for five year olds and other kids might get scared off because they are SO loud and they are clearly not all five." I respond to the librarian and say, ``they are brother and sister, and they are using their imagination and playing together, and I am right here.” She points to the sign that says "Only children ages 5 and under” and I look at her again questioningly. Honoring diversity and treating everyone with respect means NOT BEING IGNORANT TO DIFFERENCES IN DIVERSITY AND RECOGNIZING THE TRUE INTERSECTIONALITY OF DIVERSITY IN CHILDREN. I am left thinking and feeling like the library has no sensitivity training towards children who are different..no actual diversity training to truly embrace the qualities within the asserted BCFL "Values" because welcoming all library patrons to "accessible physical and virtual environments" does not create implicit and subtle biases that send the message that when playing and using one's imagination in an environment outside of the home, one must play “normal,” “quiet,” oh and “you cannot play in certain places with your siblings.” Implicit Biases in this manner create (1) Exclusion- excluding children based on variations of their brain development, sociability, and cognition-just to name a few examples, (2) Sterotyping-presenting the perception that all children have the same needs and play the same way, (3) Creating unrealistic expectations-making the indication that a child is not permitted to play with their parent or their siblings, (4) Fragmentation & Isolation-sending the underlying suggestion that by not being "normal" you are not worthy of participation, (5) Age Bias- restricting uniformal and imaginative play between children and their siblings, friends, parents, (6) Ability Bias-ignorant to the different ways and abilities that special needs and/or neurodivergent children are able to function from a neuroscience and brain-based perspective. And underlying it all is when one's personal Affinity Bias appears discriminatorily, then they are unable to see, perceive, feel, or hear, anyone or anything that does not look, act, or behave in a way in which they themselves, look, act, or behave. This flaw in judgment creates the very opposite of a welcoming, respectful environment, and instead it illustrates with amazing clarity the lack of intersectionality between the Yardley library itself, the librarian who shamed me and my children, and lays bare the glaring example of power/privilege/prejudice. The Values at the Yardley branch of the BCFL completely lack cultivating a sense of safety for children and adults, they do not "treat everyone with respect," and they do not honor diversity.

Only the Truth

Stuff is very rude and unorganized. Not very welcoming towards the kids esp.

Gab B

Can we please enclose children's areas in libraries again? Most of the 5 star reviews here are people who want somewhere for their children to play. These parents are also the ones who use the designated quiet study rooms to noisily eat their lunch and talk on the phone. I gave up after two trips. Do not go here if you want to have a place to concentrate and read or study because the kids area is half the library and there's no enforcement of no-eating and no-noisiness. Libraries are meant to be quiet spaces for study and reading and I don't know when they became one of the many places intended to cater to parents who won't take kids to parks or the many child-centered spaces and restaurants in the area. I love children but please can parents give us book lovers and students back coffee shops and libraries. We no longer have anywhere else to go and we don't all have huge houses with rooms all to ourselves. Or at the very least put the kids area behind a wall with a closed door and muffle the noise.