Children's Library Information

 

 

Children's Library Cards

 

How exciting! A child's first library card is such a fun milestone! To register your child for a library card, stop by any of our circulation desks, and one of our librarian's would be happy to assist you. 

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Requirements to register a child for a library card:

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• Your child must be at least five (5) years old to be eligible for a library card

• Must be a parent or legally appointed guardian to the child.

• Parent or legal guardian must have a Photo ID with a current address or a Photo ID and a utility bill with your current address on it.

• Must have your own library card with our library system, and your account must be in good standing.

• Out of County resident's must pay an annual fee of $30.00 per household to register for a library card. Please see our full library card policy here for more information about out of county cards and temporary cards. 

 

By obtaining a library card, a patron agrees to accept responsibility for all fines, damages, or loss of materials resulting from use of the card, including use by another person. All patrons must promptly report loss or theft of the card, as well as any change of address. A patron card must be presented to borrow library materials. There is a $1 fee for replacement of a lost card (damaged cards will be replaced free of charge). Cards are non-transferrable.

 

Children must be at least five years old to receive a library card. The parent or guardian as the responsible party must sign children’s application cards. Children fifteen (15) and older are issued an adult card.

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The director reserves the right to discontinue or limit service to anyone abusing the library privileges.

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Children's Use of the Library​

Service to children is a major focus of the library's mission.  Parents are responsible for the behavior of their children. Children under the age of nine who are visiting the library should always be accompanied by an adult. Teachers are responsible for the conduct of their students while they are in the library for a class visit or tour.  If parents and teachers do not instruct the children to be quiet when they are being disruptive, library personnel will assume the responsibility.  

 

Parents are solely responsible to monitor the content of materials checked out by children under age 18. Any warning labels that may appear on materials are for informational purposes only.

 

Library personnel reserve the right to ask anyone loitering or otherwise conducting themselves in a suspicious manner in the children's area to leave the Children's Library.

 

The Library does not have a specific responsibility to care for or to watch out for children left unattended in its facilities.  If an unattended child behaves in a disruptive manner, the child may be warned, and if behavior continues asked to leave the library, weather permitting. Library staff may ask the police to remove a disruptive child for purposes of safekeeping if a parent or guardian is unable to pick up the child.

 

If a child has been left unattended at the time of closing, staff has the responsibility to decide if the child may be left unattended until the parent arrives. Please see our full Children's Use of the library policy here for more information. 

 

Online Resources for Children

 

OverDrive Kids

An e-book service for kids of all ages. To access this resource, you or your child will need a library card. 

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Register For an Event

 

Many children's programs do not require registration, but some do. If the "Register" button appears in the event listing or description, registration is required for that event.

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To register your child for an event, please select the event from the Event's Calendar for which you would like to register, then click on the "Register" button and fill out the registration form pop-up.  

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If registration is required for an event, it is important to register your child prior to attending the event. If your child has not been registered for an event, and the event is full, your child may not be allowed to participate in that event due to space and material limitations. 

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If you have registered for an event that is cancelled, library staff will contact you via the phone number you provided to notify you of this change. If registration wasn't required for an event that is cancelled, library staff will attempt to give as much notice of the cancellation as possible, via social media or on our website. 

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Children's Borrowing Policies

 

Library cards are used for borrowing items, reserving computers, and accessing online resources. JRVLS considers it the responsibility of the parent or guardians to approve the nature of materials borrowed by minors legally under their care. Please see our complete borrowers policy here for more information. 

 

Materials borrowed from the Children’s Collection have the following checkout periods: 

• Books, audiobooks, magazines, and Playaways: 3 weeks (one renewal)

• DVDs & music CDs: 7 days (one renewal; limit of 3 DVDs and 2 music CDs per patron)

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Requesting Children's Materials

 

If you are unable to find a book or other type of material you are looking for, you may make a request to any staff member at the circulation desk, the staff will then fill out a request card and submit the request to the purchaser of children's materials. The purchaser may choose to buy the material for the library, or they may send the request to the inter-library loan department to request to borrow that item from another library, if that option was selected at the time the request was made.  Not all material requests can be fulfilled due to various reasons, but we will attempt to fulfill the request if possible.  

 

If the library chooses to purchase the item requested, it may take several weeks to receive, and process the item. If the material was requested through inter-library loan it may also take several weeks to receive the item at our library. We will contact the person named on the request card as soon as the item is available for checkout.  

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Find Children's Materials in the Library

 

We strive to make finding materials in the children's department as easy as possible. Below is a list of categories children's materials may be found in. 

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• Picture Books: by the first three letters of the author's last name

• Easy Readers/Leveled Readers: by the first three letters of the author's last name

• Non-Fiction: by its Dewey Decimal classification number, then by author's last name, then alphabetically by title. 

• Board Books: there is no specific shelf organization for board books

• Movies: by the first three letters of the movie title 

• Chapter Books: by the first three letters of the author's last name, then alphabetical by title. Children's chapter book series are shelved by the first three letters of the author's last name, then by series number order, or alphabetically by title if each book in the series isn't numbered. A series of books with multiple authors is shelved alphabetically by the first three letters of the series title. 

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