#kids activities going on in any place other than the side they've allocated to kids would be a distraction

[beeseverywhen]

I'm not a librarian but, for me a big part of having a kids area in the library is about encouraging people to read that otherwise wouldn't be. The kids area in my local library doesn't only have books, it also has toys and is a place where kids can be loud and not disturb other people using the library. My local library is one of the only places locally to host free baby groups, so they are always singing in there and doing lego and all kinds of things that would be massively disruptive to people applying for jobs and researching local history and all the other stuff that goes on there. It's important to have quiet spaces for people to read, but also, those places very much end up being intimidating for adults that don't read. The families that most benefit from the kids area are the ones in which the parents wouldn't go to a library for any reason other than for their kids. But there being a kids area there helps them see it as a 'kids place' rather than a 'quiet reading place' which they might feel excluded from. Kids areas in libraries are about providing a space in which kids that don't have books at home can see that reading can be fun and can grow comfortable being around books.

Young adult areas are a different matter. Tbh I don't think these should be in the same place as the 'kids area' as it puts off older kids that don't want to be seen as kids. I do think it's useful to have areas in which we say 'hey are you a teenager/preteen? If so try this' because again it's about encouraging kids that aren't likely to get that from anywhere else and to those kids the adult area can look scary. Adult books are intimidating before you are ready to read them because they are a lot harder to get in to than ya books. That's the beauty of ya. I think it's important that everyone is welcome in all areas, as a preteen/ young adult I'd often read in the adult areas, as long as I behaved as was expected in that area of the library (quietly reading) it was no issue and my local library in no way restricted me to young adult books, I moved on to adult books far earlier than was strictly necessary in retrospect. To me, these areas being segregated is about inclusiveness. It's about making a space for the people that aren't being catered for in the other spaces. If that's your intention going in to it, then making those spaces ONLY for a certain age group, obviously goes against your aims. It shouldn't be a 'can I see your id' type situation, but I don't think targeting that space at your intended group when it comes to decoration and so on is harmful.

At the end of the day it's a balancing act and imo it's one my local library has always done pretty well at. You can see the kids area is obviously targeted at kids, but the librarians are happy to direct adults looking for picture books there, I've seen adults with learning disabilities picking out their books in that section many times. I've personally been in there alone as an adult to pick out books for my younger siblings (near a two decade age gap so I'm obviously an adult!) and nobody looked twice at me slowly browsing in that section just as i would in the adult section when looking for books for myself. The teen section is a seperate set of shelves (and is possibly called YA now, I have to admit i personally haven't been interested in those books for the past decade). I never had any problems checking out books both from there and from the adult section when I was a kid and I'd be surprised if anyone else does now. If someone's looking for YA books, the librarians send them there, no matter their age. I've seen adults who read YA argue that those books should be mixed in with the general adult fiction and that, I definitely do disagree with. There are adults who like to read YA but there are also adults that don't like to read it! I'd find it pretty irritating to have them all mixed in together and have to figure out if each book I'm picking out is YA when I personally don't enjoy reading that.

So yeah I do think there's a benefit to having prominent specialised spaces for certain target groups but I do think there's a way to go about that. You can clearly target something at children while still making that a space avaliable to anyone else that wants to access those books.

Hey @galaxystew, and the other librarians in my orbit, what are your feelings on separated kid and teen library spaces with 'no adults allowed' rules?

(In contrast to a more open sections/a gradated space, where seating either isn't tied to specific sections, or is otherwise open to anyone.)

I kinda hate them, but I want to know if I'm missing something major.

Issues I have:

The increased segmentation makes it harder for people with 'abnormal' reading habits to comfortably get books without judgement. (People with limited reading skill in English, adults that like child-friendly content, kids that want to read 'above' their age level, etc.)

They contribute to the destructive idea that adults interacting/existing near children or teens is dangerous.

They contribute to the idea that adult sections are dangerous for teens, limiting what some teens feel comfortable exploring.

Anxious, autistic, OCD, etc. adults may need to convince themselves that they're allowed to enter and pick out books for their own kids.

They make it difficult for people with low mobility to use some spaces.

The ones I've seen have often been precursors to more draconian policies aimed at keeping homeless people out of the library (though that may just be because I'm in a racist, classist city that's looking for every excuse).

I admit to being biased. I find they increase my anxiety about accessing spaces. I'm really angry with the library in my area that most prominently has these types of spaces, so I'm more likely to find fault.

(And I, personally, think that a YA section [given the content I usually see there] would have done more to scare me away from adult lit than the occasional 'middle age man having an affair with a teenager, featuring surprise sex scenes' books that I had to navigate as I moved away from the kids section. But I recognize that the majority of older kids/younger teens aren't aroaces that find mild romance to be one of the most squicky things around. So this isn't about whether there SHOULD be teen and kid sections, but whether they should be for teens only.)