Fairfield - Henrico County Public Library — Attraction in Mechanicsville

This building is beautiful; I love that the children’s area has a family bathroom and nursing room. I wish more locations had those awesome plush rocking chairs! The librarians are very helpful and welcoming. They do an excellent job maintaining a beautiful space with a wonderful collection of books along with plenty of activities for older children to do during their visits. However, the infant/toddler programming at Fairfield isn’t on par with that of other locations. I’ve taken my baby to programs led by several different Fairfield librarians and each of them sped through activities, sang/spoke too quickly and loudly, prompted babies to do things too advanced, and failed to incorporate elements like peek-a-boo, puppets, and tickle rhymes that would better engage this age group.

The baby/toddler programming at the Varina and Tuckahoe area libraries is much better. Even though Fairfield is closer to us, I normally drive to the other locations. Perhaps a mentorship between the branches or attending Baby Arts Play could help Fairfield Area Librarians develop a better understanding of how to engage the littlest library users. Even more elemental, simply slowing down, approaching the space more gently, repeating activities, and having parents introduce babies at the beginning would be a great improvement.

Other locations also have toys for babies/toddlers such as activity towers and Duplo. Fairfield only has a play kitchen and, as the only option, it’s always being used by...

Details from Henrico County Library: The new Fairfield Area Library is being built on a 10 acre site southeast of Laburnum Avenue and Watts Lane, near the Eastern Henrico Recreation Center. It is slated to open in October 6, 2019. The 44,803 square foot, two story library will feature modern design with an open lobby, a classroom and meeting room, group study and conference spaces, a dedicated teen area, Digital Media Lab, and drive up window for patrons to pick up and drop off materials. The site will have an outdoor entry plaza, a bicycle and pedestrian pathway to Harvie Road, space for outdoor activities, parking for up to 220 vehicles, and room for a 16,000 square foot addition in the future. The library will mark a significant upgrade from the existing Fairfield Library, which opened in 1976 and is 24,000 square feet. County officials will seek LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Silver certification status for the library; the LEED program, operated by the U.S. Green Building Council, recognizes facilities that are...

It’s a little out of the way, but a big and beautiful new library. We went to the opening ceremony— and it was much, much more popular than we expected. We had to park at the nearby elementary school and two big white vans or “shuttles” took us to the front of the library.

There was a large crowd of people and the ceremony was already over because we were running late. After waiting in line to get it, there were two huge lines for the food/ catering. The catering was nice. It had sliders, chicken on a stick, some chocolates, fruit, veggies, lemonade, sweet tea, water and more.

Although the library is spacious, there weren’t that many books available though that’s probably because it’s brand new. Curiously, for such a large library there were only a couple of stalls in the women’s room. There are a good amount of study and media rooms however. And there are special sections just for teens and children, along with plenty of...