Desert Broom Library — Attraction in Phoenix

This is a beautiful library with natural light, a nice outside area with tables, and ongoing programs for children and adults. That said, the librarians seem annoyed if you approach them and generally unfriendly. I thought it was just me when I relayed getting my daughter a library card and inquiring about the summer reading program to my husband, but then he shared he always felt that way about this branch.

We typically go for the children's programs, but they seem to have high staff turnover for these programs. Some staff members are better than others, but I find myself annoyed that they can't seem to find someone with an early childhood background. These are programs primary geared for children 0-5, and as a speech language pathologist, I just constantly want to intervene or take over. Music: good! Dancing: Good! Silliness: excellent!

Telling parents our child "isn't perfect, so pay attention": completely unnecessary! We know. We know we aren't perfect either, but we are doing our best!

Also, don't ask what letter a word starts without at least showing the word, in the name of "literacy." Awareness of sounds comes first! Asking a preschool-age child what letter the word "moon" starts with is inappropriate. Saying the word and asking them what sound they hear first-- That's what you want! Then show the letter (or write it down) in print and explain that letter is making the sound.

In the past, staff would also instruct parents way too much, losing the children in the process. You can teach signs by repeatedly using them in song, rather than trying to describe them all to...

We came to this library to try a story-time with the kids while visiting. My overall impression is that they don’t like children or understand early childhood development. The story-time was advertised as birth-5yo with stories, music and dancing. We came in and sat on the floor and my 1yo daughter was dancing in the big open space in the middle of the room, while waiting for it to start. The librarian came in and before starting anything else said that my daughter was “being a bad example” and “teaching the other kids what not to do”. As I was getting up to move her back to sit with me the librarian asked “who does this one belong to?”. I was honestly shocked. Public shaming is a wild way to treat kids and parents. Especially when the kid is just behaving like a normal toddler. The expectation for this story-time is that the toddlers sit on the parents lap the entire time. We go to a few different story times at our local libraries and have never experienced something like this. This librarian seemed way more interested in talking with adults and educating them on how to parent than engaging with the kids. She also gave off a lot of “kids should be seen and not heard” energy. Basically, if you have kids and are thinking of going here, skip it and drive 10 minutes north to Desert Foothills. It was a night and day difference between the 2 and Desert Foothills was amazing. There were a lot more activities and toys for...

I work as a nanny and arrived at this library this morning to take my 1.5 year old charge to the music and movement class. The class was scheduled from 10:15 til 10:45, and we were walking in the door at 10:21. The librarian at the front desk greeted us and asked if we were here for the class and I said yes. Then she looked at her watch and said, 'oh...well it looks like the class has been going on for almost 10 minutes now..." I was a little confused so I said, "So...does that mean we can't go in or something?" And she said "yeah unfortunately not. There's some other families hanging out here and there are plenty of children's books to explore."

This library has zero toys and no play area for toddlers/preschoolers like most libraries do. So with nothing for my toddler to do and having been denied entrance to the class we just left. I have a very disappointed little one, and wasted gas. I've been taking children to library storytimes and music classes in Phoenix for over ten years and have never been told I can't enter due to being 5 or even 10 minutes late. I don't know if this is a legit policy or the librarian simply felt like flexing her power muscles this morning, but either way...