Most American institutions pretend very young children don’t exist. Public libraries are one of the few places to put their needs front and center.
The design was hardly earth-shattering: a small wooden desk with a computer, chair and simple fenced-in play area. Yet when Ali Faruk, policy director of the nonprofit Families Forward Virginia, tweeted a photo of the work-play carrel at Henrico County’s Fairfield Area Library earlier this year, it quickly went viral. “God, this actually made me a bit emotional — facilities for kids,” wrote one of the tens of thousands of people who shared Faruk’s tweet.
In many places, infrastructure for small kids and their grown-ups is nothing to get misty-eyed about. Public staircases in Sweden commonly contain ramps for strollers. Montreal marks and maps “qualité famille”-certified buildings with facilities like nursing chairs and diaper-changing tables. Officials in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, are planning a fortress of community early childhood development centers and play areas for public housing. Israel’s education department tasked urban planners with drawing up guidelines for accommodating young children and their caregivers throughout cities.
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