Brooklyn Children's Museum Is Now Home to the Brower Park Library

By Ximena Del Cerro, Brooklyn Paper

The new Brower Park Library, with seven different spaces filled with an extensive collection of books, DVDs, laptops, desktops, screens, and many objects of cultural and historical value, is now open to everyone at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum in Crown Heights.

The Brooklyn Public Library and the museum joined forces to transform a wing of the building devoted to kids’ exploration into the new library, a multi-part, fully equipped research and reading space for teens, adults, and the youngest readers in the borough.

The core of the new library consists of two long halls with many bookcases, murals along the walls, and mini exhibits with objects from the museum. Pieces are selected by the museum’s collection curators to illustrate specific children’s stories that are culturally relevant to the community. This way, children can read a text and then examine historical objects that link the fictional tales to actual moments in history.

“I am so glad that we get to dedicate a space here in Crown Heights to books from diverse authors in a time of book bans,” said Council Member Shahana Hanif, who represents the 39th Council District.

The selection among the 30,000 objects in the museum’s collection will be in constant rotation, according to Hana Elwell, vice president of exhibits and education.

“We work with the librarians to choose texts that are relevant to the community,” said Elwell. “Here in Crown Heights, there is a lot of Caribbean culture and a high interest in natural history, and we can feed a kid’s imagination and love for reading by showing them that some bits of the extraordinary things they learn about here were once real.”

About 34 percent of students are below basic reading level when they reach the fourth grade, according to the U.S. National Center for Education Statistics. By eighth grade, about 27 percent of kids are below basic reading level — and 39 percent are considered below a proficient reading level. Some 36 million adults in the U.S. don’t have basic reading, writing, and math skills above a third-grade level, according to ProLiteracy, an international nonprofit organization that supports adult education. If literacy can be improved during childhood development, learning processes are in turn more effective for individuals later in life.

The new library was planned as a public place for all members of the community. Apart from its variety of content, the space has an area exclusively for teens with a screen, a frosted window that eliminates distractions and buffers external noise, and a second window overlooking the street.

Outside the entrance, a shaded area with a long stone bench serves as a shelter from the sun and the rain.

“People started using that space, sitting there to chat as soon as that part of the construction was ready,” said Zach McGown, one of the architects in charge of converting what used to be administrative offices into the street-facing library.

Adults aren’t left out, either — the library has a meeting room for community groups, and desks and laptops that can be used inside the building. Even younger kids, too young to read, have a place designed to provide a multi-sensory experience, with cushions, small chairs, and computers with educational games and toys. A window that allows a peek into the museum’s main hall from above connects both spaces in a way that makes it seem as though observers are floating.

The Brower Park Library had been at 725 St. Marks Avenue since 1963 but the rented space needed millions in repairs, according to a 2017 story in DNAinfo.

The inauguration ceremony was cohosted by Brooklyn Public Library CEO Linda E. Johnson and Brooklyn Children’s Museum CEO Stephanie Hill Wilchfort. A few days earlier, Johnson presented a massive exhibition at the Grand Army Plaza branch dedicated to rapper and library donor Jay-Z.

[Photos by Ximena Del Cerro]

Editor’s note: A version of this story originally ran in Brooklyn Paper. Click here to see the original story.

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