Skip to main content

Youth Spaces

The Children’s Room

The Children’s Room is open whenever the Main Library is open for business. We are so glad you’re coming to visit.

In this room you’ll find:

  • Books for all ages and stages from birth to middle school
  • Scavenger hunts, guessing games, and other fun activities to enjoy while you’re here
  • Movies, TV series, and Big Screen Bundles available for checkout
  • A huge collection of board games to level up family game nights
  • Computers for homework and play
  • Audiobooks and Readalongs, great for family road trips
  • Cindy Casetta Barden Teachers’ Resource Center: hands-on learning resources for classrooms or at home
  • The Parenting Collection, filled with insights for caregivers of all kinds
  • The Calming Corner, a sensory-friendly space for those feeling overwhelmed and in need of a break
  • Friendly and helpful Youth Services staff ready to answer your questions and suggest your next great read

Discovery Room

The Discovery Room is a space dedicated to youth and teen activities at the Fond du Lac Public Library. From storytimes to Anime Afternoons, most events at the library aimed at youth up to age 18 can be found in the Discovery Room. Join us for an event!

Cindy Casetta Barden Teachers’ Resource Center 

Located inside the Children’s Room, the resource center includes a growing collection of materials for teachers, homeschoolers and parents with materials to check out, such as books, book club kits, musical instrument kits, classroom kits, big books for storytelling and equipment to use on site. The center was made possible through an endowment fund with Fond du Lac Area Foundation, which was set up in Barden’s name by her family. Barden, a Fond du Lac native, wrote nearly 200 educational books for children, used nationally, and wrote short stories, poetry and news articles. Locally, her best-known work is the beloved red-jacketed, Foot of the Lake: An Early History of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, published in 1998. Barden died in 2014.

Teen Space

The library’s Teen Space provides an area for middle schoolers and high schoolers to meet, work, study, play, and create. Located in the northwest corner of the first floor, the Teen Space houses fiction, nonfiction, graphic novels, audiobooks, video games, kits, and activities curated for a teen audience. Materials are collected in English and Spanish. Four computers are available for teens to use, as well as several tables perfect for solo or collaborative study.

Calming Corner in Children’s Room

It’s a leafy, quiet refuge. The Calming Corner in the Fond du Lac Public Library’s Children’s Room is a special place for kids who struggle with overstimulation (lights, sounds, activity), where kids can decompress and regain their composure.

When visiting the corner, kids can use a weighted vest and noise-canceling headphones and go through some helpful self-regulating activities. Parents can dim the lights in the corner, too.

Calming Corner materials available for checkout will include books for kids and adults. They’ll provide tips on self-regulating emotions and materials on attention-deficit disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Eventually, families can check out activity kits. Some will help calm overstimulated minds, and some will re-energize kids who need stimulation to keep their minds focused.

Calming Corner resources and library staff training were funded by a grant from a Leadership Fond du Lac team.

For more information, call the Children’s Desk at 920-322-3940.