About the Children's Department

The Children's Room, on the second floor of the library, has separate collections for preschoolers, children, parents and guardians. Both fiction and nonfiction are available, as well as reference materials, audio books and videos. We also have a variety of computer programs (edutainment) and a public terminal through which you may access additional resources available here and through the Ramapo Catskill Library System.

Online we offer links to interesting and informative Internet resources for all ages.

Be sure to visit our Library News pages and blogs to keep up with all that's new at Thrall!

Crafts, Story Time, & Other Events

We offer a variety of entertaining and educational progams for children, from infants to age 11.

Our Youth Services Department also holds fun and interesting events for young adults and teens.

Summer programs are offered during the months of July and August. Special group visits to the library can be arranged by calling the Children's Department. Additional programs and events for children are planned throughout the year. The following rules pertain to programs in the Children's Department:

• Parents must stay in the Children's Department while the program is in progress.
• Registration in person only. No telephone registration. Adult must present a valid library card.
• Each parent or caregiver must register their child for a program.
• Storyhours are limited to 8 children
• No make-up sessions for any library closings

To learn what programs are upcoming or already in session, please call 341-5470 or click here for our library news page.

About Our Services for Young Adults & Teens

Materials for middle school and high school students have always be an important part of Middletown Thrall Library's collection, and we encourage this age group to select and use the materials and resources found on both floors of our library. However, we also have a special area in the library developed expressly for teens and young adults.

The Young Adult section of the library is located on the 1st floor to the right of the entrance just past the elevator. Here teens can find fiction books, a computer with word processing and reference software, magazines, and graphic novels as well as special displays and reading lists. All of these materials have been selected especially for teens/young adults.

In the "New Books for Teens" section, located next to the adult express books, teens will find a selection of the latest, most popular fiction and non-fiction titles for young adults.

All other young adult non-fiction materials, which include biography and reference books, are interfiled with the adult collection. Interfiling of these materials provides a greater opportunity for students to browse and become acquainted with the broad variety of titles and resources for school assignments or recreational interests located throughout the library.

Materials that have been purchased especially for teens have a bright yellow sticker with a red "YA" on the spine of the item. This sticker is intended only to be helpful and does not suggest that these materials are limited to teen use.

We strive to keep regular contact with teachers in our local middle schools and high schools in order to have information and resources available for school assignments. We also keep on file required summer reading lists from various schools. Please visit or contact our Reference Department for more information on that.

Computers & Electronic Research Services

To further serve our community's reference needs we have several computers with encyclopedias, Internet access, and many other fun and educational programs and an electronic library catalog where you may search for books.

If you have an Internet connection and an e-mail account, you can ask our librarians a question right through our website and receive an answer usually within a day (during normal business hours).

Thrall patrons can search for full text articles online, tap our extensive Virtual Reference Library, and locate and request items (books, videos, and more) from all RCLS libraries (Thrall included) through our library catalog.

Several computers have been made available to us and our patrons through The Friends of Middletown Thrall Library.

There are dozens of programs to choose from on our PCs. Bring your child and check in at the Children's Department desk for free access to these research tools and entertaining programs.

Children must have a parental permission form signed before accessing the Internet and present their library cards before using library computers (with the exception of the library catalog/database computer). Computers use is limited to 30 minutes a day.

Developmental Disabilities Materials

Our DVDM special needs collection includes books on:

• Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)
• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
• Down's Syndrome
• Dyslexia
• Learning Disabilities
• Tourette's Syndrome