Fort Worth’s new library on East Lancaster was created for kids. Here’s when it opens
Doors will open on a brand new library in East Lancaster dedicated solely to kids this Saturday, seven years after community leaders began conceptualizing the first specialized library in Fort Worth.
The Reby Cary Youth Library, which was part of a 2014 bond package, will serve kids across the city with a wide array of programming and a child-friendly design aimed at increasing children’s natural curiosity to read.
Manya Shorr, the director of the Fort Worth Public Library, said the new facility will serve children of all ages with a space that is thoughtfully designed with their needs in mind. The 8,000-square-foot facility is full of natural light, with lower shelving and seating designed to encourage families to read together instead of tall stacked bookshelves and hardback chairs typical of a traditional library.
“This is giving us the opportunity to spread out and really offer as many books and materials and services just to children as we can,” Shorr said.
Interactive art, bookshelves with embedded seating and movable chairs are other features that set the library apart from a kids section at a typical library, which often lacks space.
“It’s important both as a neighborhood resource, but also as a city wide resource that we devote as much square footage as possible to children, and the development of literacy and learning,” Shorr said. “It is hard to do that when you have to squeeze basically birth to the other side into one building.”
That focus is particularly important in areas like East Lancaster, where students are considered at-risk and schools have a history of poor performance.
Former City Councilwoman Kelly Allen Gray, who is now the director of the AIDS Outreach Center, said that was one of the driving factors in early discussions about what was needed in District 8 from the bond.
“In East and Southeast Fort Worth, most of our schools were actually rated very low,” Gray said. “So we wanted to do something that was focused on kids and on literacy.”
In addition to the bond, community donations from neighboring organizations and individuals made the library possible. Longtime East Fort Worth residents Wanda Conlin and Don Boren donated $10,000 to support the Reby Cary Youth Library Public Art Project.
But seven years later, schools in the area continue to struggle. A report by the nonprofit Fort Worth Education Partnership put out earlier this year found that 63% of the schools in District 8 are rated D or F, with only 6% rated A or B.
According to the author of the report, CEO and President of the Fort Worth Education Partnership Brent Beasley, test scores from the last year show that school performance was further harmed by the pandemic.
However, Beasley said, the library is an example of how city leaders can do their part in increasing educational resources for students.
“The Mayor and City Council may not be in charge of running schools, but they can still take responsibility for the educational well-being of their constituents,” he said. “This new youth library in District 8 is a great example of the kind of initiative city leaders can take to address these needs.”
Children’s programming
At the new library an expanded roster of programs will be offered for kids of all ages, with a focus on different varieties of story time. The offerings will change and evolve as the library interacts with the community in the coming years.
Story time has long been a feature of libraries, but in recent years libraries have made it a point to help parents understand the importance of the ritual to key early childhood development in areas such as phonological awareness and vocabulary, as well as social emotional awareness.
In 2020 only 63% of students assessed in Fort Worth ISD were considered kindergarten ready, according to Texas Education Agency data; 76% attended pre-K prior to attending school, meaning nearly a quarter of all students entered kindergarten without any prior formal school experience.
Michele Gorman, the assistant director of Public Services for the Library, said story time and other library programs can provide many of the skills needed to get young children ready for school.
“We think it’s incredibly important to provide these consistent learning experiences at every library every week so that parents that want to prepare their child who don’t have the luxury of being involved in a formal program can start coming every week,” she said. “So that when their kid is ready ... to sign up for kindergarten they all feel prepared.”
Children throughout library programs also learn skills like classroom etiquette, fine motor skills and how to share with their peers.
“All of that development that happens in formal programs, also happens in these library programs,” she said.
Youth Program Coordinator Angela Barratt of the Fort Worth Public Library said that another important part of story time, is that parents can learn the skills to practice with their kids at home, to continue literacy development throughout the week.
Kara Rodriguez started taking her son, Ben, to story time before he was one - and didn’t stop until the pandemic shut down in-person story times when he was five. Through singing, crafts and weekly story times, she said her son grew into a natural reader who looked forward to picking out his own books to read at the end of each week.
As she prepares to take her other son, Luca, to the library for the first time, she said she is excited about the idea of a youth-focused library. Luca is almost two.
“There have been so many times when we would be there having story time in the middle of the building and there would be people on the outskirts on computers, annoyed about the noise level and things like that,” she said. “That problem is eliminated when you have an entire library just for kids.”
Some of the story time variations that will be featured at the Reby Cary library include a bilingual story time, pre-K story time, family story time and pre-K playtime.
With continued concerns about the coronavirus, the library system has been offering story times virtually over the summer.
Jeanette Salazar said she tunes in twice a week with her four-year-old daughter Liliana, who is learning to read in both Spanish and English.
“Since the (virtual) story times are only in English, it has helped her with her English learning,” Salazar said.
Lessons from North Carolina
The new library in Fort Worth is not the first youth-focused library Michele Gorman has worked for. Through the design of the programming and features of the Reby Cary Library, Gorman drew on her experience working for one of the first and largest children’s-only libraries in the country.
Starting in 2005, Gorman worked for ImaginOn, a library branch shared with a children’s theater that features a library called the Spangler Children’s Library for children under 11 years of age.
“It really became an icon, because it was one of the first children’s-only libraries, and it actually had one of the first maker spaces for kids, the first green screen… and more,” Gorman said. “My hope for a library like this … is we are going to build a community of users who feel like they can grow up here.”
Gorman said she hopes the Reby Cary library can also become a draw for the community, with the added benefit of revitalizing the surrounding neighborhood with increased patrons to local businesses.
A 3-D printer and multi-use community room is present at the new facility opening Saturday.
The Spangler library is also in an area that has poorly performing schools, and has grown to be a resource for those nearby. Jesse Isley, the Children Services leader for the Charlotte Mecklenburg library, said that some nearby schools don’t have libraries on campus.
“We have been able to partner with a couple of local elementary schools as their only media center,” she said. “So those kids can walk here uptown and have access to books and databases and everything that they wouldn’t have at their school location.”
Isley said that having a space dedicated to kids has allowed the library to experiment and expand programming that they wouldn’t have been able to otherwise.
Gorman also drew from the physical design of the former library, paying special attention to details like making the check-out counter textured, to engage young children as they explore.
Despite the large community success in Charlotte, schools continue to have poor performance,
“We hear anecdotally that people, especially our school-aged kids are able to improve things like reading fluency and comprehension by practicing with our reading buddies and things like that,” Isley said. “But as far as actual hard numbers, we just don’t have access to that here in the public library, so that’s a tough one for us that we’re still working on.”
Impact on school performance
Multiple studies have shown that having a community library can positively impact student outcomes overtime, but library leaders in Fort Worth say the system is only one part of a broader solution.
Since there are no final exams or exit requirements for library programs, it is hard to track the exact impact of programs on a community.
In Fort Worth, Gorman said the library is there to support what is happening in schools, and give extra opportunities for the times when students aren’t in school.
“What we recognize is that the role that we play is supplemental,” she said. “Our job is to make sure that we are providing young people with opportunities to come in and have access to books and materials, and adults who care about them are willing to engage with them and help with homework and help them find resources.”
A tribute
Kelly Allen Gray, the former city council member, said Saturday will be a bittersweet day.
Devoyd Jennings, the president and CEO of the Fort Worth Metropolitan Black Chamber of Commerce, was part of the planning process for the library and helped to name it after former U.S. representative Reby Cary.
He died just weeks before the opening of the facility.
“He is not here to be part of the opening, even though for so many years he put forth some type of recognition for the late Reby Cary,” Gray said. “It is a bittersweet moment that represents the continued revitalization for East Lancaster.”
The library put the branch’s name up for a vote online two years ago, with more than 500 names submitted, 123 of them unique. After submissions were filtered down to five, Reby Cary received the most votes.
Cary is a meaningful name for residents of East Fort Worth.
He tore down racial barriers, being the first Black man elected to the Fort Worth school board in 1974 and later elected to the state House of Representatives in 1979. He was the first African-American professor hired at UT Arlington and helped establish the McDonald College of Industrial Arts for African Americans in the Riverside area.
Cary’s father, Smith Cary, established Rising Star Baptist Church in Fort Worth, and Cary grew up in the church before attending Prairie View A&M University. Throughout his life he built a legacy of advocating for education and reading and authored more than 20 books.
He died in December of 2018 at 98.
Saturday’s celebration will be attended by city leaders, including the new council member for District 8 Chris Nettles, Mayor Mattie Parker and Fort Worth ISD Superintendent Kent Scribner.
Activities will run from 9:15 a.m.-4p.m and will include live music, story time, a magic show and a planting project. More information is available on the library website.
The new library is located at 3851 E Lancaster Ave, Fort Worth, TX 76103.
This story was originally published August 12, 2021 at 5:30 AM.
