A pub crawl, a bookstore crawl, an ice cream crawl, why not a library crawl? I polled Western Massachusetts librarians via our listserv about the top reasons families might want to visit their libraries, and librarians (of course!) answered. Fish tanks, scavenger hunts, cozy chairs and big graphic novel collections, joke days, Lego, crafts, murals, seed libraries, the butterfly life cycle in action…every library has something special and unique. The library crawl lasts all summer and there’s still some summer left, so if you’re in Western Mass, give it a try!

If you want to create a crawl of your own, it’s not too hard. I created a google form to collect each library’s name, “why you should visit” (up to three reasons/attractions), what they could offer (a stamp, sticker, small prize, etc.), their library logo as a small image file, and any ideas they had to add. I should have asked for the library address – I ended up having to look those up – and you could decide to include library hours, but because smaller libraries especially have wonky hours, I thought that would take up too much space on the page. I designed this handout in Canva, but you can use any design tool you like.

What’s something special about your library?