Despite the ongoing impacts from COVID 19 the Mary D. Pretlow Anchor Branch Library still focuses on providing excellence for our local community. While we may not be able to host in house story time or allow our kiddos toys to play with, families can still find books, resources, passive programming, and 'story time- to- go' kits. We advertise resources such as "Dial-A-Story", "1000 Books Before Kindergarten", and "Tumblebooks" .
Our space is still widely used for parents and caregivers to meet with counselors, physical therapists and many child development specialists. We are proud to help patrons who happen to be parents, teachers, and childcare professionals look for books and resources for their children. We take suggestions from the community when building our kits and strive to provide learning appropriate activities and resources which would normally be found within Babygarten, Toddler Time and KinderSTEM.
During the Summer we proudly have additional crafts and activity bags that families can take home and play with together. With help from the Friends of the Norfolk Public Library and the School Nutrition Program we also are able to hand out books and meals to families who pass through our doors for free. We would be amiss if we forgot to mention our Summer Reading Program which takes place for 6 weeks. During the 6 weeks our families will find lively and engaging online programs found on the Norfolk Public Library's Facebook page. They have the opportunity to be put in a raffle for great prizes and track their reading with the Bean-Stack App.

We will persist in developing and adapting under current circumstances in order to further provide much needed space, resource and opportunities for the Norfolk public. We will pay attention to changing technologies, current needs and persistent patrons in our constant mission of being a part of the Family Place Library System.