Scotts Valley Branch Library

During 2025 we offered two special storytime series at the Scotts Valley Branch featuring Community Resource Professionals who joined our regular Toddle Times and stayed afterward to talk about their areas of expertise and answer questions from parents and caregivers. The topics included Music and Movement, Play Therapy, Child Development and Play, Early Intervention, and Nutrition. We moved our Babytime and Stay and Play program to the Branciforte Branch when the Capitola Youth Librarian moved to a different branch, and it continues to be successful there.  We continued to offer a variety of special programs for children 0-5 including music, magic, puppetry and storytimes promoting inclusivity such as  Drag Storytime. We added a Dancing Tales interactive dance program for ages 2-5 at the Capitola Branch and later the Downtown Branch. We continued to collaborate with First Five to offer Triple P Workshops for Parents on a variety of topics and offered a passive program where parents participated in a Story Walk or a Laid Back Book Club based around the theme of Kindness. We partnered with the Santa Cruz SPCA to offer presentations on Pet Care 101 and Our Wild Neighbors, and offered special bilingual musical performances and storytime presentations celebrating El Día de los Niños/El Día de los Libros.  We also installed a beautiful Sensory Path, inviting children to tiptoe, jump, etc. outside the Children’s Room at the Aptos Branch.  We expanded our selection of toys and manipulatives for Stay and Play programming throughout the system.