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Stoneybrook Public Library is a library in Stoneybrook, Connecticut. As revealed in Mary Anne's Bad Luck Mystery, the library has only been open for about eight or nine years. Claudia's mother Rioko Kishi is the head librarian and sometimes when the Baby-Sitters Club members go to the library, Mrs. Kishi directs them to the books they are looking for or they say 'hi' to her.

General[]

Stoneybrook Public Library is built on Ellway land, on condition that if it's ever destroyed the land reverts back to the Ellway family in Mary Anne and the Library Mystery.

In Claudia and the First Thanksgiving, the library is not far from Stoneybrook Middle School and you can walk there.

Every Friday, Rioko Kishi holds a staff meeting in the conference room on the second floor according to Claudia in Claudia and the Great Search. They start at 3:30 and student volunteers run the circulation desk.

The library is only open on Sundays for a few hours. The children's room is only open until 5:00 in Claudia and the Disaster Date.

History[]

The original building used to be an old farmhouse. The library's basement still has the original brick from the previous building. The bricks were made by hand and crooked on the walls, as mentioned in Claudia and the Disaster Date.

The first time that a BSC member went to the library was in Kristy's Big Day, when one of the members took her charges to storytime at the library.

The second time a Baby-Sitters Club member went to the Stoneybrook Public Library was in Mary Anne's Bad-Luck Mystery when the Baby-Sitters Club members at the time (Mary Anne, Dawn, Claudia, Kristy, Mallory, and Jessi) went to the library to check out books on Witchcraft and Spells.

In Stacey and the Stolen Hearts, the children's room threw a festival with help from the BSC for Valentine's Day.

In Claudia and the Disaster Date, Claudia mentions that her mom promoted Miss Ellway from the children's room. Until Ms. Feld replaced her in the children's room, she hired Claudia and Erica to help.

Staff[]

Librarians[]

Pages[]

Volunteers[]

Library Board[]

Layout[]

The main room is where the fiction is shelved, where the office is, and where the main desk is. Mrs. Kishi's office is behind the main checkout desk.

There's a music section mentioned by Laurel Kuhn in Claudia and the Disaster Date.

Black metal file cabinets stand side by side against the back wall, containing such files as clippings of local authors and illustrators. Including Henrietta Hayes, one of Mallory's favorite authors in Mallory Pike, No. 1 Fan.

The library also has a meeting room to host a variety of events, such as the slapstick film festival mentioned in Book #19 Claudia and the Bad Joke. Trustee meetings and board meeting are held in the Prescott Room as mentioned in Dawn and the Impossible Three.

Old newspapers are kept in a closet. They have copies of Stoneybrook News on microfilm as far back as 1820. Clerks bring old magazines to a person that has requested them. A smaller room holds the card catalog and the nonfiction.

The children's room used to be shabby, but it was renovated. The newer room is really two rooms that take up one window-paneled corner of the first floor of the library. The main room holds the children’s librarian’s desk, the card catalog computer, and the factor section. In the smaller room, there are two newly acquired computers that kids can sign up to use, along with all the non-fiction books. Both rooms are full of books, and nooks and crannies where kids can curl up and read. The smaller room even has a puppet theater. A giant Raggedy Ann doll, just waiting to be cuddled, sits on one of the child-sized chairs. Most of the read-this-award-winning-book posters have been replaced by cool prints of illustrations from picture books. The story area is set up with pillows and a few munchkin chairs were scattered over an area which its own dark blue plush carpeting. A platform with a big armchair facing outward occupied the extreme corner. Next to the armchair was a small table. To one side of the platform were two stacks of more chairs. One stack also munchkin-sized, the other adult.

The break room for the staff has a table with a small refrigerator underneath it with two cabinets on the wall above it. There's a lumpy sofa with a folding chair on either end. There is also a bookcase and a coffee pot in Claudia and the Disaster Date.

In Claudia and the Great Search, it's mentioned that there's a conference room on the second floor. Microfiches are on the first floor.

In Stacey and the Mystery Money, it's mentioned the magazine collection on the shelf goes back two years.

The reference room has microfilms as well information about the town, birth and death records in Mary Anne and the Secret in the Attic.

Mural[]

There is a mural just outside the doors of the children's room doors. In Claudia and the Disaster Date, Claudia Kishi had redone the mural.

Old Mural[]

The old mural was a series of panels showing children reading in different places and situations: a child in a tree house, a child sprawled on a rug in front of a fireplace, a child in bed beneath the covered with a flashlight, a child in a rocking chair with her grandmother reading to her a child in a porch swing. It was nice and pretty and sweet, except that all of the children looked pretty much the same: pink-cheeked kids, the girls in frilly dresses, the boys in pants.

New Mural[]

Claudia would use the same motif, but the kids looked like the kids she knows: dark-skinned, light-skinned, curly hair, straight hair, a girl (who looked a little like Kristy in overalls), a solemn boy sitting by his grandmother, an older kid reading to a younger kid on the porch wing. There was even a row of little kids in sunglasses on towels, reading at the beach. Then she added different characters altogether—real characters. In the rows of kids at the beach, for example, a seagull read Jonathan Livingston Seagull, a pelican read The Enormous Fish, and a crab read Sandcastles. Behind them, a girl in a read cloak with a hood, carrying a basket, walked by. From the basked, several books stuck out: Maps to grandma’s House, How to Survive in the Woods, and Never trust a Wolf. Up in the teahouse, a new full of tint robins each had a teeny-tiny book, except one. Above the baby robin, a parent robin was swooping down with a book in its beak. In the background, far, far away, a princess in a tower with long golden hair read a book. In tiny letters, I’d written, The Princess’s Guide to Building ladders. Beneath the porch swing, a large dog with glasses read How to House-Train Your Human. In a corner, a frog with a crown on its head read The True Story of the Frog Who Kissed a Princess.

Books and Media[]

  • The library has many books, but it doesn't have Claudia's favorites: Nancy Drew books
  • There are poetry books that Vanessa likes
  • The library has books about robots that Nicky likes
  • They have CD-ROMs of the Connecticut phone book on order and physical copies of them as well

Trivia[]

  • Not many librarians besides Mrs. Kishi have been at the library when the BSC members are there.
  • The library has a book sale every year.
  • Will hold crafts fair to raise funds.
  • They hold a read-a-thon in Mary Anne and the Library Mystery.
  • It almost got burnt down in Mary Anne and the Library Mystery when a child was lighting books on fire.
  • The catalog has been computerized by Claudia and the Disaster Date.
  • Story time is Monday through Fridays, eleven A.M. to noon at the latest. Tuesdays and Thursdays they read picture books. Mondays and Wednesdays they read short chapter books for a slightly older audience. Fridays are for children of all ages to listen to Storybook Wanda, a professional storyteller who volunteers her time.
  • The student librarians aren't in enough to know who Claudia is in Claudia and the Great Search.
  • In Stacey and the Mystery of Stoneybrook there's birth, death, and property tax records kept at the library.
  • It's fifteen cents a page to copy in Mary Anne's Bad-Luck Mystery.
  • They host a summer fundraiser in Karen's New Holiday.
  • Budget cuts are mentioned in The Mystery at Claudia's House and Claudia made homemade jewelry for a crafts fair.
  • They have a book called Who's Who, which is a directory about some citizens of Stoneybrook.

Gallery[]

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