🌅 America’s First Public Library Dedicated to Nature

SOURCE

Anythink Nature Library

WHAT TO KNOW

• The Anythink Nature Library, the nation’s first public library dedicated to learning about the natural world, opened last month in Thorton, Colorado, blending traditional library services with immersive experiences designed to inspire curiosity about nature and a sense of stewardship of the environment. Inside, visitors can explore the 33,000-square-foot library’s nature lab, immersive sensory spaces, and open-air garden. Outside, they can stomp around the water flow and mud pit (the library also has a clean-up room with sinks and towels), relax at the café, or walk the quarter-mile trail loop winding through part of the 15-acre campus.

WHY IT MATTERS

• The library is designed around the principles of the Environmental Kinship Model, which encourages children to learn about, in, with, and for nature. One of the library’s core focuses is removing barriers to the outdoors, offering an inventory of 650 outdoors-related items people can borrow, like binoculars and snowshoes. The infusion of nature throughout the facility is also meant to encourage hands-on play for kids, building their connection with nature through positive experiences with natural environments.

CONNECT THE DOTS

• Research shows American childhood has moved indoors over the past two decades, with U.S. kids now spending an average of just 4-7 minutes per day engaging in structured outdoor play versus roughly 7.5 hours in front of electronic media. While there is no optimal amount of time children need to spend outdoors, experts say school-aged kids who average at least a few hours of outdoor play each day reap various physical, emotional, and cognitive benefits.