By Darcie Canfield-Riggs
Checked Out
This is an exciting year for the Hutchinson Public Library—we’re celebrating our 125th Anniversary! You’ll find us highlighting a different library decade each month with events, reading challenges, and more.
This month, we chose to highlight library history from 1910 to 1919. This decade is of interest to me, personally. It’s when the Hutchinson Public Library first offered children’s story hour and hired its first children’s librarian. Shoutout to my predecessors, paving the way for bookish library nerds like me to fulfill our lifelong dream of getting paid to read! Joking of course, anyone assuming library workers spend their days with their noses in books are hilariously mistaken. Even during my weekly storytimes, we are doing so much more than reading aloud. We’re unleashing our imagination, having fun with our peers, connecting themes, bonding with our caregivers, and fostering a love of books, all while slinging a barrage of bubbles all around the room. But how did we get here?
In May of 1912, a group of devoted board members took turns volunteering to host a weekly story hour for children. There were no sound systems or puppet stages. No shaker eggs or bubble machines. Just voices, books, and a belief that stories—and children—mattered. What were they reading to children in 1912? Probably several titles you’ve heard of that are still being read by families today: “The Wizard of Oz,” “Anne of Green Gables,” “Peter Pan,” “The Jungle Book,” “The Wind in the Willows,” and fairy tales and fables. A simple idea from those library leaders—our children deserve a place to listen, imagine, and belong—grew into something lasting.
While children of Hutchinson in those days may have gathered around to listen to what we now refer to as classics, today’s kids fall in love with graphic novels, laugh-out-loud chapter books, beautifully illustrated picture books, and stories that reflect a wider range of voices and experiences. Our readers love series like “Dog Man,” “I Survived,” “Percy Jackson,” “The Baby-Sitter’s Club” graphic novel adaptations, and “Wings of Fire.” We sing along to “Pete the Cat,” laugh with “Pig the Pug,” love our friends Gerald and Piggie, and we see main characters depicted as axolotls, kitty-unicorns, dinosaurs, and inanimate objects, as well as children with a variety of skin colors, hair styles, religions, races, and abilities. Since the beginning, our library has known that there is power in seeing yourself in a story and joy in discovering new worlds through pages. The amount of diversity we see in books today matters, and it’s something I am very proud of our library for intentionally featuring.
In November of 1919, our library hired its first children’s librarian. By adding this role, the library recognized what we still know today: when you invest in children, you invest in the future of your community. There have been a handful of children’s librarians throughout our 125 years who have made storytelling resources and set a precedent for what we continue to use today. In the 2000s, with more evolution in our services, we adopted a new title–youth services librarian. This title change reflected our focus on adding programs for pre-teens and teens in the library, too.
Programming at the library in 2026 might look very different from 1912, but its heart remains the same. Youth still gather to hear stories read aloud, to laugh, to wonder, and to discover the magic inside books. Today, those stories come alive in many ways. We share books, use puppets and flannel boards to retell favorite tales, and use music and body movement to help children connect words with rhythm and motion. Scarves swirl through the air, shaker eggs keep a steady beat, and little hands stay busy with crafts, building fine motor skills while reinforcing story themes. We offer sensory experiences that allow children to explore textures, sounds, and sights—important tools for early learning and brain development. These moments may look playful, but they are deeply purposeful—play IS learning!
Our commitment to young people doesn’t stop at storytime. Just as Hutchinson’s library leaders in the 1910s saw the importance of serving children, we continue to grow with our community’s needs. In 2007, our library added the youth outreach coordinator position to help take library services to youth in daycares and preschools. Amy Johnson has read to thousands of Hutchinson children, bumped up children’s book circulation through delivery to centers and schools, and enhanced partnerships between the library and our community. We have been expanding programs for preteens and teens for decades, creating spaces for them to explore creativity, connect with peers, and develop a lifelong relationship with reading and learning. Our growth inspired hiring our library’s first-ever young adult librarian, Shelby Robinson, in 2023. There’s also a volunteerism element, where teens can become part of our Young Adult Advisory Board and help us with our programming.
For more than a century, the Hutchinson Public Library has been a place where stories begin for our youngest patrons. What started as one program a week has now grown to an average of 82 per month. In all that we do, we are helping youth build literacy, language, acceptance, and confidence. We strive to provide a safe, welcoming environment and celebrate the diversity of our community—continuing a legacy that has many more chapters ahead.
Darcie Canfield-Riggs is the youth services librarian at the Hutchinson Public Library. She can be reached at darcie.cr@hutchpl.org.