Children's Public Library

Here in Muscat, there is a dedicated Children's Library.  We've checked it out once.  I have, let's say, mixed reviews.

The Children's Public Library is a large, beautiful building in Muscat.

The library is fairly new.  I believe it opened spring of 2018.  When we went back in August before school started, only one floor was open to the public.  So hopefully they have bigger and better plans for it to grow.

It has pretty limited hours as it is not open on the weekend, and it closes at 3pm during the week.  So basically, during the school year, there is no time for children to go to the library unless they are homeschooled.  Maybe as they grow they can hire more workers and expand the hours?


My understanding is that the books are donations.  Good idea for keeping costs low.  However, what you find is hit and miss.  If you are reading a series, the entire series will probably not be present.  But there is a pretty wide variety of books, many of which would appeal to adults as well as children.

The organization of these books, however, leaves much to be desired.  I couldn't follow what the organizational structure was.  Non-fiction and fiction books did seem to be separated.  And very young children's books were on one side of the room away from older children's books.  But outside of that, there was no telling.  I basically went up and down every aisle looking for books of interest.

Now, for the weirdest feature of all:  you cannot borrow books.  You can pull a book, read it there, then return it to a cart to be shelved (odd that they were so specific about you not returning books to the shelves yourself when there wasn't much system to the shelving).  You cannot take books home.  The one day we went, J was pouting about going (big surprise, I know, for all who know him).  He took forever deciding on a book to look at or read.  I barely got any reading done because I kept getting up with him in search of a new book.  By the time he found a book, Stephen and E were pretty done sitting at a short table reading.

I now have a note on my phone of what book each of us was reading and where we left off for the somewhat improbability of us ever returning.  I also noted which shelves the books were found on, but I doubt that will come in handy.

I do hope the library grows and improves.  But if it doesn't, there is another option.  Let's Read Library, a reading area and used book store opened in Oman Avenues Mall.  The books there are donations and are sold fairly cheap (1OR for paperback, 2OR for hardback) to raise money for charity.  They sell some of the children's books depending upon what their stock looks like.  At Christmas, for example, they were selling only paperback children's books.