There is a tree house in Firestone Library. Hidden behind the imposing stone and concrete exterior of the campus' main library, the tree's immediate surroundings are more like a jungle than a dusky cave.
The tree, a bonsai covered with graffiti quotations from popular children's books, stands in Cotsen Children's Library, a space filled with games, stuffed animals and richly illustrated books. The library contrasts starkly with the gray, windowless stacks and the muted reading rooms that fill tens of thousands of square feet in Firestone.
But like the rest of the library's collection of 6.2 million books, Cotsen is impressive. A division of the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Cotsen's collection spans five centuries and consists of 15,000 volumes in 40 different languages. The library offers community outreach programs for local children.
"What I'd like to see is for Cotsen ... to really offer some innovative and exciting programs that you wouldn't find in a typical library or school, or maybe even a museum," said Dana Sheridan, the library's outreach and programs coordinator.
The collection, donated by former University Trustee Lloyd Cotsen '50 in 1994, is one of the most extensive university collections of children's literature in the country.
While the public is unable to access the volumes, the library's first floor reading area is free and open to the public. The reading area is designed like a miniature fantasyland and includes a well, playhouses, cushions and an abundance of children's books for reading.
Schools from Princeton and the broader Blairstown and Trenton area frequently use the facilities for field trips and other special projects.
"Mr. Cotsen wanted to have an outreach part of the collection because the collections wouldn't be accessible to the public," Sheridan said. "And he wanted to have an outreach segment of the library that promoted love of literacy in children. He said that was a central piece [of his donation]."
The library offers a variety of programs for children of all ages, such as a nature program, a traditional story time, a literary critic group and story hours in other languages, including Japanese, Mandarin and German. Sheridan has a host of new ideas for the future and hopes to work with other members of the University community.
"I'd really like to form a bridge between professors and staff at Princeton who really want to take their department and reach out to the public," Sheridan said. "What I'm really hoping Cotsen can do is offer that bridge by building programs for children."
Student volunteers are encouraged to participate in Cotsen programs, and Sheridan welcomes suggestions for new initiatives that students may have.
"Some of the changes [at Cotsen] will be new programs with a focus on really reaching out to the public through many sources," Sheridan said. "I would love to reach children through architecture or chemistry or physics or poetry, to see how literature is unexpectedly tied to the world."
This summer's programs will be increasingly science-based and will take place in a variety of settings, such as a literary cooking program to be held at Whole Foods Market on Route 1.
The Cotsen collection hosts the original works of some the world's most famous children's authors, including Hans Christian Andersen and Beatrix Potter.
Students interested in working with these texts for academic purposes must submit a request to the department of rare books for consideration.
Sheridan views Cotsen's place in the University both as an invaluable historical source of rare books and as a means of community outreach.
"I really see this library and this outreach program as being a public service," she said.
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