Welcome to my latest post in my “WICHITA IS COOL” series. I’m including cool things in the Wichita Metro as part of Wichita, because, hey, these places wouldn’t be so cool if Wichita wasn’t right there providing people with work, roads, etc., etc. So, IMO, all the little towns around Wichita are really just little neighborhoods of Wichita (I hear some people call these things “the suburbs”).
Today, I wanted to highlight Derby Public Library. This place is great. My family visits this place at least once a week, or any time we’re in Derby and looking to kill time with the kids. For us, it’s conveniently across the street from where Kinder Music is in Derby, so that’s how we discovered it and why we use it so frequently.
Free Coffee. If you love coffee (and why wouldn’t you?) you can get it here, at Derby Public Library, absolutely free. And we’re not talking Folgers (though, I’d drink that too…despite being a lover of high-quality coffee, I’ll drink the cheap stuff too) this is some high-quality stuff. And despite being spat out of a machine, it doesn’t taste watered down like Keurig coffee. I don’t know what’s going on with these machines. Is it drip? Is it grinding it and then doing the k-cup thing and just shooting water over it for a couple seconds? I’m really not sure. I just know it tastes great. And it’s free.
This bad boy will spit out as much free coffee as you can handle.
2. It’s a great place for kids. My kids can spend hours here without getting bored, and I mean hours. They’ve got a ton of dramatic play (a kid-kitchen, puppets with a theater area, wooden cars they can pretend to drive, etc.) as well as dozens of buckets with manipulative, toys (dinosaurs! cars! etc.!) They’ve got several other areas outside of the kid play zone for kids as well. There’s a lego zone (big lego table with buckets of legos), a couple of those light up tables to build blocks on top of, a reading nook that looks like a little house, a wall of board games to play with their parents with, and a kid computer section (this is of course popular with the teenagers…lot of MInecraft and random flash games happening here). They also have TEEN TUESDAYS, where they do some teen only activities in the community room. My daughter is 5, so we don’t ever get to do this, but it looks cool and she always wants to go. They have snacks, and apparently do cool things with other teenagers.
One thing I love, is that there’s only one way in and one way out. Unlike some other libraries we hang out at (not mentioning any names here!) I don’t feel like i have to be as vigilante with my young kids if I don’t want to be. My kids know how to play well without me being present (they don’t destroy things, make messes, or talk rude to other children), so I can take a comfy seat by the single exit (which is right by the coffee machine, conveniently!) and get some work done if I want (like, say, writing this blog post for instance!)
This is only one half of the play area at the back of the library. I didn’t want to get pictures of other people’s kids, so I didn’t get the other half that has even more stuff. That’s my daughter in the background playing restaurant with all the cool dramatic play toys she grabbed from the kitchen area.
A wall of boardgames you can use in the library with your kids. Leo loves the Spaghetti Game. Miranda and I find it to be “okay.”
Me, living the good life. Sitting by the exit where I can see if my child needs me, drinking my free coffee, and writing up this blog post.
3. They check out video games. And, we’re not talking junk you’d never want to play. We’re talking the latest games for Xbox, Playstation, and Switch. I first played ELDER SCROLLS when it was brand new off a disc I got from the Derby Public Library. If I was a patient man I would have waited and played KIRBY: FORGOTTEN KINGDOM this way too (I was on the wait list, but I got tired of waiting and just bought it). But this is a great way to try games you may not want to buy. You could pick up an older title (this is how I played LIFE IS STRANGE: TRUE COLORS) and see if you like it…FOR FREE! Have I mentioned that using the library is free?
In case you’re wondering, Wichita Public Library does not do video games at any of their locations. This is a uniquely Derby thing, which makes it pretty awesome. That said, WPL does do things that Derby doesn’t do. Ying and Yang, people. Both are good. But, let’s get back to talking about what makes DPL so great to visit.
Tears of the Kingdom is currently checked out, but you can hit that PLACE A HOLD BUTTON and have it held for you as soon as it’s in. They’ll give you a friendly call and give you 5 days to come grab it before they call the next person on the list. Don’t be late!
4. You get access to more media than just Derby. They are part of this “KANSHARE” thing. I’ll post an image below of what it is. But, basically you get like 8 other libraries that pop up when use their search bar and search for media. So, if Derby doesn’t have the book, maybe Andover does, Eldorado, etc. They’ll deliver it to DPL for you if you hit the REQUEST HOLD button. It’s pretty awesome. I’ve read a lot of obscure comic books this way.
