The Children of our Homeland Center (COHL), aka Children’s Room, is located in the Joeten-Kiyu Public Library. With an area of 2,800 square feet funded through a grant from the Administration for Native Americans (ANA), the old Conference Room was remodeled and transformed into a Children’s Room. It houses a total of about 16,000 items, which include non-fiction, fiction, biography, chapter books, and picture books.
Most importantly, COHL features a growing selection of culturally appropriate books and resource materials from our local authors in our efforts to augment the need to preserve, promote, and practice the indigenous Chamorro and Carolinian languages and cultures to our children and youth, and as a resource for PSS Cultural Language and Heritage Studies teachers and students.
Together with Circulation, COHL also oversees the operation and activities of the Bookmobile by handling the circulation collections as JKPL’s outreach program in bringing general library services and homework assistance offsite to target underserved children, youth, and adults in remote locations in villages with limited comprehension and speaking abilities, limited functional literacy or informational skills, and/or who have difficulty accessing a library due to a lack of or no transportation. The Bookmobile collaborates with our Homework Center to provide outreach homework assistance to target underserved students in remote locations offsite in villages for the same reasons.
COHL/Children’s Room conducts story sharing & crafts every Saturdays @ 10:30 am. Children should be old enough to sit and listen to stories and participate in simple educational activities, but younger children are welcome.
Our Summer Reading Program is one of our most popular activities throughout the year, averaging 50 kids a day. The program is open for children from ages 6 to 12 years old (older kids are welcome) who read books to earn small prizes and coupons. They also earn raffle tickets for large prizes given at the end of the program.
We are open Tuesday to Thursday from 10:00am to 6:00pm, Friday from 1:30pm to 7:00pm, and Saturday from 9:00am to 4:00pm. We are closed on Sunday, Monday, Holidays and Austerity Saturdays. Please feel free to call the Children’s Library @ 670-235-7315 for more information on our activities or any question regarding our services.