Visiting the CCBC FAQs

Where are you located and where can I find parking?

Please see our Location page for more information. If you have additional questions, don’t hesitate to call us at 608-263-3720, or email us.

Who can use the CCBC?

Although we are specifically funded to serve students, faculty and staff on the UW-Madison campus, and school and public librarians and teachers in Wisconsin, we welcome any adult who has an interest in children’s and young adult literature.

You don’t have to have a special ID or pass to come to the library, and dropping by unannounced is fine. But we encourage you to email us (ccbcinfo at education.wisc.edu) or call us (608-263-3720) ahead of time if you have a specific need or interest and would like to meet with a librarian during your visit or have books for pulled and waiting for you when you arrive.

How do I arrange for my university class/group to visit the CCBC.

We love talking to university students about the CCBC and books for children and teens! Please complete our Request  form, which will ask you to provide information about your class, your students, and what you’d like us to provide, and when you want to come.

If we are including books for display and a presentation, we’ll want to know what grade range(s) to pull for (e.g., Picture Books for K-3; Books about or for use with K-12 English Language Learners; etc). We’ll also want to know how many students are in your class or group. It sometimes takes a little back and forth to find a date and time that works but we are always able to arrange something.

A group of us from my school/district would like to arrange a visit to the CCBC to look at books. How do we arrange this?

We are happy to work with you to find a date for your visit. Please use our Request form to provide us with information about your group.

We’ll want to know if you are interested in a presentation, just looking at books, or both. If you are interested in hearing about books in the most recent edition of CCBC Choicesour annual best-of-the-year list, we’ll want to know if we should focus on a specific audience age/grade range. If you are interested in finding out about both newer and older (but still relatively recent) books on specific themes and topics, we’ll want your list of themes/topics at least two weeks, and preferably more, in advance of your visit, including the age/grade ranges we should focus on.

If you are interested in hands-on examination of new books and have a list of titles you want to see, we will want that list at least two weeks in advance of your visit.

Can I bring my children to the CCBC?

The CCBC is not designed for or funded to serve children or families directly. And no matter how much your child loves books and reading, the CCBC cannot match what the public library can offer. We encourage families to visit their local public library, which will provide them with a much more satisfying experience, including being able to take books home with them at the end of their visit!

Can I bring my elementary/middle/high school students to the CCBC?

We can’t accommodate school groups or classes at the CCBC. However, we do make an exception for students who are studying Ellen Raskin’s Newbery Award-winning novel The Westing Game, as Ms. Raskin donated her manuscript to the CCBC so that students could see where books come from and how they are made. To inquire about seeing the manuscript materials by appointment, contact CCBC Director Tessa Michaelson Schmidt, 608-263-3721.