RON KARAFIN/Courier-Post Gregory Lombardo, 4, of Philadelphia, (left) and his cousin, Michael Hunter, 5, of Maple Shade, scour the children's section at the Maple Shade branch of the Burlington County Library on Main Street. The library has added services since joining the county system two years ago.

Township children have made the local branch of the Burlington County Library system a hot spot of late, with pre-registration for kids' programs topping more than 600 in just the past three months.

Since the township's own library became a branch of the county system two years ago this month, many changes have been implemented, but the biggest has been the expansion of children's programs.

"We have a great bunch of kids that come in here and it's growing all the time," said Jessica Hildreth, library director. "We use to have the occasional story time, but since becoming a branch we've added many programs including crafts and story time several times a month."

Deana Malone, a library assistant who helps coordinate children's services, often incorporates seasonal ideas and holidays into the programs.

This month, about 24 children decorated flower pots and planted pansies during a spring craft session at the library. Today, Paws on Wheels is expected to bring its traveling animal program to the library from Paws Nature Center in Mount Laurel from 11 a.m. to noon for pre-registered 3- to 12-year-olds.

"I was looking for something to help celebrate spring that the kids could take home," Malone said.

Among the regular children's activities is a monthly contest. Seven-year old Tanner Trumble won a scavenger hunt in the library and was rewarded with a gift certificate to Blockbuster video store.

Tanner goes to the library a few times a week with his mom and four siblings, who are home-schooled. The family relies on the library for fun, as well as to supplement their home studies.

"We check out a lot of books on whatever subject we're studying relative to the different age groups at home," said Michele Trumble, Tanner's mother. "We use it for pleasure reading as well. They have a great selection of movies. They also have a lot of exceptional programs for the children."

More DVDs and videos

According to Hildreth, the library's video and DVD collections are the fastest growing and most used out of its entire core collection of 44,408 items. Since joining the county system, the library also has expanded its computer services and now has eight computers with Internet access, two personal computers with Microsoft Word programs and two children's computers. Hildreth hopes to add adult programs this year for the adult population of the library's 7,000 active patrons.

"It's continuously growing," said Hildreth. "Anything we don't have here then we can get through another part of the library system. Eight out of 10 times when something is requested, we can get it for them."