Public libraries have recently come under fire as public officials push to ban books deemed too offensive to share with children. As the number of book challenges rise, so too does a perception that librarians are champions for access. However, while the public library performs a public good, there is a larger picture to consider. Namely, how the practices within the library are far more complex, especially in their services to young children and their families. This ethnographic case study, framed by assemblage theories, asks how children’s playful activities are a response to the practices, histories, and people within a local public library. Using archival data, observation, interviews, photographs, and video recordings, this dissertation asserts that young children’s playful activities with people, in programs, using various materials reflect their expansive, developing literacies and worldmaking practices, but in some ways have also been limited by the long-standing practices within the space.