February 25, 2014

For 30 years, patients and their families have found a welcoming place to escape in a book, play a board game, do a puzzle while in the midst of treatments and hospital stays. What started as a little closet with a few donated books has grown to a comprehensive library with “a little something for everyone” including resource and foreign language books, computers, printers, Fax/copy machine, DVDs, board games and puzzles.

The library’s vast array of books provides a chance to travel to another world but the greatest stories in this library come from the moments patients and families share as they explore new ideas, take a moment away from their hospital room to enjoy a nice story or visit the library to meet a special author who’s here for a visit.

The Pi Beta Phi Patient/Family Library opened in 1984 in a linen closet in the Abercrombie building, 1992 it moved to a larger space and finally settled in 2011 on the 16th floor of West Tower in 2001. The library has been made possible by the generous donations of Houston Pi Beta Phi foundation where it gets its name. From being just an idea by board member Virginia McFarland three decades ago, the Pi Beta Phi Patient/Family Library is now an important part of the Texas Children’s Hospital experience.