The Windham Public Library is unveiling a new backpack program meant to provide educational entertainment for Windham families.

The Library Circulating Backpack Program, which began this month, allows library patrons to check out L.L. Bean backpacks stuffed full of books and related materials and games for a week at a time. Each of the four backpacks has a unique theme – ranging from Windham history, games, birds and magnets.

The Windham History backpack features several books and pamphlets about Windham history, including a pictorial history of Windham, Robert Chute’s “Settling in New Marblehead,” and Maurice Whitten’s “The Gunpowder Mills of Gorham-Windham, Maine,” as well as a CD featuring historical maps of Windham from 1735-2010.

Meanwhile, the Magnets backpack includes Barbara Alpert’s “A Look at Magnets,” as well as a set of “singing magnets” that make a musical tone when they come into contact with each other, a magnetic construction set called “Magformers,” and the magnetic board game “Jishaku.”

Children’s Librarian Laurel Parker, who designed the new program, said the initial impetus for the project was to give Windham families a way to learn local history together. The Windham Historical Society gives history tours to third-graders annually, but Parker thought that local history education should be expanded.

“I wanted Windham history to be shared with families instead of just the third-graders having that information,” Parker said. “They were the ones that mainly went on the Windham history tour and there wasn’t a good way for them to share that with their parents.”

Parker said she then got the idea for a backpack program from libraries such as the Camden Public Library and Gorham’s Baxter Memorial Library.

“I had seen backpacks like this done in other libraries and wanted to bring this program to our library, too,” she said. “There’s a lot of stuff in each one. It’s like a kit. It’s not like checking out just one book or one audio. There may be anywhere from five items to 20 items in one of the backpacks.”

Parker then conducted a survey to see what kind of backpack themes library patrons desired. Top theme choices included magnets, birds, games and the seashore. Parker said the library will soon make a seashore-themed backpack available, as well.

“They are geared toward family use, something that families can learn and grow from,” she said.

This month, Katharine Slomczynski took out the Magnets and Games backpacks for her sons, Adam, 5, and Marec, 7.

“They loved them,” Slomczynski said. “They loved the Magnet backpack. There’s a building in it that’s all magnetic, and they had so much fun creating different things.”

Slomczynski said the backpacks had materials of interest to a wide range of ages.

“It was a great introduction and it’s one that you can take out again because as they get older there will be more stuff that they can do in the set,” she said. “They’re great for a kindergartner – they’re great for sixth grade.

Kim Neal of Windham, who has four children between the ages of 1 and 10, took out the Windham History backpack this month.

“We really liked looking at the maps and how things have changed over the years,” Neal said. “I think it’s nice to know (the history of) where you live.”

Neal, who home-schools her kids, said the backpacks are a good supplementary learning tool.

“It adds a lot to what we’re already doing at home,” she said. “It just kind of gives that extra, adding onto what we’re already doing for history.”

Adam and Marec Slomczynski of Windham play with a magnetic construction set called “Magformers” that their family borrowed through the Windham Public Library’s new Library Circulating Backpack Program. Library patrons can check out one of the four themed backpacks for a week at a time. The Slomczynskis took out the Magnet backpack earlier this month. Photo courtesy of Katharine SlomczynskiThe Windham Public Library’s new Magnets backpack includes Barbara Alpert’s “A Look at Magnets,” as well as a set of “singing magnets,” magnetic construction set called “Magformers,” and the magnetic board game “Jishaku.”Photo courtesy of Laurel Parker