June 17, 2010: Minneapolis Central Library

This June, our whole family flew off to Minnesota for the fifth biennial Mark Bingham Cup. My husband was sent by his referees' society to be one of the officials. In his match write-up to his colleagues, he had this to say about the tourism portion of our trip:
On Thursday we thought we’d head downtown and catch a Twins game [...] Instead we met up with other MBC visitors, had lunch, and strolled around down town Minneapolis. As is our habit when we’re in a new city with time to kill we checked out the library. The new library downtown is huge and architecturally interesting. It’s also a great place to entertain a one year old and cool off for a bit.
How exciting! Long before I officially started this blog, he was getting into the library-tourism spirit. I am looking forward to lots more visits like this.

This library—Minneapolis Central Library or Hennepin County Central Library, depending on where you look—is quite an impressive structure to see as you approach along Nicollet Mall. Like Seattle's Central Library, its new building is quite new; it just opened its doors in 2006.


If I understand correctly, the building is actually divided into two sections: the area in the foreground of this photo is actually civic space for offices and stuff, and the library is in the background. That huge overhang is part of the entrance atrium.


The photo doesn't quite do it justice, but the windows have these panels with vertical lines that put me in mind of birch trees. Very nice. There were a lot of little touches from the surrounding natural world—always a welcome addition in a big city!


Ooooh, that is some fancy atrium action. Very exciting and busy-public-space-y.


Turn right from the atrium, and you get here: into the main floor of the library! Love the bright colors of the carpet. And the pillars really seemed to work so nicely with the space, sort of anchoring without crowding the airy feel at all. It was also nice to see so many low shelves as soon as we walked in, which meant that we could pretty much see the entire main floor upon entry.


...Whoa. Now, you know I am a big geek about public access for all comers. I had known that Minneapolis is home to a large immigrant community, but man, I was not prepared to see a Welcome sign including TWO languages that I didn't even recognize! So cool! (Google tells me that "Zoo siab txais tos" is Hmong and "Soo dhawoow" is Somali.) For the record, the Hennepin County Public Library is really wonderfully publicly committed to its special populations. Its website features a main menu with some of the usual options: "Library Catalog," "Downloads," "KidLinks;" but also "TeenLinks," "Birth to Six," and "New Immigrants." A link full of resources specifically tailored to new immigrants, prominently featured on the front page, is really terrific.


This might be the cutest themed collection I've ever seen. It puts a smile on my face to imagine library staffers dreaming up ideas to entice their patrons. "What do people like? Fiction! And pets! How about fiction about pets?!" Yessss.


This was very interesting to me. I don't think I've ever seen actual book rentals at a library before; videos for pay are pretty common now, but books was a new one for me. I guess I'm of two minds about this. Of course, I'd like for every library to have an adequate number of new and popular books to meet the public's demand, but I know that taxpayers are not always so keen on footing the bill, and the money has to come from somewhere. So, this seems like a creative way to bridge the gap (and for die-hard library fans to offer a little extra financial support, perhaps?). I know that if this system were implemented at my library, though, I'd stick to the old-fashioned waitlist method. I enjoy the suspense of waiting for my crack at a hotly anticipated book, and... well... okay, I'm cheap. I am curious about what you'd do if your library offered a "Bestseller Express" program: is $4 a fair price to pay for skipping the line? What do you think?


In the upper right hand corner of this photo is a huge dragonfly, which is—of course—leading the way to...


The children's section!

Regarding this entry path, I am really getting spoiled by all these lovely, big, beautifully designed urban libraries. I'm going to start expecting such pretty, inviting displays everywhere I go.


I only got a few photos of my husband and son taking a look around (and enjoying Dr. Seuss memorabilia) before my husband plopped down for a rest, and the kiddo and I wandered off to check out some extremely exciting blocks and do a little light reading. Tragically, none of this is pictured (I was just too busy with the board books), so you will just have to imagine us having a grand old time.

Our visit to Minneapolis Central was short but sweet: a fun place to duck inside from the summer heat, rest our bodies, and flex our brains.

August 2, 2010: Berkeley West Branch

How not to start a "weekly" blog:
1. Post twice.
2. Move across the country; have no internet access for three weeks; neglect posting for four weeks.

Hi. Sorry about that. My internet access is back, and so am I.


One of the tough things about leaving Berkeley was saying goodbye to its public library system. Berkeley has five libraries. According to my exhaustive and rigorous research, this puts it slightly ahead of most of its neighbors in terms of library facilities per capita, and WAY ahead of some of the East Coast communities where I spent much of my life. And the quality of these libraries, I believe, really tells you something about Berkeley as a city.

Consider, for instance, the West Branch, which was our local library for the past two years.


The West Branch is not located in a very ritzy part of town. The building itself is pretty unprepossessing, and one of its closest neighbors is a large and popular 99 Cent Only store. The surrounding area is very socioeconomically diverse; there are plenty of well-educated middle-class households, but I'd also wager more lower-income and non-English-speaking homes than anywhere else in town. It seems to me that the Berkeley Public Library system has allocated its resources accordingly, and poured a lot of programming, staffing, and materials into the West Branch.

On our last full day in Berkeley, my son and I paid a visit to our beloved local branch.


This Lego table is the primary reason I can really say this place is beloved by both of us. Our visits almost always begin and end here; it's smack dab in the middle of the children's section, and the kiddo makes a full-body lunge for it as soon as he sees it.


I am sure that the library's main reason for featuring this Lego table is to encourage children's fine motor development and so on, but the collateral benefit for me is that long before my baby son had any real interest in books, he associated this room with fascination, happy feelings and FUN FUN FUN. As a parent who's really deeply invested in passing on the old librophilia, I cannot tell you how grateful I am that he's made this positive association.

Beyond the Lego table, there are lots of other temptations in the kids' section:


Beads!


Blocks for little kids! (Please note the adorably optimistic sign on the shelf there. Librarians. I love them.)


Blocks for big kids! I love the use of space here; I guess those odd stairs really had to be there, so they went ahead and used 'em.


Two computers, loaded up with fun programs and games, specifically for the little guys' use!

And the books. Booooooooks!


I am reasonably sure that, after the Main Library, the West Branch has the largest children's section in town. It is awesome. They've got so much stuff. All of these books are in Spanish. This whole wall!

I am a total sucker for translations of books I love in English:


Huevos verdes con jamón!


Verano en vaqueros!


Despereaux es la historia de un ratón, de una princesa, algo de sopa y un ovillo de hilo!

(!!!!!)


And the board books are so nicely set up, in two display units that are easy for little hands to reach into. This bench is so cute. You could have like six toddlers hanging out and reading on it. Not that they'd sit still, of course, but they could. If they felt like it.


A whole aisle evenly divided between kids' audiobooks and genre fiction! This is a populist library and I love it.

Another element to love: Quilted banners everywhere you look.


I do not know who made these, but I suspect it was a community-based effort, like this lovely piece of folk art "made by Berkeley school children." Aw.


But, of course, the children's section that I'm so crazy about is only half the library. (Although, hello, half the library is for children. Yay.)


Here's the rest of the place.


For a relatively small place, it's got quite a lot of general-use computers—probably eight or ten. And they all get a lot of appreciative use.


Thoughtful details like this make me smile: This pretty, pretty window is too wide for a regular aisle, so instead of obscuring it, they put the big wide periodicals section here, showcasing both the magazines and the window.


I also had to smile at the Teen Room, placed as far as possible away from the little kids' area, but still graced with another of those sweet quilted banners.


Got a big kick out of this, too. When was the last time you saw a monster dictionary or atlas on a pedestal?! For me, at least, it's been a good long while.


Murals seem to have been a big topic around Berkeley this year. It was neat to see this theme being applied hyperlocally (Mi Tierra at San Pablo and Addison is a block from the West Branch) and extended to further reading on this endcap.

I have mentioned that my experience of this library is largely defined by the practical resources it offers: many books for children; many computers available to those who need them; a real emphasis on welcoming speakers of languages other than English. Certainly, it's possible to get your highfalutin literary vitamins here too: I have checked out James Joyce, Virginia Woolf and William Faulkner from these shelves.

But this is the section that makes me feel most grateful.


This is a whole bookcase in the adult nonfiction section dedicated to literacy.


This is an entire shelf just for English workbooks (with a little GED practice thrown in there).


And, on a personal and entirely selfish note, this is the door leading to the community room where Baby Bounce and Toddler Time storytelling sessions are held most Fridays, run by a librarian who would be saintly if she weren't so no-nonsense, and whom I have watched hold the attention of fifty babies and parents at the same time. That was a pretty rad introduction to group storytime for my son.

We are very lucky to have lived walking distance from this library for two years. We miss you, West Branch!