Tell me about your library.

My library is the Parsons Avenue Branch in Columbus, Ohio. It is part of the Columbus Metropolitan Library system.

The staff is friendly and fun, and the best of all is - they are currently building a new location of this branch down the street from where I live. I will be able to walk to visit my friends (both people and books)!

Hi Michelle,

My public library in Wisconsin is built near the lakefront. The adult section on the second floor has large picture windows that offer a view of Lake Michigan. The library has placed a group of comfortable chairs in front of the windows, so you can contemplate a book or the beauty of nature in front of you.

Angela:

WOW! That's awesome. Our library will have front windows, but alas, not lakefront!
That sounds beautiful. Which do you contemplate the most?

Chel

Chel,

To be honest, I spend most of my time there looking at the lake, especially on stormy days when the waves are crashing over the rocks on the shoreline (like the opening of the soap opera "Dark Shadows" The one thing our library lacks is a coffee bar, and I love to drink a mocha while I read.

The library in Aberystwyth was a Carnegie library. The staff were good and helpful, but it was run down and didn't have a good selection. But the old town hall was then refurbished as a new library and it's super. Books well set out, places to sit, wi-fi, DVDs, upstairs the archives, a nice children's area. (But no coffee bar.) It was great to get a new library when so many places are closing down their libraries, the latter I consider a criminal activity.

Angela:

Did someone say Dark Shadows!!!!!!!!! Wow, what a view! That sounds awesome.

I definitely agree about the coffee bar. There is nothing better than coffee and a book to me.

Chel

Mona:

That does sound beautiful. And, I agree with your last sentence! There are many towns throughout America that are considering closing their libraries as they feel technology has replaced the need. I strongly disagree.

Chel & Mona,

While library closures are disturbing, I find it just as scary that there are some libraries that have gone completely digital. They don't carry a single book! I love to browse. Having the computer browse for you doesn't begin to replicate the experience of finding a book you love on your own.

Angela:

I agree with you as well. I have yet to visit such a library, but I have heard about them.

Angela, I haven't encountered any such digital libraries. It sounds horrible. When I browse actual books, I come across things I wouldn't have thought of looking for.

Mona,

I agree. You never know what you will discover by accident or serendipity. Also, the digital library I saw during a news story was so sterile. Books are beautiful objects in and of themselves.

Our library here is the Grace Molonson Pickens library. Mrs. Pickens was the mother of T. Boone Pickens, who was born here in Holdenville, Oklahoma. I understand there was a grant or gift left to the city for this library's renovation. The site is quite small -- next to the high school and it is housed in an actual former residence of T. Boone Pickens with a small addition for a meeting room. It sure does need another grant so that more books can be bought. Every time I look for a book it's not something that the library owns.

Sheryl, I do agree that it sounds like they need a grant, but it also sounds like a cool library. Is it broken up into rooms just like a house would be?

Chel

I LOVE my library. It's an oldie too! Like early 1900s I think. It's surrounded by trees, and a Lincoln memorial, with fountains.

I haven't spent much time there in the last few years, but was thinking about my huge list of books I want to read, and knowing it would be so much better to borrow them than to keep buying books I may only read once.

Your library sounds beautiful.
And, I also started checking out more books than buying books!