The cutest — and largest — Little Free Library I’ve seen is this: The Book Depot, residing in an authentic railroad shack in downtown Medina. The sign reads, “Where you can choo-choose a book!”
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All posts tagged library
North Royalton’s New Public Library – iPod Photo
The City of North Royalton, Ohio recently celebrated the opening of their new 30,000 square-foot library. The facility is a branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library and arguably the system’s most modern, by several measures. Many of the library’s features allow for flexible use: a retractable divider can be closed to allow use of many public computers in a classroom setting or opened to allow free access; at least two of the meeting rooms allow for similar division or union depending upon the need. Throughout the public space “coffee” tables, full-height tables, and a counter in a snack area offer hidden electrical outlets for personal electronics. Of course, there is high-speed Wi-Fi access throughout. Overall, the feeling of the place is one of openness and light – a generous translucent skylight provides soft daylight and a bank of windows along the building’s eastern wall faces a line of evergreen trees. All-in-all a most impressive new facility and a great asset to the city. I’m hoping to get permission soon to visit and photograph the facility’s interiors out of professional interests!
“A Day in a Minute” is a time-lapse movie I created for Westlake (Ohio) Porter Public Library as part of the 2011 Ohio Library “Snapshot Day.” It depicts a 12-hour day in the life of the library in about one minute (not including titles). It’s not quite as polished as I’d like but, as a first effort, I’m pretty pleased! (I’d been wanting to try this for a long time now!)
Note: For a much higher quality version of this movie, click here!
A view of the curved-wall gallery area at the library and my photos as I placed them. There was one other, larger image placed near the entrance to the gallery and a staff office.The gallery could use better lighting. Donations, anyone?
I started out the post-holiday work week hanging my photos in the gallery area of the Westlake Porter Public Library. It took longer unpacking the pictures from their shipping materials (layers of bubble wrap taped shut around each framed picture) than it did to actually hang them. The library provides adjustable hangers that attach to a modern picture molding near the ceiling of the gallery areas. As I was hanging the pictures a couple strode up and remarked, “We’re here to see the pictures. Not much here.” They spent a grand total of about 15 seconds before they turned heel and walked away. A few minutes later a couple of library volunteers took a few moments from their work, storing books for an upcoming fund-raising sale, to look at the pictures. They expressed their admiration, wondered where the pictures were taken, and spent a decent time looking at them. All to be expected, I suppose, but I’d not experienced the extremes in such quick succession!
You can view and purchase the photos that appear in the showing, along with a couple of alternative images that are not on display, at: GuilfordPhoto.com
This past Friday, Governor Ted Strickland proposed a cut of $227.3 million {from library funding} in fiscal years 2010 and 2011 as part of his plan to fill the $3.2 billion gap in the state’s budget. This will mean a more than 50 percent cut in funding for many of Ohio’s public libraries. Libraries could close or face significant reductions in operations as a result of the Governor’s proposal.
With about 70 percent of the state’s public libraries relying solely on {the state for funds}, the reduction … will mean that many will close branches or drastically reduce hours and services. Libraries bring critical services to the community, such as early childhood education, job help, free Internet access, and a place for everyone to come together as a community.
This budget will be finalized by June 30th so the time to act is NOW!
* I've quoted all of the above from the Save Ohio Libraries Web site but I wholeheartedly agree that this is a real threat to public libraries and the important services they provide. The cuts would be especially devastating to those libraries serving rural and lower-income communities who depend heavily or entirely on the state's support.
My sister and her husband visited today. The first motivation was to pick up our "old" couch as a donation to her eldest son who is setting up housekeeping in a fixer-upper house. He has no furniture and the place he's moving into needs much work and furnishing to become livable. This is an excellent development for him and we're glad to support him by giving him some nice used furniture –the couch and other things– to get a good start. We enjoyed a nice visit with our guests, took them to lunch at Panera Bread, and gave them a tour of the library where I work and was actually on duty this afternoon (half-day Sunday). Sister is also a library worker: circulation. Surprisingly, so is my niece: cataloging! My grandmother, aunt, uncle, and one of my cousins were and are teachers. Now we seem to be branching out into another educational field! The weather was sunny and warm today, a gorgeous early autumn day for travel: a fine day for a visit.
PhotonStopper 