I attended the Festival of Homiletics (aka Preaching Conference) in Minneapolis last week (May 13-17). On the way there I stopped in Madison, WI, to spend two nights with my son Nathan. On Sunday, May 12, he took me out to see the sights, which included some of the new buildings at Epic Systems (see link) in Verona where he works and (not surprisingly) a local diner along with the Verona Public Library.
Epic Systems is a very large healthcare software company with thousands of employees and a very large campus on the edge of Verona. The many different office buildings are designed in a rather whimsical variety of styles, including a Farm Campus, a Wizard Academy, and a Storybook Campus. For example there are buildings based on the Wizard of Oz Emerald City, on Charley and the Chocolate Factory, and on Harry Potter.
One of the main dining facilities is styled after Charing Cross Station from Harry Potter, and it includes decorative touches like a real railroad car outside the building (and a great spot to eat lunch and relax), British-style phone booths, and a stack of “Left Luggage” in one corner (including an empty owl cage).
Epic is an amazing place with
surprises around every corner. At various points we came across statues
of all sorts of mythical beasts—like a monster emerging from a stream
and a dragon on top of a fortress tower. Inside we found things like broomsticks
circling the ceiling and odd little statues on staircases.
And of course any Wizard Academy must include some kind of library building. Here are a couple of photos of the main multi-story staircase (pun intended) in the "Library" office building.
After touring Epic and before to the library, Nathan and I stopped at Gus’s Diner in Verona for lunch. (Diners and libraries seem to go really well together in this blog.)
After lunch we drove to the Verona Public Library, which was built in 2005 in the Prairie School-style with views of Badger Prairie Park. Given that Verona is a relatively small town with an estimated population in 2016 of about 13,000, this library is truly remarkable. After stepping through the main entrance, I found the view to the wall of windows at the far end is stunning, especially with all the stained glass in light fixtures and the ceiling.
To the left are a very large Children’s Area and Teen Central. Both are colorful and inviting.
Ahead are computers for library patrons, shelves of recorded media, and that magnificent window wall looking out on the park.
To the right past the circulation desk are the shelves for reference materials as well as for adult fiction and non-fiction books.
There are study rooms on this
side as well as a very inviting Quiet Reading Room with stained glass
doors, shelves of periodicals, and an inviting fire in the fireplace.
And everywhere there are books, books, and more books.
Here are two additional photos of the Teen Central area and all the books lining its walls.
The very large Children’s Area includes play and reading spaces, its very own castle, a wall celebrating readers, and a separate room set aside for storytelling. Again, there are lots of books all around.
The Prairie School-style stained glass throughout this library is really wonderful. And I really liked that the book collection is so large. This is an amazing library for a small town.
Nathan and I had brought our Kindle Readers with us, so we settled in to read for an hour or so in the Quiet Reading Room. As an out-of-town visitor, I was unable to borrow any books, but I did peruse the Friends of the Library Book Sale shelves hoping to support this library in that way Unfortunately I didn’t find anything to purchase. Nathan did find several books to check out. All in all it was a wonderful day out together for us.
Before visiting the Northern Lights branch library on Cleveland Ave., I decided I’d get lunch at The Pit BBQ Grille. This restaurant was started in 2016 by four black men, all graduates of OSU (including former OSU football stars Chimdi Chekwa and Bryant Browning), who established their restaurant in the struggling Northern Lights Shopping Center in the Linden neighborhood because they wanted, in their words, “to serve that community” because there was “not too much going on outside of fast food restaurants.” (See article.) They serve homestyle barbecue grilled meats along with a selection of traditional soul food sides. I had the lunch special—rib tips with fresh cut fries for a very reasonable $5 plus a drink plus tip.
The Northern Lights branch library is at the corner of Cleveland Ave. and Lehner Rd. about a mile north of the Northern Lights Shopping Center. It’s one of the newer libraries in the CML system. The original 1993 building was renovated and more than doubled in size in 2016 to become the largest branch in the system at that time (see link).
I entered the library from a large parking lot behind the library. The building has two wings set at an angle to each other. (Screen image from Apple Maps.)
My immediate impression upon entering the library was of space and lots of natural light. The large lobby between the parking lot entrance and an entrance from Lehner Rd, is brightly lit by long strips of clerestory windows. (Library information indicates that the lighting automatically adjusts with natural light.) The photo on the left below shows the circulation desk and the entrance from the parking lot. The photo on the right shows the Lehner Rd. entrance, the view down the children’s wing of the library, and on the far side of the circulation desk a hallway that leads to three meeting rooms with movable walls, a small kitchenette, and rest rooms.
The adults/teens wing extends back toward Cleveland Ave., with several glass-walled rooms on the right and a room filled with bookshelves on the left. Seating areas and displays of new arrivals extend down the center.
A Learning Lab includes laptop computers where, among other things, library patrons can create resumes and apply for jobs.
Next there is a very large Homework Help area with college banners hung above one wall. One of the librarians commented that it would be filled with students when school let out.
After the Homework Help area there is a teen area and then a large room with a large number of computers for general use. Both have many large windows along the outside wall.
At the end of the wing is a wood paneled wall with in inset fish tank, a bright spacious Quiet Room on the far side of the fish tank, and (to the left) five study rooms for individual of small group use.
Heading back toward the circulation desk, I checked out the area of book shelves for fiction and nonfiction. There’s also as a small room with periodicals on display. I will say that as much as I love the openness and all the all the light in this library and as important as the many services it offers are, I do wish that books had a greater presence in the library. With the bookshelves tucked away in a room off to one side like this, books seem almost like an afterthought.
I continued my exploring of the library by heading to the children’s wink. Just as I’ve seen in other Columbus Metropolitan libraries, there’s a stylized school bus marking off a dedicated Ready for Kindergarten area for preschoolers and their families. On the side toward the windows are several computer stations for young children.
At the far end of the room is a corner with three couches that would seem to be arranged for parent education. The poster in center of the lefthand picture says, “You Are Your Child’s First Teacher.” To the right of the couches is an area for children’s story time.
Back in the direction of the lobby area and circulation desk there are bookshelves for children’s books, the computer area, and an area for books and recorded media for older children.
While exploring the library and taking pictures, I’d picked out three books from the various “new arrivals” displays. So I headed up to the chairs in front of the fish tank to settle in to read for a while.
When it came time to leave, I headed to the self-checkout terminals under a colorful artwork and checked out my three book selections.
As with several other of the new CML libraries I’ve visited (like Driving Park, Northside, and Linden), I really like the bright light-filled rooms and the openness of the contemporary architecture. But I find myself wishing the spaces were warmer with a bit more color and more wood finishes, and most especially that there were more books. As valuable as meeting rooms, computers, and programs are to serve the public, to me a public library is first and foremost about books and reading.
