Main Library - Pickaway County Library

I had a fine day driving down to Circleville for my visit to the Main Library of the Pickaway County Library. Google Maps didn’t identify any actual diners in Circleville, but I did find a local place, Goodwin’s Family Restaurant, for breakfast before heading to the library. With counter stools Goodwin’s looks a bit like a diner, and it’s been in business since 1979. I was hungry enough to forget to take a photo of my blueberry pancakes, bacon, and home fries before I was well on the way to finishing them. They were really yummy.

The library is located in a large, modern brick structure about a mile north of downtown Circleville on North Court St. The large Mary Joanne Clifton Addition was opened in 2011 to include dedicated areas for children, teens, and a computer room.

Upon entering the library I could see a Gallery to the left (which I later discovered provides access to meeting rooms and a reading room—those photos are near end of this blogpost). Straight ahead is the Check out Desk with a large open area and then book shelves beyond.

A donor recognition board to the right has an inscription: “A Library Sows Seeds of Knowledge, Plants Ideas, Cultivates Dreams, and Nurtures Mind and Spirit.” Farther to the right are shelves for new books.

After introducing myself to some of the librarians and telling them about my library explorations in retirement, I began to explore the library by heading past the colorful Gallery wall with the message “Throw Kindness Like Confetti” to check out the glass-walled computer room.

On beyond the computer room is a hallway area with seating and computers. It leads to the Teen Zone on the left, a couple of Conference Rooms on the right, and the area for Youth and Children in the distance.

The Teen Zone is a colorful, inviting space that offers a number of computers, shelves of age appropriate books and recorded media, and several comfortable seating areas. There were several games set out on tables.

A wonderful, gigantic stuffed dog provides a big welcome for children to their special area, which proved to be a much larger and more impressive space than I had expected.

Immediately to the right is a librarian’s station, and beyond that are doors to a bright, colorful room for storytelling.

The large and colorful children’s area receives abundant natural light from west-facing windows to the parking lot and an oval clerestory window wall painted a delightful light blue. There are computers in the center of the room along with numerous open areas surrounded by shelves of children’s books and other materials.

This being Circleville with its world-famous Pumpkin Festival, I was not at all surprised to find a number of whimsical pumpkin sculptures in this area.

I headed back to the adult section of the library to browse the fiction shelves looking for books from my Amazon wishlist that I might borrow. The fiction shelves are on one side of an atrium area with abundance natural light from a clerestory wall of windows.

The nonfiction and reference shelves are on the other side of the atrium area along with shelves for audio and visual recorded media.

At the far end of the atrium area is a Genealogy room with research materials. The vertical photo below is the view from the Genealogy room back toward the front of the library, with the fiction shelves to the right and the nonfiction to the left.

Having picked out three books on my wishlist, I headed back to the Gallery area where there are two large meeting room—the Crites-Hannan Meeting Rooms—as well as an especially inviting round Reading Room on past the meeting rooms.

There is also a door leading to a patio, and I briefly thought about reading outside. However. given the temperature in the upper 80s and only a modest amount of shade, I decided I’d take my books into the Reading Room and settle into one of the cushioned chairs to do some reading.

I truly enjoyed my time in the Pickaway County Library. It is a comfortable and inviting place with lots of open space, abundant natural light, and a good sized selection of books. And the round Reading Room was an especially peaceful place to sit and read until it was time to check out my books and head for home. My three selections are below—a mystery, a thriller, and a science fiction book.