Today I decided to visit the Northwest Branch of the Fairfield County District Library, located in the village of Carroll about seven miles north of Lancaster. Like Canal Winchester to the north (where I visited a CML branch library 2 weeks ago), Carroll was founded in the late 1820s along the Ohio & Erie Canal—in Carroll’s case, at the junction of the Ohio & Erie Canal and the Lancaster Lateral portion of the Hocking Canal. The library branch in Carroll was dedicated in November of 2007. It’s located in a southern part of Carroll along US-33 just south of Coon Path Road.
Before going to the library, I chose to have a late breakfast at a small diner-style restaurant in the village proper, Fisher’s Restaurant. I enjoyed a yummy meal of pancakes, bacon, home fries, and Diet Coke, all for about $9.
The library is a pleasant drive of about 3.5 miles southwest along local farm fields. Walking up to the library entrance, I noticed a really lovely little garden with a number of sculpted figures as well as a winding path with stepping stones that tell the story of Peter Rabbit.
The interior of the library is primarily one large open room with bookshelves dividing various areas. Fiction shelves were to the left, with non-fiction and recorded media to the right. There’s a carrel with six computer stations in the center of the library. And all along the far wall is a large Early Literacy Center for children. The room has a contemporary feel with polished concrete floors with area rugs and an unfinished ceiling with exposed ducting.
I was welcomed most graciously by the director of the library and one of the librarians, who showed me around. They were very proud of their library, and rightfully so. It’s a wonderful space with lots of natural light, a find collection of books for a small branch library, and the Early Literacy Center is a really inviting and engaging space that was buzzing with children at play. Besides this large area, my tour included the small meeting/study room and the librarians’ work space (the first time that’s been included in a tour).
The recorded media collection is quite large. Two banks of shelves (below left) mark off the children’s area on the other side and are for DVDs—the nearest section for children and youth and the far section for adults. The audio book collection (below right) seems especially large. I wonder how many patrons check these out for use during their 40-60 minute (or longer) daily commute to and from work in Columbus.
An unusual thing I noticed was the “Day Care Kits” on a wide variety of topics that were available to be checked out by families. The librarian told me that a lot of local homeschoolers made use of them.
The Early Literacy Center takes up about one third of the large main room. Apparently this library was built as to be convenient for commuters to stop in early in the morning for coffee and to pick up books and other media. This didn’t work as well as planned, and in September of 2014 the Early Literacy Center was opened as (according to the library website) an “interactive play space to encourage learning through play… designed for children birth to six and their caregivers. [They] help children learn how to tell stories, recognize letters and work with letter sounds all while having fun.” The librarian told me that the center is constantly in use, and indeed I could hear the sounds of children at play the entire time I was there. (At one point I heard a child crying because he didn’t want to leave. Mom got him to go by promising he could operate the automatic door at the entrance.)
There’s a large amount of space for play, with different areas for different ages, all separated from the rest of the library by low walls of bookshelves. In the middle are tapes and chairs as well as several painting easels. Reading is encouraged in a number of ways, including having preschoolers sign up for the 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten Program.
At one end is a small play kitchen and next to it is an area specifically for children under 2 years old.
Here are a couple of additional pictures of the space showing the tables and chairs and painting easels as well as a close up of a poster with directions for children using the space.
Today I found two Mo Willems books that both made me laugh.
Two gnomes “guard” the opening back to the adult portion of the library.
I returned to the adult fiction section, where I had no trouble finding a couple of books to check out. Then I settled into one of the cushioned chairs to finish reading the book I’d brought with me.
After checking in the book I finished and checking out my two new books, I returned to the garden to walk the Peter Rabbit story from beginning to end. The librarian told me the garden has been a really popular space. They grow vegetables and flowers throughout summer and take part in the Cornell FeederWatch for birds. (SPOILER ALERT: the photos below reveal the end of Peter’s story.)
If you want to read the story from beginning to end, I recommend you stop by this wonderful library to walk the story path for yourself. And be sure stop to enjoy the gazebo out front and say hello to Peter there.
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