Wheeler Taft Abbett Sr. Branch - Pima County Public Library (Marana, AZ)

Last week my wife Kathy and I traveled to Marana, AZ, (about 20 miles NW of Tucson) for her step-father’s 80th birthday celebration. I took the opportunity one morning to visit the nearby Wheeler Taft Abbett Sr. Branch of the Pima County Public Library. This branch is one of 27 locations in the extensive Pima County library system. It is named for its principal benefactor who donated one million dollars in 2006 to build this 20,000 square-foot library branch that was dedicated in 2008.

In the Tucson area it is not uncommon to see solar power installations like the one at the library that double as sun shades for parked cars. Just outside the library entrance there is a large metal sculpture with cut outs of words. There has been near record rains in the Tucson area before we arrived, so the nearby catch basin was full of water.

The library’s glass-walled entrance was most inviting, yet it did not prepare me for the sheer spaciousness of this bright and open library with two entire walls of windows and a high open ceiling that seems to sweep from indoors to outdoors with expansive sun shields all around the building. These are designed to keep the intense sun from overheating the building, especially on the 100+ degree Fahrenheit days common in the summer.

This large open space offers separate areas for computer stations, study carrels, comfortable seating areas, and shelves for books, recorded media, and periodicals. In addition to the glass walls, the concrete walls had clerestory windows all the way around. The ceiling seems almost to float, with only a small number of supporting posts.

The view to the east of the Santa Catalina Mountains is almost magical. The foreground of the photo shows part of the Silverbell District Park that surrounds the library.

The display board just inside the entrance announces the day’s activities in the Children’s Room and in the Community Room, which is just inside the library entrance doors. I was most intrigued by the 3 pm activity in the Children’s Room, “Read to a Dog.”

  
In one corner of this large room is a space specifically for Teens. Glass panel walls set it off, but it is still quite open like the rest of the library. This gathering space offers computers stations and comfortable seating along with book shelves for teen fiction and nonfiction.

There are bookcases for teen fiction and nonfiction, and a display board announces a variety of teen activities throughout the month.

As a visitor from Ohio, I knew I would not be able to borrow any books, but I was on the lookout for a comfortable place to sit and read the book I’d brought with me. Looking from the Teen Space, I spotted various study tables and carrels.

My eyes were especially drawn to the corner where the two large glass walls meet. There were numerous chairs here and all along the longer wall—all with that amazing view of the Santa Catalina Mountains.

Before sitting down to read however, I wanted to check out the Kids’ Place, which is a separate space off the left hand side of the large room. Just inside the Kids’ Place there’s a Story Room.

I wasn’t able to take photos of the play area in the Kid’s Place because there were so many children playing there. The area for computer stations and the seating area near the large windows were momentarily unoccupied, allowing me to take pictures.

I stopped to admire the artwork posted along one wall—watercolor mosaics of prickly pear cacti painted by 6th-graders at the school next door, the Lehman Academy of Excellence.

Searching through the children’s books, I found a Mo Willems book that was new to me, so I sat down to laugh my way through reading Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs. That Willem’s take on the story would be a bit twisted was clear on the very first page, where the third dinosaur after the Papa and the Momma is “some other Dinosaur who happened to be visiting from Norway.” And when the three dinosaurs make three bowls of chocolate pudding instead of porridge and then Goldilocks comes to taste them, “the first bowl of chocolate pudding was too hot, but Goldilocks ate it all anyway because , hey it’s chocolate pudding, right?"

Having thoroughly enjoyed Mo Willems’ inventive story, I headed back to that inviting corner with all the glass to settle in and read for the next hour. What a great reading space, with that great view to one side and another back toward the entrance across the entire library space! (My words and pictures really cannot do justice to it.)

After an hour it was time for lunch, but first I wanted to walk around the entire library to see what the glass walls and sun shade looked like from outside. It’s all quite striking.

For lunch I decided to stop at a nearby In-N-Out Burger—a burger chain I like but can’t visit in Ohio because it operates only in California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, and Texas. I had my usual when I’m visiting in Arizona—a Double Double cheeseburger with fries and a drink. (The photos are borrowed from Google Maps.)

  
It was a fine topper to a great morning in Marana, AZ!

Southeast Branch - Columbus Metropolitan Library

When I decided to visit the Southeast Branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library (CML) on Hamilton Rd. in Groveport this week, I did some looking on Google Maps for a nearby local restaurant. All the ones nearby on Hamilton Rd. were national chains, but just a bit north on Hamilton and then left a few hundred yards on Winchester Pike there was a small barbecue place called OD on BBQ. The reviews were pretty good, and there were indications that it had recently moved to this location. What I didn’t know was that it’s actually a food trailer parked behind a building undergoing renovation. There were covered picnic tables, but with the temperature at about 26 degrees, I ended up eating my brisket sandwich with a side of corn pudding in the car.

As cold as it was, I ate quickly and proceeded directly to the library. The clock tower to the right of the entrance is a rather distinctive feature. The entrance doors lead to an entryway with doors to two meeting rooms off to each side. Going straight ahead through the library doors reveals a large square airy atrium space with white-painted beams and lots of natural light from clerestory windows all around. The circulation desk is just to the left, and there are book displays, tables with chairs, and cushioned chairs placed throughout the space.

The lighted ceiling with white beams and clerestory windows is an especially striking feature of this library and truly a wonderful space. To the left are the fiction shelves, and to the right are a great many shelves for nonfiction as well as audiobooks, DVDs, and CDs.

Straight ahead at the far end of the atrium space is an area with a large number of computer stations for customers along with a Quiet Study room to the left.

Back toward the library entrance doors there’s a very nice display of new books and Quick Picks” along with some comfortable seating. I got distracted here checking what all was available here.

As I explored the library I noted several pieces of artwork on display. Below are a couple of paintings that especially caught my eye.

The library’s children’s area is to the  right from the entrance just past the New Books display. The Kindergarten Readiness space indicates that this library is in the Groveport Madison School District.

A wall of windows to the west brings in lots of light for the children's bookshelves, computer stations, and activity tables. I settled into one of the cushioned chairs by the windows to enjoy the two new (to me) Mo Willems Elephant & Piggie books I found on the shelves.

Continuing to explore, I stopped in the Homework Help area to note which college banners they had on display—Wright State, Alabama, Connecticut, Harvard, Ohio State, Bowling Green, Howard, and Otterbein.

Next to the Homework Help area between it and the fiction stacks, there’s a small, but inviting Teen Area. It has a very nice collection of Teen Fiction, three computer stations, and comfortable seating.

I started my browsing in the Teen Fiction as I have a number of such books on my want list. Then I continued into the Adult Fiction, where I noted that, while there were not separate sections for mysteries or science fiction, there was a section for Teen and Adult African American Fiction.

As usual, I’d picked out way too many books for today, so I took them out into the center atrium area and sat down to try to choose two or tree out of the seven that caught my eye. I ended up with the three below. I’ve read 5-6 books by Seanan McGuire recently and enjoyed every one, so I chose a ghost story by her that was new to me. The Shadowed Sun is the sequel to a book I read some time ago by by the prize-winning black science fiction writer, N. K. Jemisin. And The Fall is a typically massive 900-page science fiction novel by one of my favorite authors, Neal Stephenson.

Choices in hand, I headed to a far corner of the library where I had spotted several comfortable chairs with large windows to two sides. I settled in there across from the periodicals rack and spent the next hour reading before having to go back out into the cold and snow to head for home.

[A note on this post:  Searching with Google I never was able to determine when this library was built. I bet the librarian would know. I have no idea why I didn't ask her while I was there.  Check out this article.]