After a very busy holiday season, yesterday (1/7) was time to get back in the swing of things with my first library visit of the new year (and new decade, for that matter). At this point I have 12 central Ohio libraries to go to reach my goal of visiting all of the libraries in the Central Library Consortium. And it was such a sunny day with a high predicted in the mid-40s that I decided I would maximize the drive by visiting the one of the twelve farthest from my home. And that was the Stanton D. Johns Branch of the Fairfield County District Library located 45 miles away in Amanda, OH, a village of some 800 people located about 10 miles southwest of Lancaster.
I got to Amanda just after 11 am and decided to get an early lunch first before going to the library. The Village Food & Spirits on the north side of town is a pub-style place that opened in February of last year. I enjoyed an excellent “Farmer Burger” (bacon cheese burger with lettuce, onion, tomato, and a fried egg) with a side of fries.
After lunch it was just a few short blocks to the library on E. High St. at the foot of the Amanda water tower. The building was dedicated in October of 1987 and renovated in 2012. A very nice gazebo was added in 2015.
Just inside the entrance door is the library’s circulation desk, where I was warmly greeted by one of the librarians.
The single main room is rectangular and is pretty much filled with shelves of books except for an open space for a children’s area to right with a brightly colored area rug on the floor. This space gets lots of light from a wall of windows to the west with low bookcases of children’s books on both sides and taller shelves of teen books at the end. There were all kinds of books on display atop nearly every bookcase.
At the far end of the room to the south, there are four computer stations in front of a large arched window facing E. High St. In the southeast corner of the room are shelves for periodicals and then shelves all along the east wall for audiobook, DVDs, and other recorded media.
Winter-themed decorations were all around the room, and some of the various small snowman figures especially caught my eye.
As I noted, the shelves for reference books, non-fiction, and fiction pretty much filled the center part of the room. A small display for the Friends of the Library book/DVD/etc. sale is in a short side corridor to the rest rooms.
At one point I asked the librarian who Stanton D. Johns was. She took me to a portrait of Johns and his wife on display in the northeast corner of the library.
Johns founded Mid West Fabricating in 1945, which is a significant local employer with its headquarters and largest division in Amanda and additional divisions in Lancaster, OH, and in Santa Fe Springs, CA. He and his wife were primary benefactors in the building of the library. Near the portrait, the ceremonial shovel from the building of the library is on display.
This is a relatively small library, but I was not disappointed when I set out to find one or two Mo Willems books in the children’s section. I laughed my way through both The Duckling Gets a Cookie!? and Sam the Most Scaredy-Cat Kid in the Whole World.
I then set to browsing through the teen and adult fiction sections with m eye out for books on my Amazon wish list as well as any surprises. And despite the relatively small size of this library I found success in that as well—picking out four books. The Dean Koontz and Stephen King books were on my wish list, and the two graphic novels were new to me.
One thing I noticed while exploring the library was that with so much of the space filled with bookshelves there are no large, comfortable arm chairs for just sitting and reading. So I took my books over to one of the tables in front of the windows in the children’s area, where I actually finished reading everyone’s a aliebn when ur a aliebn too. It’s a delightful poetic and poignant illustrated story of a lonely alien sent to observe earth who encounters all sorts of perspectives on life, love, happiness, and loneliness. What a great find! Large or small, I do love libraries.
When it came time to check out my books and head for home, it was still bright and sunny out, so I had a wonderful drive home at 46 degrees with the sunroof open and the wind in my hair. How amazing for a January day in Ohio! (But then the weather forecast for Saturday is for 66 degrees.)
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