Shepard Branch - Columbus Metropolitan Library

Yesterday I had a longstanding lunch date with a good friend to introduce him to Scotty’s Cafe. So I decided to combine it with a visit to the (relatively) nearby Shepard Branch Library. Scotty’s is a relatively unassuming place in a strip center on E. Broad St. just east of Bexley. But is was recently named (for the second year in a row) as one of Yelp’s “100 Best Places to Eat” in the U.S. It has been in business since 1989, and both times I’ve been there Scotty has come to the table to ask if everything was good.

The cafe seats 80, and it was a good thing we went bit before noon, because shortly after we arrived the place was nearly full. The service was great. I had the Miamian Sandwich, which is hot turkey breast with sautéed onions and Thousand Island dressing on rye (yummy). My friend Eric and I were so busy chatting that I forgot to take a photo of my plate. But since every entree at Scotty’s comes with a free dessert, I did take a photo of the day’s dessert (a brownie) as well as one of Eric, who agreed to appear in my blog for distracting me.

The Shepard Branch is on the northeast corner of W. 5th Ave. and Nelson Road. It’s one of the 10 new or remodeled libraries that have been completed in the last 6 years as part of Phase One of CML’s aspirational building program. It was dedicated in October, 2016, replacing a much smaller library located nearby. When I arrived at the library, I took the photo below of the library entrance and then went around to the corner to get the photo of the building with the sign showing the dramatic corner windows of the children’s section. It was raining fairly hard, and unfortunately I didn’t notice I’d gotten some water on the camera lens. So my first photo of the interior below ended up really fuzzy, and several photos that follow have a small fuzzy area from a water droplet on the lens.

The spacious main room of the library seems filled with natural light from all the many windows, including the clerestory windows to the north and south sides of the high, pitched ceiling. The books in this library are front and center in the main room, unlike in some of the other new CML buildings where the books can seem off to the side. My eyes were drawn to the shelves for new arrivals where there was a nice display of books related to the upcoming Carnegie Author Series event this coming Sunday in CML’s  Main Library, which will feature author Dennis Lehane. My wife and I have tickets to attend.

All around the main room, there are spaces devoted to various library programs and services. Just to the left upon entering the library if the Homework Help area, which includes a display of college banners.

To the right there is a large Children’s Area, with lots of windows for natural light. The space includes a Ready for Kindergarten center as well as kid-friendly tables, chairs, book shelves, and computers. Books for younger children are in low shelves and bins, while the taller shelves along the wall offer a nice selection of books for intermediate readers. The yellow school bus cutout is a common feature in the CML Children's Areas.

I was unable to find any Elephant & Piggie books that I hadn’t read before. But I did come across Mo Willems’ The Duckling Gets a Cookie! which made me laugh out loud. I also got distracted by a display copy of Neil deGrasse Tyson’s Astrophysics for Young People in a Hurry and ended up reading most of it. I love how he can make difficult topics so accessible to younger readers.

From the Children’s Area I headed back toward the adult nonfiction shelves. When I rounded to corner to the right I found two large meeting rooms with moveable walls with audiovisual projection systems. The two rooms can be converted into one by folding away the dividing wall, and both rooms have “garage doors” that allow the rooms to open up into the main room of the library. (And hooray, the water droplet on the camera lens is gone.)

Continuing past the two meeting rooms, I came to an open reading room with walls of windows to the south and racks for magazines along one wall. I made plans to return here to one of the bright blue chairs to read when I’d finished exploring the library.

The photo below is a view looking back into the main room of the library toward the entrance doors and the circulation desk. The shelves at this end are for adult nonfiction books and for recorded media.

Continuing around to the right, I came to the library’s computer stations. To one side are the computers and to the other are two small study rooms. On past these is a Teen Area with a wall of windows.

The Teen Area has computers, a study space, comfortable chairs, and the shelves for teen fiction and nonfiction. The view in the bottom right photo below is looking over the book shelves back towards the computers, the circulation desk, and then the library entrance doors.

Done exploring, I proceeded to the adult fiction section to browse for books on my Amazon “wish list.” Despite this being one of the smaller CML libraries, I had no trouble finding four books to check out (all fantasy), which was a good thing since I’d finished all the library books I’d borrowed in the past two weeks. Books in hand, I returned to the reading room area where I got out my Kindle and spent the next hour and a half in the world of Genevieve Colman’s “Invisible Library” fantasy series. Whenever I looked up I had Aminah Robinson’s fabulous paint-fabric-embroidery artwork “Franklin Park Family Outing” in front of me as well as off to the side a view of this really lovely library.

Eventually it was time for me to head for home (with the rain having turned into a mix of sleet and snow). So I headed to the self-service area near the library entrance to check out the four books I’d selected.

I expect it will take some time to read all these, especially since Samantha Shannon’s The Priory of the Orange Tree weighs in at 830 pages.

Downtown Newark Library - Licking County Library

Last week Tuesday (2/18) I had a late afternoon church meeting scheduled at Second Presbyterian Church in Newark, and I decided it would be a great opportunity to take in a new library as well as a new diner. The Licking County Library system is not part of the Central Library Consortium, but the main Downtown Newark Library is only a few blocks from the Second Presbyterian. Then to make things even better, I discovered that Daisy’s  Diner on the corner of Church and 3rd streets was between the two and just a block up from the church. I got a wonderful late breakfast of pancakes, bacon, and really good home fries. (The top two photos below show Second Presbyterian Church on the left and Daisy’s Diner in the corner of the old YMCA building on the right.)

The Downtown Newark Library is located on W. Main St. just two blocks west of the historic Licking County Courthouse. A relatively new library, it was dedicated in 2000 as the Newark Public Library and became a County District Library in 2008 with the forming of the Licking County Library system. (The Licking County Library system has six branches, two 24-hour library kiosks, and a Bookmobile. The Downtown Newark Library is the largest of the branches.) My approach to this library was through a wonderful sculptured arch of books with a child on top reading a book.

I entered the library on the ground floor and headed for the circulation desk to the right, where I introduced myself to two of the librarians and explained about visiting libraries. They put in a call to have the library's director of Community Relations, Laura Appleman, come and take me on a tour of the library. While waiting, i took note of some of the musical instruments behind the desk that could be borrowed from the library. (I'm not sure if I've ever heard of a concert ukulele before.)

Ms. Appleman took me to the elevator and we proceeded to the upper level of the library, where we stepped out into a large, well-lit, open space with a windowed cupola above the center of the room.

A “cascade of stained glass books” hangs in the cupola, and a two-sided gas fireplace is centered under it. The fireplace was not lit, but we were having an exceptionally warm February day. The materials displayed on top of the fire-place were all related to Black History Month.

The computer stations for adults are located in a room just off this center space in the northwest corner of the building. Just to the left of the the computer is a room for the Licking County Genealogical Society.

On the wall nearby there is a display of the oldest map of Newark—from 1853. It was given to the library in 2006 and recently underwent extensive conservation work.

At the north end of the large room (toward W. Main St.), there are racks for magazines and other periodicals. Beyond these racks there is a very nice Quiet Reading Room and two small Study Rooms. Near Study Room 2 is an area devoted to the Licking County Law Library.

All along the east side of the large main room are the books shelves for Adult Nonfiction. There is a break near the middle of the stacks for a row of study tables. The left image is looking east toward the windows, and the right images is looking from the windows back toward the main room.)

Here are just a few of the art works on display that Ms. Appleman pointed out during the tour.

We returned by elevator to the main first floor, and Ms. Appleman noted that we would not be able to tour the Lower Level, as it was undergoing renovation work that was expected to take several months in all. So I was not able to see the library’s Teen Zone, Childrens’s Section, and Story Time Room.

The adult fiction shelves are all along the eastern side of the main room here on the ground floor. The new books area is at the north end towards W. Main St. The bookshelves extend back the length of the room. At one point I spotted what I thought might be an historical card catalog, but it turned out it was a catalog of envelopes of seeds arranged in drawers alphabetically.

Ms. Appleman pointed out displays for two of the library’s special programs. In one the library is developing an online veterans memorial. The library’s “In the Company of Heroes” project is gathering stories, records, photos, audio recordings, etc., from Licking County veterans. In the other special program, “Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, Licking County parent can enroll a child who will then receive an age appropriate free book by mail each month until their fifth birthday.

At the far south end of the main first-floor room is a separate room for movies as well as music and audiobook recordings.

Since I wasn’t intending to check out any books, I didn’t take any time to browse in the stacks. But had brought a book with me to read (Stephen King’s The Institute), and since I had more than two hours until my church meeting, I went back upstairs to a chair near the center fireplace to read.

I will say that I had a much more enjoyable time at the diner and the library than I did at what turned out to be more than four hours of church meeting. I thank the Downtown Newark Library and especially Laura Appleman for the wonderful welcome to the library. I’ll need to get back sometime when I can see the Lower Level—and Daisy’s Diner is well worth a return visit as well.