Main Library - Delaware County District Library

     

Having explored the three smaller branches of the Delaware County District Library system, I decided on Tuesday (3/3) that it was time to visit the Main Library on E. Winter St. in Delaware. But first I needed to be sure to stop for lunch at the Hamburger Inn Diner just two blocks away on N. Sandusky St. People have been recommending it to me for over a year. 

Their website says they’ve been in business since 1932 when the Hudson family bought the Senate Restaurant that had been operating in that location since the turn of the century. According to local gossip, they’re the oldest diner in Ohio.  As you can see in the photo below, the entire interior is given over to counters with the grill in the front corner near the window.

   

I was really tempted by the menu’s 3-piece Cinnamon Roll French Toast with sausage, ham, or bacon. But given their name, I figured I really should get a hamburger. So I ordered Double Bacon Blue Cheese Burger with hand cut fries. It was magnificent! Then I decided to add one of their legendary cinnamon rolls to top it all off. “Would you like that heated or griddled?” asked the waitress. Why, griddled, of course! They split it, griddled it on the grill, and served it with butter on a plate dusted with cinnamon and powdered sugar. Just heavenly!

After such a great lunch, I managed to make my way around the block to the Main Library. The entrance faces east toward the library’s parking lot along N. Henry St. Upon entering I was struck by the dramatic atrium space with abundant clerestory windows. It extends nearly the length of the library.

Like in many Ohio communities, the Delaware library has its origins in a Women's Club and eventually the building of a Carnegie Library building. The Delaware Library moved to this location in 1984. It was enlarged in 1992 and the public space was renovated and expanded in 2004 with the relocation of administrative offices to the second floor.

A year ago after I blogged about my visit to the Orange Branch Library, the Library Director George Needham told me to be sure and stop by and say hello when I visited the Main Library. So I checked to see if he was in, and we ended up having a really good conversation about libraries (and diners). As we left his office, he pointed out the quilt show going on in the library this month put on by Delaware Piecemakers Quilt Guild for National Quilt Month. Quilts were hanging from the second floor railing all around the atrium space. The first photo below is looking back toward the library entrance with the circulation desk to the right in the picture.

From the library entrance, a large children’s area extends off to the right. I stopped to look at the display of new books for children, and then my eye was caught by the large “tree” out in the center of the children’s space.

The tree is circled by low bookcases filled with children’s picture books on both sides. There are walls of windows to the north and east, and the solid walls around this space are adorned with large paintings of farm scenes.

  
There are seating areas along the windows and a storytelling area to one side that includes craft tables, small cushion blocks, and some toys.

  

The children’s area includes both computers and iPads for children as well as a great many bookshelves for age appropriate fiction and nonfiction.

Even with this large selection of books, I was unable to find a Mo Willems book I hadn’t read already. But I was intrigued by the title of one of the books on display—There’s a Dinosaur on the 13th Floor. An exhausted Mr. Snore tries and fails floor by floor to find a room in the Sharemore Hotel where he can get some shut-eye. What will happen when he gets to the 13th floor? Maybe this wonderful picture of the dinosaur in gold and purple pj’s and pink bunny slippers offers a hint.

Before leaving the children’s section, I took a look into an a large meeting room off to one corner. I wonder if it might be used for larger and noise story times.

Heading farther into the library, I came to the Teen Space, which consists of a small room with computers, chairs and a flat screen television as well as a larger area encompassing the bookshelves of comics, graphic novels, teen fiction, and teen nonfiction.

Stepping out into the atrium space, I found study tables, carrels, and shelves for reference materials. The book stacks are brightly lit in the background with nonfiction to the left and fiction to the right.

Across the atrium space is a large room with a number of computer stations for the use of library patrons. Along the left hand wall there’s an audio sound booth in which library patrons can make recordings. A little farther down that side is a training classroom.

Beyond the computer room and through the library stacks to the far southwest corner of the library, there are two small study rooms and Local History Room that includes space for the Delaware County Genealogical Society. The uniform on display honors Delaware resident Ralph R. Grooten who served as a paratrooper in the U.S. Army Air Corps in WWII and fought in the Battle of the Bulge.

The bookshelves for fiction and nonfiction are at this end of the library, so I decided to devote some time to browsing for books on my Amazon wish list, I really love the feeling for “getting lost” in the stacks of a library as I search for new books and also come across books I’ve read and enjoyed in the past.

Success! I found two books on my list to check out.

Now to find a place to sit and read for the next couple of hours.  Perhaps at one of the study tables along these north windows? Or how about this comfy looking chair in front of a window in the far northwest corner of the library? Yep. That’ll do fine.

On my way back to the entrance to check out my two books, I stopped to once again take in the wonderful airy atrium space. 

At the auto checkout computer, I noticed a bookcase filled with board games that could be borrowed. To the right of the games are the shelves for book holds, and to the left are shelves containing multiple copies of various books. I assume these work really well to provide selections for book clubs.

As I headed out to my car, one last thing caught my eye. So I left the library wondering what a meeting of the Kid’s Cookbook Club is like.