Yesterday (7/19) I visited the Parsons Branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library. It is located on the west side of Parsons Avenue between Stewart and Deshler Avenues. At approximately 19,000 square feet, the building extends nearly the entire block, with a rain bed (see above) to the north between the library and Stewart Ave. to provide low maintenance landscaping utilizing rain water. The original Parsons Branch was built across the street in 1928 as one of the first four branch libraries of the Columbus Main Library. In 1958 it moved to a new location about a half mile north. The modern facility at this location was dedicated in June of 2016.
There are two entrances to the building directly across from one another—one from Parsons Ave. (below left) and one from the large parking lot that runs behind the building (below right). The photo of the Parsons Ave. entrance shows only about 2/3 of the building’s length extending to the north. The children’s section of the library extends to the left of the image.
The first thing I noticed upon entering the building was the great many large windows to the street with clerestory windows above, all providing an abundance of natural light. Columbus’ new libraries are all about connecting to the community, and the windows are an invitation for the people to come in and experience what the library has to offer. The second thing I noticed was just how open the library feels inside. Many if not most of the interior walls and doors are glass, and the relatively low book shelving throughout the library allows expansive views from one end of the building to the other. Below left is the view looking north toward the adult portion of the library, with curved shelves for new books and staff recommendations in the foreground. Below right is the view looking south toward the children’s section with an alcove of shelves for reserves to one side.
In the children’s section there are several computers at the near end of the wall of windows looking out on the street as well as a display of books for the Summer Reading Challenge. Hanging from the ceiling are a pair of children’s bicycles with helmets that are among the raffle prizes for the Summer Reading Challenge.
On down the room there are low shelves of books for very young children and then a Ready for Kindergarten area with a smart board and a play school bus. All 23 Columbus Metropolitan Libraries offer Ready for Kindergarten programs.
At the far end of the room is large story time stage area in front of a wall of windows looking south toward Deshler Ave. and a CoGo bicycle sharing station.
As I always do, I checked out the selection of children’s picture books to see what might catch my eye. The really wonderful two-sided curved shelves offered quite a good selection, and I especially enjoyed finding one of Mo Willems’ Elephant & Piggie books I hadn’t read, Are You Ready to Play Outside? as well as in the new books, Jonathan Stutzman’s wonderful Tiny T. Rex and the Very Dark Dark (illustrated by Jay Fleck). Both brought numerous smiles to my face.
As I headed back toward the adult side of the library, I stopped to check out the dedicated Homework Help Center. As in all 23 Columbus Metropolitan Libraries, one wall features a number of college banners. The left-most banner especially caught my eye, because it’s for the Broncos of Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, MI, which is where I was born.
Back near the library entrances, I noted several comfortable looking chairs as potential reading spots for later, and I could look into the dedicated teen area on the west side of the library with its computers and bookshelves os YA books and graphic novels.
There are a large number of computer terminals for the use of library patrons, both in the dedicated Learning Lab area next to the teen area and arrayed in the center of the northern end of the building. Note the very large number of clerestory windows at this end of the library.
Across from the Learning Lab there are a number of small Study Rooms, some with windows looking out on Parsons Ave and some with art work on the walls like that shown on the right below.
At the north end of the library there is a large glass-enclosed quiet reading room with a fireplace (little needed on this warm summer day — I'll need to return sometime in the winter). The colorful artwork on the one non-glass wall extends onto the ceiling.
Here is the view from just outside the Quiet Reading Room looking south the entire length of the library to the windows of the children’s story time stage—nearly a full city block.
In the northwest corner of the building there is a very large meeting room that can be divided into three sections with moveable walls. This area is reservable by anyone in the community. When I first arrived, there were a number of children engaged in a crafts activity in two thirds of the room. A sign on the whiteboard dividing wall noted that it is used as a Discovery Space later in the afternoon.
Tables and chairs line the windows along the windows looking out on Parsons Ave. Boxes for newspapers, magazines, and other periodicals are also along that wall. Below left is a photo of some of the computer stations and the remaining one third of the meeting room that is not in use.
The book collection is not especially large in this branch library, but then patrons can request materials from all 22 other Columbus Libraries as well as from the 17 area other library systems that are partners Central Library Consortium.
Smaller collection or not, I was successful in finding four books on my Amazon want list. So I settled into on of those cushioned chairs I’d spotted earlier with a view toward Parsons Ave. to check out my selections as well as spend a half hour or so reading my current volume, Traci Chee’s The Storyteller. My four selections for this day were all mystery/thriller books: Peter May’s Coffin Road; Rob Hart’s The Warehouse; Tana French’s In the Woods; and Ian Rankin’s Westwind.
When I arrived at the library and told a couple of the librarians about my project visiting libraries and then having a meal from a local, non-chain restaurant, both of them offered a host of options of lunch places from vegan to barbecue to pizza. Unfortunately the highly recommended vegan restaurant/book shop across the street, Two Dollar Radio, is closed on Mondays. So I opted to get a takeout pizza from Plank’s Cafe & Pizzeria on Parsons Avenue. Planks is a neighborhood institution that was founded in 1939.
I took the pizza to nearby Schiller Park in German Village, and spent a wonderful couple of hours eating pizza, people watching, and finishing my book.
This was my penultimate library! Just one more library to go to reach my goal of visiting all the Central Ohio library branches — the new Dublin Branch Library. (I will, however, need to revisit several libraries that have been renovated, rebuilt, or moved to temporary space since I started in on November 5, 2018.)
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