I had a fine day driving down to Circleville for my visit to the Main Library of the Pickaway County Library. Google Maps didn’t identify any actual diners in Circleville, but I did find a local place, Goodwin’s Family Restaurant, for breakfast before heading to the library. With counter stools Goodwin’s looks a bit like a diner, and it’s been in business since 1979. I was hungry enough to forget to take a photo of my blueberry pancakes, bacon, and home fries before I was well on the way to finishing them. They were really yummy.
The library is located in a large, modern brick structure about a mile north of downtown Circleville on North Court St. The large Mary Joanne Clifton Addition was opened in 2011 to include dedicated areas for children, teens, and a computer room.
Upon entering the library I could see a Gallery to the left (which I later discovered provides access to meeting rooms and a reading room—those photos are near end of this blogpost). Straight ahead is the Check out Desk with a large open area and then book shelves beyond.
A donor recognition board to the right has an inscription: “A Library Sows Seeds of Knowledge, Plants Ideas, Cultivates Dreams, and Nurtures Mind and Spirit.” Farther to the right are shelves for new books.
After introducing myself to some of the librarians and telling them about my library explorations in retirement, I began to explore the library by heading past the colorful Gallery wall with the message “Throw Kindness Like Confetti” to check out the glass-walled computer room.
On beyond the computer room is a hallway area with seating and computers. It leads to the Teen Zone on the left, a couple of Conference Rooms on the right, and the area for Youth and Children in the distance.
The Teen Zone is a colorful, inviting space that offers a number of computers, shelves of age appropriate books and recorded media, and several comfortable seating areas. There were several games set out on tables.
A wonderful, gigantic stuffed dog provides a big welcome for children to their special area, which proved to be a much larger and more impressive space than I had expected.
Immediately to the right is a librarian’s station, and beyond that are doors to a bright, colorful room for storytelling.
The large and colorful children’s area receives abundant natural light from west-facing windows to the parking lot and an oval clerestory window wall painted a delightful light blue. There are computers in the center of the room along with numerous open areas surrounded by shelves of children’s books and other materials.
This being Circleville with its world-famous Pumpkin Festival, I was not at all surprised to find a number of whimsical pumpkin sculptures in this area.
I headed back to the adult section of the library to browse the fiction shelves looking for books from my Amazon wishlist that I might borrow. The fiction shelves are on one side of an atrium area with abundance natural light from a clerestory wall of windows.
The nonfiction and reference shelves are on the other side of the atrium area along with shelves for audio and visual recorded media.
At the far end of the atrium area is a Genealogy room with research materials. The vertical photo below is the view from the Genealogy room back toward the front of the library, with the fiction shelves to the right and the nonfiction to the left.
Having picked out three books on my wishlist, I headed back to the Gallery area where there are two large meeting room—the Crites-Hannan Meeting Rooms—as well as an especially inviting round Reading Room on past the meeting rooms.
There is also a door leading to a patio, and I briefly thought about reading outside. However. given the temperature in the upper 80s and only a modest amount of shade, I decided I’d take my books into the Reading Room and settle into one of the cushioned chairs to do some reading.
I truly enjoyed my time in the Pickaway County Library. It is a comfortable and inviting place with lots of open space, abundant natural light, and a good sized selection of books. And the round Reading Room was an especially peaceful place to sit and read until it was time to check out my books and head for home. My three selections are below—a mystery, a thriller, and a science fiction book.
It was sunny and about 79 degrees this morning, which made for a wonderful 32-mile drive with the windows down to Alexandria for lunch and a library visit. Alexandria is a village of roughly 500 people about 5 miles towards Columbus from Granville. After reading the recommendations on Google, I was especially looking forward to eating at Ragamuffins Coffee House, one of just two places to get lunch in the village. (The other is a pub attached to a Marathon gas station.) I’m not a coffee drinker, so I can’t judge them for their coffee (direct trade and locally roasted), but Ragamuffins did not disappoint in the food department. I had a tasty chicken salad croissant, followed by a very nice scoop of chocolate covered blackberry gelato.
A bit less than two blocks northwest on Main St. from Ragamuffins is the Alexandria Public Library. I stopped out front to read the Ohio Historical Marker remembering Willoughby Dayton Miller, a dentist who was born in Alexandria in 1853 who was the first person to accurately describe the role of bacteria in tooth decay.
As I neared the entrance of the library from W. Maple St. my eyes were drawn to a Little Free Library that I learned was recently donated to the Alexandria Library as well as to a small, informal food pantry—“Take what you need—Leave what you can”—dedicated by Girl Scout Troop 1743.
Upon entering the library, I approached the circulation desk and introduced myself to the Library Director, Carrie Strong. She made me feel especially welcome as she took me on a tour of the library—which is really quite large for such a small village. (On their website there’s a quite extensive history of the library since it was founded in 1935.) She told me how she had grown up in Alexandria and both she and her brother visited this library as small children.
As you can see in the photo above, the Adult and Teen Sections of the library are on beyond the circulation desk. Straight ahead from the entrance are racks for audio visual media, and beyond them are resources for teachers as well as the computers for library patrons.
To the left along the front of the library is a very large Children’s Area. Along the windows are a craft table and some comfortable seating.
Throughout this library I was struck again and again by the shear number of books in this independent village library. (It is not a branch of some larger system.) In some areas the place seemed a bit crowded with books—which I really enjoyed seeing. The collection in the Children’s Section was particularly extensive. And I was especially struck by the long shelf of Discovery Bags for families on various topics that had all been donated in memory of a young girl named Mary K. Elizabeth Butt. The bags include a number of books as well as a selections of other materials like DVDs, games, and an idea card.
Down to the far end through the children’s book stacks and then in a wing to the right is a colorful and inviting Children’s Room for storytelling that is also large enough for school classes that come here during the school year for library time from the nearby Alexandria Elementary School.
Farther back in this wing is a large public meeting room that also houses a wall of shelves of Friends of the Library Books for sale to support the library. Since I need a new library card here to borrow books (as was the case in the Fairfield County libraries), I decided search out a couple to purchase instead of checking anything out. I succeeded in finding the two books below by a couple of my favorite mystery authors.
The Teen Area included an especially large collection of teen fiction and graphic novels, a comfortable seating area, and a nook at one end with an especially inviting overstuffed chair. An intriguing multi-panel art work decorates the wall above some of the bookshelves.
As in the rest of the library, everywhere I looked in the Adult Section were more and more books. I really was pleased to see the books be such dominating presence in this library. (It reminded me of home that way.) I spent a fair amount of time browsing, even though I didn't intend to check anything out. There were separate sections for general fiction, mysteries, science fiction, large print books, nonfiction, and new books in all those categories.
After I finished exploring the library and taking pictures, I settled into that most inviting overstuffed chair surrounded by teen and young adult books to spend the next hour or so reading.
From the drive out to Alexandria to lunch at Ragamuffins and the time I spent in this wonderful library to the drive home, this was one of the most enjoyable of my visits as I continue to explore all the public libraries (along with nearby local restaurants) in the Columbus metro area. A special thank you to the Library Director Carrie Strong for her gracious welcome and sharing so much information about the Alexandria library.
