Meet me at the front door

We went to Bentonville, AR to see the new Crystal Bridges Museum. It was beautiful and amazing, but of course we also had to visit the library. (Most librarians visit the library of whatever town they are in on vacation. One day I will decide to start my own travel business where I just take librarians on tour to the best libraries around the world.) I was impressed. My husband asked me what I thought of the Bentonville Public Library, and I spent several minutes talking about what I liked. 

The lower shelves gave great sight lines for better security (and to let the natural light in); there were clearly defined areas for children, teens, nonfiction, and fiction; there was comfortable seating near windows; there were eReaders (locked down) for people to try out; the furniture and carpets matched; the information desk was clearly marked; and, most importantly, there were friendly librarians who welcomed us when we walked in. My husband laughed. "Wow, you can really tell you're a librarian and have thought about this. I was just going to say that I thought it was really nice." 
Laura, associate librarian

My library system is getting ready to undergo a massive renovation of our downtown library (MY library). So even though it's true that I almost always visit the library in any town we are vacationing in, right now I'm doubly interested in what other libraries look like -- especially ones that are new or that have undergone renovations, as the Bentonville Public Library has.

I've been impressed with the architects who have been chosen to do our renovation. I've attended several meetings over the last year and a half, both as a library employee and a regular old citizen, as they listened to what we wanted in our library and then presented their plans.

One problem with our library right now is the front door. As in, we have THREE of them, on two different floors. It's massively confusing (not to mention not terribly secure). I can't tell you how many times we've had panicky people come to the desk, desperately looking for a loved one, who they told to meet them at the entrance... but now they're not sure where that is, exactly.

(After I start that library-tour business, I'm also going to write a romantic comedy in which the male and female protagonists miss each other in a humorous misunderstanding because of multiple entrances in a public library.)

There has been a fair amount of writing in library literature over the last ten years or so about "the library as place." It's often about a space for community gathering (a "third space" -- beyond home and work), and there is some lovely theoretical work about what that means.

But there is also the hard cold reality of the public library as a physical space -- a building with shelves, and lighting, and chairs, and information desks. I have every expectation that our new renovated space in the Central Library will get most of this right, as I observed in the Bentonville Public Library, and I'm so excited to see how it will all turn out.

Now if I could only somehow blink myself into the future two and a half years...