Public Library

Around here, public libraries are community places. Lots of different types of people gather here and do all sorts of funny things.

Back home, however, this was not the story. The only people that would step foot into a public library were the outcasts and bums that had nothing better to do. You were looked down upon and if you even thought of mentioning it, people would just turn their nose up to you.

They looked at public libraries as a charity of some sort.

At the same time, the library back home was a lot smaller than this one. This one here is a lot more elaborate. Two stories, probably over 60 computers, plenty of DVD's, tapes, and audio books to fake a Christmas with.

What is the situation around your neck of the woods?

Jam it back in, in the dark.

We have several small branches which are merely the size of small restaurants and are placed sporadically throughout town for the convenience of whoever lives within the proximity of them. However, the main branch downtown is 6 floors high with a bunch of old books.

The first floor is for the children, while the interests specialize as the floors increase in number. As well, the piano practice room is on one of the upper floors as well as two cabinets of sheet music and two shelves of classical books. The manga is limited to two spindles of random titles and volumes. Lots of classic video titles and apparently the computer database says it has dvds to borrow, but I haven't looked hard enough. It's a very quiet place in floors 2/3 and up, and you can easily seclude yourself in silence when you want.


The campus libraries are a wealth of recent info and have lots of computers for database searching needs as well as general internet access. They're all usually 3 floors high and chock full of studying cubicles.

How ya doing, buddy?

We have about 20 branches scattered throughout the city, all of varying sizes. The main branch, which is located downtown, has 4 floors with about 20 foot ceilings. The building takes up a city block, and showcases large installation art. There are several hundred thousand items in circulation at this branch alone.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I live in a small community of 1 200 (But there is a racetrack!) and our public library is something everyone uses. From the poor to the rich, the young to the old, it is very much a multipurpose building. It is fairly small however and can't fit more than 20 or so people at a time.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

I love my library. Every time I go in theres always some new book that interest me in photography or maybe a small manga section to pass the time.
Of course I hardly go to the library for personal reasons. The internet is pretty much taking the place of libraries but a book still can't be replaced with tedious scrolling and ads that the web has.
My library has a row of maybe 20 computers where you have to type in the code of your library card in order to access it. The first floor has all the main books that you will need for any research and the primary part for any person.
The bottom floor is the kids section with harry potter, pop up books, and anything else a 5th grader would want.

I was speaking idiomatically.

We have a couple of libraries around here, but the one I went to often pretty much had a theme to it:

The only people who actually went there were parents/grandparents with small children in order to go to the childrens' sections to find books for the children to read and get excited about. The rest were the older women who loved to read in their free time, and Middle and High School students researching for papers and projects due to a "mandatory" 2 to 3 (or so) text-book sources versus online sources.

I haven't been to a library in ages, but the one on campus (which I haven't been to yet) is suppose to be a plus people gather to read and study (along with the obvious researching).

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Libraries where I grew up where just places busy parents would dump screaming kids and pre-teens would hang out afterschool while waiting for their rides.

Now in San Francisco, it's pretty much the same thing on a daily basis but it's not a shame thing to get a book from the library.

FELIPE NO

There's a central library here downtown where I live. I used to visit all the time, back when I was a big-time slacker at my old college. It's basically three big floors. I think the second floor has all the science books. Anyway, I used to spend a lot of time on the third floor reading short stories, reading mags, using the computers and flipping through history books. I still go there from time to time. Good thing there's an Arby's close by too.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

A few of my firends would gather in the library in the school, it was mainly to do homework or projects. All the 'cool' guys would hang out at the doors.

In grade 11 we went on a field trip to a university and we went to the quite room. It is a massive room where you go to read and no sound is permitted, it was strict. We where given a handout of information to read about the university and where to told to sit anywhere in the room to read. I let out a huge fart while I was reading. Just about everyone in the entire room shot their heads up like groundhogs to see who made the noise. lets just say I did not make many friends there.

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The libraries in my area tend to have many teenagers because of after-school programs and the like. I don't often stop by the public libraries since I'm able to get what I need at the university library, but I've seen lots of people from different age groups at the public ones.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

The two libraries I used to go to back home were both rather modest libraries, one library was just a single floored library with children's + teens books in one wing and adult's books in another. The second library is a little bigger with a second floor and overall floor size. In both libraries I've found most just either adults or younger pre-teens in there and the occasional group of teens in there to do a project. I personally haven't set foot in a library for a good two years. I've found that whatever I can find in a library can be found within seconds on Google or just on the internet in general.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

The local public library branch moved and remodeled. I haven't had a chance to check it out to see what kind of resources they offer. I've been meaning to get around to it, but you know...procastination.

The University of Delaware Morris Library is just 15 minutes away from where I live. That library is absolutely huge, and I've been told its one of the best libraries on the Eastern Seaboard. Many other universities obtain material from the Morris Library via inter-library loan. If there's anything I need to do research on, the Morris Library is my first stop.

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The library I go to is pretty small. It's just one story and maybe 1500 square feet. (I don't know how accurate that is; estimating room sizes is not something I'm great at.) The cool thing is that I can look up books through the web site for the entire library system and have whatever books/DVDs I want sent to the local branch. It's free, too. Then I usually just run in there once a week or so, grab the stuff I have on hold, and run out real quick. They even have one of those newfangled self-checkout stations. I love when I'm not required to interact with other people.

I see teenager-looking people hanging out there to use the computers a lot, but it's never really busy. This area is sort of hillbilly-ish in some ways, even though it's the East SF Bay area, so I wonder if people around here are really that literate sometimes. They'd have to be stupid not to rent DVDs for free, though, if you ask me. Stupid, non-library-using people. Oh, what was the topic? Yeah, libraries are delicious.

I was speaking idiomatically.

There's five branches around our township, but I'm only aware of where three of them are. I'm not much of a reader, so I haven't gone to a public library in my area in a long ass time. The last card I has was about 8 years old and I haven't bothered renewing it at all.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Every time I enter our public library, I ask myself this question "Man, when was the last time I was in here?" Honestly, the library is extremely unappealing. Further, I have no real reason to enter it as I would just prefer to enter the campus library, which is by far, more useful than the public one.

FELIPE NO

my old library was so...I don't know...I knew all the librarians personally. The new library, is good because it's walking distance. It's also so huge that finding a book can take a long time. Also, there is this strange way that they make you sign up for computer access. I haven't read any really good books lately though. I've just been in there for some reference books, and once and a while for an anime showing

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

I don't typically visit the public libraries. There's two in my town. One is a smaller brick building that mostly houses novels and some children's books. The main library is a large 2 story stone building with a full children's section in the basement. There's some computers available for use, but they're quite old and not very useful. In addition to novels and the larger children's section, there's much more in the way of reference material for research and assignments. The last time I visited the library was to check out some children's picture books for a children's lit class I took.

I spend more time in the university library (26 story red brick tower), mostly has a place to study when I need to kill off time. The basement of the tower has a bunch of little "cubicles" with computers and white boards which are quite useful for doing work with a friend.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

our main libraries are social hangouts most times, there are no unscrupulous miscreants there, just a lot of good people, willing to learn

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I used to go to the library all the time when I was growing up, even volunteered there senior year. The public library I went to in Austin was convenient when I needed internet access since it was directly on the bus route that passed in front of my apartment. Got me reading again for awhile. Now that I'm back in school I hardly read or even go to the libraries here. If I have to do research though I can just hop aboard our Star Wars inspired Science Library. (How cool is that?)

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I go to the library a few times a week to pick up something new to read. Lately I've been on a Huxley streak, and to really find some of the more obscure titles I need to head down to the main branch of the Carnegie Library in Oakland. Usually I just take a drive over to the Squirrel Hill branch, which was recently entirely re-done. While the selection may not be too great, it's a nice, friendly environment, with plenty of room to chill and read a book.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

The New York Public Library is pretty nice... depending where you are in the city. Most of the major branches are over in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Here in Staten Island it's iffy. Over where I live, the branches blow, but by my school the branch is pretty good. Fifteen or so computers, books on just about everything, DVDs, CDs. It's nice, I can put something on hold, or have something sent to it from another branch and pick it up on my way home from school.

I was speaking idiomatically.

The library in my hometown is hilarious. It is part of a larger complex and consists of about a 10 x 10 room with books around the entire edge, and a large desk and couple of chairs in the center. It probably has about 250-300 books in it. Everything is very old oak and dark stained as well, so it's like walking into an 19th century personal library.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

The main city library is three floors I think (the upstairs seems to be roped off most of the time, I've never actually been up there). I guess there's a good range of books, it's fairly decent. There are hardly ever any people about but users are all ages and all kinds of people.

However, the smaller libraries dotted around the suburbs are a different story. Tiny and filled with grannies. I swear, no one else uses those libraries but little old ladies with blue overcoats. It's creepy

FELIPE NO