Visiting Libraries

I'm just back from a 2 week trip to Ireland where I managed to fit in 3 library visits. I love to see what other libraries do and borrow ideas from them. Do other people visit libraries while on vacation?

... yes, i always do. i try to hit public and academic and any particularly interesting special libraries. sometimes there's not enough time .....

back when i was working reference, i would take pictures (digital, back in the mid-90s) of handout racks & the like, for ideas. (-;

You're not alone Dee. I always find myself gravitating towards a library where ever i visit

Libraries and bakeries are two things I always look up when traveling. =) There's a great libraries group on Flickr that you browse through, and even add pictures of libraries you've visited.

I just realized that not only do I visit libraries (especially in smaller towns), but I apparently also seek out bakeries (I just never thought about it before....). I always like to check out parts of the collection that mirror the ones I develop at my library, but I like to get ideas, too. Lucky for me, my husband doesn't mind accompanying me to libraries (and bakeries). :)

Has anyone been to the New York Public Library?,I am hoping to go to New York later this year and am hoping to visit at least one library.

Deedledee, thanks for the neat thread. TheNovelWorld, I will definitely check out the Flickr group.

I too try to drop by a local (public) library when I travel, just to see what books are on the shelf especially for kids (I like children's and YA lit), who's using the library during the day (almost always retirees, children and their caretakers), what the facilities are like. I never thought of taking pictures though!

I always visit libraries, wherever I go - in fact, I visited two in my honeymoon! I've often opted to visit a library rather than go to a 'regular' tourist attraction while on holiday, and as my husband is used to this now, it works out well as there's always somewhere he wants to go to that I'm not interested in. So off I go to get my library fix, he goes off for a tramp or on a photography expedition, and we're both happy.
Its not bakeries I seek out, but second-hand bookshops. I've been known to post books back home, or purchase another bag to stash the treasures I've found...

I like to visit different librares when I travel. I am in Ontario, Canada. There is a program that is part history called Doors Open Ontario.
http://www.doorsopenontario.on.ca

If you do a search on the word 'library' it will give you links and information.

http://www.doorsopenontario.on.ca/scripts/search.asp?action=51&N_ID=1&P_...

I visit libraries when I travel. I went to see my dad in Chicago and hit the CPL. I came home with a bunch of paper to share with my coworkers, but it turned out my boss had had a stopover in Chicago and came home with all the same bits of paper and the answers to the same questions. Do you think libraries attract a certain sort of person?

Even on my honeymoon did I visit and photograph a number (not telling how many) of libraries. I just can help myself. I photograph very cute or impressive libraries as well the most ugly ones I can find.

I'm very interested to know more about the ugliest libraries of the world!

I was surprised by how ugly the outside of the British Library was when I visited last year!

>6 cancer53: I visited the New York Public Library when I was in the city last summer and it's well worth it -- the famous reading room is really neat plus the exhibit room with a Gutenberg Bible and original Winnie the Pooh dolls (guess which case gets more attention?). It's a gorgeous institution -- they even have a gift shop!

I've occasionally visited libraries on my travels - plan to do more visits! I'm off to Melbourne next week for a holiday - does anyone have any suggestions for interesting public libraries that I could visit whilst I'm there?

Thanks for that,my daughter is going for the shopping and I get to see the Libraries.

Add me to the list! I did visit one tiny library on my honeymoon, but I'd already been to the one in the other place we visited!

For our 5-year anniversary, I was delighted to find our hotel was a block away from the Charleston , SC main branch.

And my husband and I visit his family in Minnesota every year and when their new downtown library opened a couple of years ago, it was a highlight of the trip! I even bought a MPLS t-shirt!

I love looking at their kids' programs and brochures as well as the children's areas, in particular.

>>Add me to the list! I did visit one tiny library on my honeymoon, but I'd already been to the one in the other place we visited!

Wow! There was a library in your hotel room?

LOL!

> #18

I contained the Gideon Bible!

I don't always stop by libraries when on vacation, but while in North Carolina visiting family I stopped by a local library. I noticed that the collection was IMHO in dire need of weeding. At first saddened, I realized that this was an excellent opportunity to find some books that I hadn’t seen in a long time. I looked for one of my favorite books from childhood, Tomi Ungerer's "The Hat" and found it. Of course someone felt the need to cross out many words that might be unfamiliar to children and write in their own easier to understand vocabulary. It was great to see the book again even if though it should have been weeded.

Librarians always are librarians. We love library no matter were the libraries are. If the moon have a library we plan visit to the moon.

I'm going to London and want to visit the British Library, but I'm having trouble finding concrete information. It is indeed open to the public, isn't it (I've found conflicting info). What can I expect to see there? What I want to see is old manuscripts and books. Is there any other place in London where I can see those? British Museum, perhaps?

For anyone visiting New York City, I highly recommend the Morgan Library.

I'm so glad to learn that I am not the only one who does this. It started when my Access class at UM School of Information asked us to document our visits during vacation. It began a lifelong love of visiting public libraries. The downtown LA PL offers tours. Other highlights are the Chicago PL and the downtown San Antonio PL.

>18 CliffordDorset:/19 - Oh dear, I guess that doesn't make me sound very romantic... :)

>22 Nickelini: Nickelini, the British Library has several exhibition rooms that are freely accessible to the public. It has old manuscripts and books, oh yeah (I still get goosebumps when I think about seeing the Codex Aureus and Codex Sinaiticus lying there, next to each other).

You'll also want to visit the British Museum with the circular reading room of the old British Library (before they moved to the St. Pancras site).

>24 tinylittlelibrarian:

On the contrary! My reading was that you never left your hotel room except to indulge your addiction to the printed word! Wow! If THAT isn't romantic ...

#25 - Steven_VI -- great news! Thank you very much. I've also had some replies on my profile page--you guys are great!

Yes, I always visit libraries when I travel . I was in London, briefly, a few years ago, and visited the British Library - not enough time there though!!! Was in NYC this year, and did go to the NY Public Library -loved it. And I visited the Morgan Library too - I echo Nickelini, and I highly recommend it too. I also visit smaller libraries that are not well known, when I travel too.

I do it too. I like getting ideas for how to improve the children's library here. So I always bring my camera to document and remember

Just visited the Sag Harbor Library which is celebrating its Centennial next year. Beautiful old building in need of some renovation. The librarians were as nice as the library.

It's fun going to different libraries because they all have unique personalities and auras.

I love have nice chats with the library staff. Every place seems to have the same problems; lack of money, need more staff, old computers... This was true of places I've been; from the National Library in Cuba to the local public library in Mullingar, Ireland.

I don't make a point of visiting libraries when I travel but I usually end up at the library for one reason or another. The library that has intrigued me more than all the others is the Morrison Library at UC Berkeley. This was my favorite library when I was a student there because patrons were not allowed to study there. About once a week, I would sit in a big stuffed chair trying to "improve myself" by listening either to Sibelius or Billy Holiday while perusing Foreign Affairs or maybe something more fun. Back in the 80s, the music was played on LPs and we listened with head phones. When I went back, some time in the late 90s or early millenium, I found that library again and was much surprised and please to see that very little had changed on the face of things. The record players were still there and there was even a small card catalog.

Has anyone else ever been to this library? I'd love to know about your experience there.

#22

The British Library is open to the public and they have a number of exhibitions on the go as can be seen from this list in addition to the permanent galleries. You can also book yourself a place on a tour of the conservation studios (it is free). I know someone who went for their birthday and he said that the conservators were extremely happy to spend plenty of time talking about what they do.

I will be visiting the Library of Congress in a few weeks and taking a look about. Any tips?

#34 -- I hear if you call ahead and say you're a librarian, you may be able to go "backstage".

I visited more libraries before I was a librarian. Grad school and student loans can really cut back on travel budgets.

I've made it to Trinity in Dublin, the Bodleian, and the NYPL, though, so I can be happy. And the first hotel on my honeymoon this coming spring actually has a library.

I enjoy visiting university libraries. I somehow feel a little smarter when I leave. Seattle has an amazing public library that shouldn't be missed.

Years ago I worked on ships and was proud of starting a little library of sorts. The Bosun put up a shelf in the laundry room for me so all the crew members could leave and take books as they did their laundry. I know I left a lot of science fiction short story collections there.

Seattle has an amazing public library that shouldn't be missed.

Do you mean the big one downtown? My daughters and I visited it this summer and we were very impressed.

Nickelini - YES! So interesting from the outside and lofty and light (as light as Seattle can get) inside. I even found city maps to help me find a bookstore that was incorrectly placed on GoogleMaps.

For anyone planning to visit the Library of Congress, which is indeed worth the time, you should also go around the corner for a visit to the splendid Folger Shakespeare Library.

Second the Folger recommendation.

On spring break, I briefly visited the library in the small east Texas town of Jefferson, which is one of the very few remaining Carnegie libraries still being used as a library, in the state. It was very charming. I would have stayed longer, but my husband doesn't have the same fascination with libraries that I do--I gave him a mini-lesson on Carnegie libraries. He got a glazed look in his eyes. Sort of like I get when he waxes poetic over the Dallas Cowboys. lol

hehe, that's definitely something I like to do. I also like to take pictures, but Edinburgh City Library, for example wouldn't let me.

Now I'm always torn between being a good librarian, politely asking and abiding by the rules and just going ahead taking pictures assuming the'll let me know if they have a policy against it.

Among the most difficult to get into was the Hungarian National Library in Budapest. Mostly language difficulties.

I also saw the Spanish National Library in Madrid which had an interesting exhibition, I think. I wouldn't know for sure because it was only in Spanish.

Only a few weeks ago I visited Amsterdam and went to the newly opened public library there. My friend laughed at me for breathlessly telling her how beautiful and cool the place is. She was glad I knew where it is, though, when we needed internet access later to figure out how to get home with the ash cloud looming.

MrsHouseLibrary and I always visit libraries and bookstores and museums no matter what city or town we go to.

In Austin, there are 2 intact Gutenberg bibles (one is on permanent display) at the Harry Ransom Center on the UT campus. The first photograph (ever, I'm told) has it's own display about 20 feet from it.

If you are in the vicinity of the main branch of the New York City Library, you owe it to yourself to walk 2 blocks east in 41st St. There are bronze plates set in the pavement. They quote from books and authors, and are on both sides of the street. One block down is the Library Hotel - a boutique hotel, as they are called - each floor is dedicated to a major section of the DDS; each room is a specific section, and contains shelves of books for that group. I'm not doing it justice here; you should take the tour on their website - or just drop in and talk to them. It's our favorite place to stay when we go to NYC, but I have to admit, it's pricey.

I haven't been to the NYPL lately, but remember reading there was major renovation planned to the 42nd St branch (the one with the lions). You might want to check before you head over there.

I was at Enoch Pratt Library in downtown Baltimore yesterday. On a bi-annual basis, they have a day workshop for librarians. It's a beautiful place to visit!

New York Public Libraries worth a visit:

The Stephen A. Schwarzman Building (Formerly the Center for Humanities, known as the "library with the lions): http://www.nypl.org/locations/schwarzman

Jefferson Market Library, formerly a courthouse and women's house of detention: http://www.nypl.org/locations/jefferson-market. It has a clock tower and wonderful brick alcoves in the basement. Unfortunately, the outside has been mostly hidden under scaffolding for years now.

Ottendorfer Branch, the first free library in NYC (1884), pre-dating NYPL (1895) and now part of NYPL: http://www.nypl.org/locations/ottendorfer.

There are plenty of others, but those 3 have the most interesting buildings. Brooklyn and Queens have their own library systems and I'm not as familiar with their branches/buildings.

#45, Yes, the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building (the library with the lions) is being renovated (they're working on the facade now), but the building is open and there's plenty to see. They moved some collections around to accommodate the Central Children's Room, moved there from the Donnell Library Center which was closed. Most of the 3rd floor, including the Main Reading Room was renovated/restored years ago and is wonderful.

I should add that the Science, Industry, and Business Library (SIBL) branch on E 34th Street is also worth seeing. When it opened, it was chosen for the architecture issue of American Libraries. It's in half of an old B. Altman Department Store.

When I am traveling alone I almost always visit a library while looking over or passing through a town. I am typically looking for information about the art and architecture of where ever I am and there is no better place to start than the library. Librarians are always (except one in Milwaukee who thought I was one of the homeless hoard that moved in every morning) pleasant and helpful, frequently digging up obscure local resources and doing other “beyond the call of duty” type things. Once they sense that I am not just a “Where’s the encyclopedia” sort of patron they always seem to go the extra mile. Plus, for example, while driving across Texas in 100 degree weather with no AC in the car, I could always find a dark, cool place for a quite break in the local library. eek

This seemed a likely thread for this, but here's a list of 12 writer's favorite libraries and what they meant to them from the NY Review of Books. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/15/books/review/public-libraries.html?rref=colle...

Is there a policy about necroing older threads? This is interesting.

I don't make a point of visiting libraries but I do check out bookstores when I'm out and about. The libraries I've walked into haven't really seemed much different on the inside from libraries I already know, but I also wasn't a library tech student at those times. ;).

I'd like to see the Library of Congress one day, especially the reading room, and the Renaissance Room at the British Museum was one of my favourite places to see there, and had the look of an old library or study. Didn't make it to the library in London, but the library was putting on a free display of holy texts held at the Museum, and that was interesting to see. One of my favourite literary detours was the Keats and Shelley museum above the Spanish Steps in Rome. Took a while to find, but it had old manuscripts and such on display, and architecture original to the period that Keats was in the room, or that was the idea. Makes think that books can be as neat to look at as to read.

For architecture, I really like walking outside the Vancouver Public Library main branch. It's a circular building that you sort of spiral into, with shops along the curve before you hit the doors. We went there on work site visits, and got to check out their "inspiration lab," which has things like sound rooms, film and video equipment, and a digitization center for public use. It's neat for a more techy focus.

The library at Trinity College in Dublin made my jaw drop. The long arched ceiling is spectacular and the large call numbers on the ends of the shelves are neat!

I visited the Seattle Public Library. Cool!

>53 mamzel: That's my mothership! What a weird, neat building it is, too. Did you go into the dark, red hallway?

>54 lorannen:

Oh that looks cool! I'm not too far from Seattle. I keep thinking of visiting at some point, just because I can and I know my sister drives down often enough.

This is the VPL wiki because I don't want to figure out proper picture sizing right now.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouver_Public_Library

>54 lorannen: No, I missed that. I don't know if I would like having to walk down that weirdly colored hall every day. It reminds me of too many horror movies.

>57 mamzel: Yeah, it's rather unsettling the first couple times I walked through it. Of course, I don't work there, but I'd imagine regular staff either get desensitized to it pretty quickly, or just avoid it altogether. A lot of the events (book signings, talks, etc.) are hosted in rooms off of it, though.

redrum redrum redrum

>59 Crypto-Willobie: At first I thought, hey, Crypto-Willobie must be a mountain-biker. Obviously used to service his RockShox suspension forks with Redrum lubricant.
Then a light finally came shining down upon me . . . as well as the likelihood I’d be too slow to recognize facts and survive any library-based horror story scenario.

On topic, this past summer I made a nostalgic visit to the library where my maternal grandmother was once librarian back in the 1950s and 1960s.

LIBRARY IS HOME TO THE LONELY. IT IS WHERE I GET MY WORLD BACK

I'm on a mission right now to visit every public library in Nova Scotia. I've been combining it with visits to local breweries and distilleries. I'm calling it the Li-brewery Tour.

>62 Deedledee: Groan...

I am going to Nova Scotia next week, but as usual, am unlikely to visit libraries. It's not that I don't like them, but after a career in libraries they're mostly not that interesting to me. Bookstores, on the other hand...

>63 tardis: Where in Nova Scotia? We never made it south of Sydney and were up at the top of Cape Breton most of the time.

Found two in St. John's NF and the book selection at Gros Morne NP is good for natural stuff. Never made it to libraries either place.

My daughter and son-in-law were up at PEI last summer and found lots of wonderful books (overweight bags anyone?) and met several librarians at the university but don't ask me names!

TPBM knows all the answers to the above questions/comments!

>64 ulmannc: We're going to visit my dad, who lives in Wolfville in the Annapolis Valley, so mostly around there. May make it to Halifax or Lunenburg, but the main thing is to see him so may not go too far afield. Cape Breton is lovely. We went there on a previous trip. Would love to go again.

This is reminding me that I need to go out east one day. My Mom comes from New Brunswick and my family landed in Nova Scotia as Loyalists before the American Revolution. I'd like to check out the museums and things.