Saturday, August 25, 2012

107. Ramsey County, North St. Paul

This branch shares space with a community center. The library provides some public computers in the lobby, the community center provides restrooms, both share parking space, and patrons can combine purposes in a single visit: win-win.

Although it is small, this branch has everything needed: big windows, comfy chairs, a fireplace, public computers for adults and kids. There is a gorgeous large "Summer Reading" quilt on the wall in the kids' area. Manipulatives and puppets within easy reach serve the youngest patrons, and large cutouts of Arthur and other storybook characters brighten the shelf tops.

Reserve shelves looked busy, indicating that patrons are making good use of the requesting system. The collection is partially managed because patrons at other Ramsey County branches cannot request material from North St. Paul. I'm sure that staff would like more space; even the largest branches seem to feel that way. But a lot is being done with what is available.

This is visit 106. I started with South St. Paul on June 22, and have now visited all of the MELSA libraries--and a little bit over.

8/25/12

2 comments:

  1. You should go to Google Maps, make your own custom map with all the libraries on it with notes about each one that is a link to the post about it. You can then get the copy and paste code to put that map into your blog. I think it would make your blog more useful to others. You could also put tags in your posts so people could sort the libraries by different features or whatever. Just a thought (or two.)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hmm. Good idea, but it sounds too much like work. And I still remember the long day I put in when I turned about 80 Facebook entries into the first 80 posts in this blog. Maybe someday, maybe not.

    ReplyDelete

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