Tuesday, August 7, 2012

42. Ramsey County, Roseville

The flagship of Ramsey County, recently remodeled and LEED certified. One librarian in my travels pointed out something that I agree with: when you enter, you see just about everything except a collection of books. Adult books and periodicals are up a long flight of stairs or an elevator; the very nice kids' area is pretty much out of sight around a corner, the teens' area ditto. The features of the first floor are rental best-sellers, CDs, DVDs, recorded books, and some kiosks of "featured" books. The kids' area is large and complete. Two things here that I haven't seen anywhere else: A large structure of branches and twine in the reading garden, which the person building it said should last 3-5 years; and two set-ups for kids to play WII games.
7/17/12, bus (then walked home)

3 comments:

  1. Sigh, yet another LEED-certified building surrounded by a moat of parking. Well, I suppose it has rain gardens to catch some of the runoff, but still. Some of my coworkers refer to this as the "Dunn Bros. Headquarters" just because it looks a bit corporate and has a huge sign for the coffee shop.

    Hmm. I see an electric car charging pole in the bottom right of your photo.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, there's a charging pole. (There are two down at Lake Como, and they are solar powered.)
      You have to have plenty of parking these days, but I wish libraries would include the nearest bus routes and stops on their websites, instead of just driving directions and maps. And I wish Metro Transit would include libraries in their "favorite locations" lists in the trip planning tools.

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    2. Just happened across this 6-year-old entry, and I'm happy to report that after I emailed them, Metro Transit did add all of the library sites to their route-finder tool. Choose Landmarks --> Libraries --> and you'll find a listing of more than 80 of the 106 or so libraries in the 7-county metro area.

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