27a. Anoka County, Northtown branch, Blaine, Revisit

I was back at Northtown today so that they could bail me out of a tight spot. I've had a book on reserve for weeks in Ramsey County; I promised to read it to a class of 3rd and 4th graders this Friday. Ramsey County has one copy, which was due this past Tuesday. St. Paul has none, Hennepin has none. So I looked for the next closest possibility, and that's what had me up in Blaine today, picking up "Fossil Feud" by Meish Goldish.

Once there, I started noticing things I didn't recall from last summer's visit, so I made some notes on the request slip. Worth mentioning again is the enclosed program room for kids with a very effective castle theme. A set of armchairs in a cluster in front of a window wall would be just right for a bevy of elementary school kids, but school was still in session when I was there. A nice "grown up" touch in the kids  area is an illustrated dictionary on a wooden dictionary stand on the broad window sill, just the right height for young wordsmiths.

I like the picture books in bins sorted by topics: Find It, Seasonal, Things That Go, Fire Safety, Featured Author (Berenstain at this time), Fairy Tales, and Favorite Characters. Close to these there is another set of bins for board books. The E books are shelved close by on shelves that seemed a bit high. Perhaps there are step stools that I missed seeing?

There are LOTS of book-and-CD bagged sets.

The teen space is large and inviting.

I didn't spend much time in the adult area. Well, actually, I did, but I spent it talking to a librarian about a poster I'd noticed in the entry. See www.dearreader.org to see what we were discussing. While standing at the librarian's desk, I admired a 3-1/2 x 8-1/2 inch card with the addresses and phone numbers of all Anoka County branches on one side--and even better, a nice clear graphic description of the phone menu options on the other.

The library is spacious and light, and seemed to be very well staffed with three librarians in the adult area, two in kids, and at least one at the general information desk. How did I miss all of this on my first visit? I think this was my last stop on a hot four- or five-visit day last summer. Mea culpa.

I was going to write that you should go to the Anoka County website and look at the Catalog page to see the Anokat, but I don't see it today. So you should go to their site and ask for it to come back. www.anoka.lib.mn.us.

4/8/13   car

No picture; put Northtown in the search field to see this library.