Banff Public Library, Alberta, Canada

My sister gets around more than I do, and she has taken up library visiting, too. Here's her report from a recent vacation to Banff:

We visited Banff Public Library on Wednesday. It is a nice, smallish library that was very open and welcoming to vacationers like ourselves. It is located right below the Senior Center and like Whistler's library, is on prime real estate in this resort town.

There were 8 public computers and always at least 6 being used. I noted a children's area, a junior section and a teen section as well as the usual adult services. They have a good section of foreign language books and I noted, French (of course), Spanish, German and several Asian. There may have been others. They also have many music CD's and movies as well. A whole section was on documentaries.

There were a variety of places to sit and read including a periodical area and sofas and chairs scattered about. The day we were there the place was very busy and a local I spoke to says this is always the case.

 

 There was a sign that said food and drink is allowed in the library! I thought this unusual, is it? It went on to say they reserve the right to ask you not to if you are not being tidy with it, or if it was being consumed in such a manner as to disturb others or damage books etc.
 

I'm sorry I didn;t get a better picture. We were heading out of town and I almost forgot!

 

[Thanks, Jean. It looks like a fascinating building, and the address, Bear Street, is cool. Right up there with one I visited on Silent Drive!]

 

As for the food and drink, I've seen just about every variation. I was roundly scolded at Minneapolis Central for nibbling on M&Ms, but they allow beverages so long as they have lids. Other libraries have coffee shops, food banned near computers, vending machines, you name it. My favorite so far is a specific ban on sunflower seeds. Perhaps we'll get some comments about local practices.

For more about this library, go to http://www.banfflibrary.ab.ca/ or https://www.facebook.com/banfflibrary. Or both!