92. Hennepin County, Plymouth

The first thing I saw when I arrived just before 1 PM was a group of teenage girls with sidewalk chalk. I soon figured out that they were helping run the "Unbook Club" for kids in elementary school, which is a program of games and art and had a long line of youngsters waiting to sign in. It looks as if this "club" makes good use of a glass-walled program room that opens into the children's area AND the outdoors.

Once inside, my eyes were drawn to a stained-glass graphic on a large window straight ahead. Formed mainly of circles and arcs, it included quotations from various authors. Classy. This window wall is lined with comfortable chairs; I like the ones with the woven seats and backs.

The kids' area is delineated by tall poles--they look like logs--from the floor to near the ceiling, and large, colorful disks hanging above them. Cool! The disks tie in with the colorful circles on the ends of book shelves in this area. The adjacent teen area, by contrast, looks very cool and tech-y. I would think that kids becoming old enough to use the teen area would have a sense of growing up. I like that the teen's and kids' areas are designated for their exclusive use all day during summer break; I assume that the rest of the year adults can hang out and feel youthful during the school day.

The world language area seems to be mainly Russian, unless I missed something. Several rooms of various sizes can be reserved and appear to be designed for different purposes (study, meetings, quiet reading). There are at least 30 public computers for adults, and more in the kids' and teens' areas. A feature I really like is the windowed reading alcove with the large-type books. People who need large type often also need bright light, and this looked very inviting.

The quantity of reserved books on shelves testifies to the use this branch must get. Signage is very good throughout, and of course I especially like the "I can help you..." sign.

8/16/12, car