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In a tiny area right next to the library and the el tracks, is the new sculpture in town. Well worth a visit on its own, but great when heading to the library as well. Pritzker Park is a little slice of public space, connected to the library by a ring of author quotes on the concrete ledges.
The giant eyeball is a great addition.
Visited the HWLC this time to check out the voluminous 7th floor fiction department. It's hard to grasp the enormity of the collection until you spend time in specific areas. It feels like every piece of fiction is there, on the shelves, in multiple copies!! This isn't the popular library on the first floor, which is always busy and has a short selection of the most current fiction, non fiction and multi media. That's for a quick shop.
The 7th floor is for finding something you can't get anywhere else. They do a beautiful job of keeping straightened shelves, so that things are where you expect them to be. Just a few wonderfully curated displays, with a twist. I saw an elegant selection of books by Beryl Bainbridge who died in July-- and a display of books that fit with the summer adult reading promotion, 2010 Reading is Art-Rageous. In some libraries, fiction is set up all over the place so that you are tempted like you are in a book store- but I'm annoyed when that means you cannot find something because it's facing out on some random end cap.
At the HWLC fiction department all is where it should be.
It's June and I'm back on my journey to visit as many of the neighborhood branches as I can, and enjoy the ambiance of the surroundings. To kick off the new season, I wanted to revisit the HWLC - it is considered the largest public library in the world! I had a wonderful invitation from Karen Danczak Lyons, Deputy Director, to have a tour. She had checkout out this blog, so we spent a few minutes talking about the wonderful place as she showed me some of its special collections and exhibits. There is so much in the building, I can only suggest you visit and see for yourself. But a few highlights are the popular library on the first floor, the welcoming children's library, miles and miles of bookshelves, and many staff to help find what you are looking for. Computers, music practice rooms, thousands of newspapers and periodicals, and of course books.
First and foremost, it is a place for books, and we can be proud of that.
Oh, the owls,
don't forget to go outside and take a look.
