The Most Playful Libraries in the World

Flavorwire has rounded up some of the most playful library spaces in the world.  Most of the libraries are international, but there's one NYC school library and a pubic library from Utah representing for the ol' US of A.  Man, I wish I had a slide in my library...

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LibrariYan @ Congress: A Photo Narrative

On Monday I popped over to the Library of Congress for their open house event.  And it was awesome.  Allow me to illustrate:

Beautiful building. Beautiful day.
Street parking available thanks to a federal holiday.

A rare opportunity for regular folks to enter the reading room.

Boom.  Reading Room ceiling.
Stupid Blogger keeps turning this image vertical.

Miles of card catalog...
No new cards entered since 1980.

Card catalog glamour shot.  It exists.

You know I went to the drawers for "Library Science."
Whaddup, Jersey? Newark represent!

Gratuitous card catalog shot.

Young Readers Center display noting books
from/about various places throughout the US.

LOC 2012 Notable Books.
I took a copy of each list and will write about them later.

YA section.  The collection is made up primarily of donations.
You want your book at the LOC? Donate a copy. Boom!

Recommended reads from local teens.
Clearly, they talked to my students.

No photo narrative would be complete without Harry Potter in various languages.
I meant to photograph the braille books, but my camera insisted on this.

While I was there I also saw the Lincoln Bible (it's tiny and red with gold edges), on which both Lincoln and Obama swore their oaths of office, Lincoln's handwritten first inaugural address and a draft of the Emancipation Proclamation (no photos allowed, womp womp).  A Gutenberg Bible was there too! (I saw a bunch of these in London, so I wasn't as impressed).  And there's a cool Bob Hope/political satire exhibit!

And the staff and volunteers at the Young Readers Center were just the bees knees.  Friendly, knowledgeable and happy to chat.  That's my kind of librarians.

The one thing I didn't get to do was get a library card.  And that was because the office (across the street) for that was closed.  Guess I'll just have to make another trip.  

The LibrariYAn is an Amazon Associate. If you click from links on this blog to Amazon and buy something (anything!), I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.

Rare Library of Congress Opportunity

Recognizing that most folks who read this blog don't live in the DC area and won't be able to plan a visit to the Library of Congress on such short notice (sorry!), I wanted to ever-so-quickly promote this amazing opportunity that the Washington Post has alerted me to:  On Monday, February 18th, the Library of Congress is having their spring open house from 10am-3pm!  What that means is that visitors will be able to enter (not just look into) the Main Reading Room...AND they can take photographs...AND they get a chance to see rare items, including a handwritten draft of the Emancipation Proclamation AND Lincoln's first inaugural address and the bible on which Lincoln (and Obama) took their oaths of office.  Crazy, right?!?!

I am sooooo there.

The LibrariYAn is an Amazon Associate. If you click from links on this blog to Amazon and buy something (anything!), I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.

It's Possible I'm Just Over-Tired...

...but between this piece about a student's coming out speech (at my alma mater, Parsippany High School!), this NYTimes article about a genius children's librarian and the loving care that children have shown to a circulating American Girl doll, and this blog about understanding teens (minus preachy part at the end) I am just about all out of ability to function without tears streaming down my face.  Too much.  It's all too much.

The LibrariYAn is an Amazon Associate. If you click from links on this blog to Amazon and buy something (anything!), I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.

Happy Halloween!

I bet you can't find me in this picture.

I know, I know.  The stripes are wrong and the glasses should be round.  To that I say: I'm not going to buy fake glasses when I already own glasses and the shirt thing has really been stressing me out for days, but it's the best I could do.  I am wearing blue pants and brown shoes (which you can't see).  But I don't have a cane.

Moving right along...

Think your library is cool.  Check out this haunted library in Deep River Connecticut.  You can't beat that.  Oooh!  And read all the way to the end (or skip. whatevs.) for more haunted libraries.

Have a creeptastic day!

The LibrariYAn is an Amazon Associate. If you click from links on this blog to Amazon and buy something (anything!), I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.