Y’all know what a lahberry is, right? You go there to borry books. SHUT UP — DON’T MAKE FUN OF THE WAY I TALK, THAT’S RUDE!
Okay. Here are some pictures of the Harrison County Public Library, which totally rocks.
So here’s the side door, which we used to be able to use, but no longer can, because books were sneaking out through it. Now it’s locked and alarmed. Thanks, Obama.
So I’ll go past the entrance and show you a snappie of what used to be the bank but is now half of the library. See that black square with the gold squiggles on it? That’s the plaque identifying it as the bank, which it no longer is. Now, what was the bank entrance just lets light into the non-fiction section of the library.
Okay, so the library WAS a wee li’l Carnegie building around the corner, but The Fair Store (a sort of pint-sized independent Woolworth’s) closed because the owners retired and the library bought the building and bricked it up so it would look like the bank building so it would be bee-you-ti-ful. But there were decorative lion heads atop the bank facade! What to do? The library’s architect found some architectural salvage and BOOM! Not an exact match, but pretty damn good, in the circumstances. Whadda you think?
Hard to see, I know, but they’re very high up, and I’m not exactly Spiderman.
Here’s the actual library entrance. The red, white, and blue bunting are because this is Indiana’s bicentennial.
The library is a Safe Place. That makes me so happy!
Okay. Inside, yada yada yada books and books on tape/cd and videos and ebooks. But here’s some cool stuff that not all libraries have, maybe.
The Teens have their own section.
The kids have their own floor! Here’s the door to their activity room, where they do crafts and foodie stuff and listen to stories.
Here’s the inside of that room.
I think the summer reading program this year is sports, or maybe Indiana. Anyway, the kids’ room mascots are on the job.
Back down at the foot of the kids’ floor stairs, the entrance to the non-fiction section. Funny story: When the library bought The Fair Store’s building, the bank was still open. So the library had to reinforce the wall between them so nobody could break into the library and bust through the wall and rob the bank. I think somebody had been reading too much cheap fiction. BUT ANYWAY, much money later, the bank felt safe. Then it closed and sold its building to the library. Which then had to break through the wall so it could use the new space. Yeah, maybe not so funny. Nice archway, though.
Inside, on the other side of that wall at the right with the picture on it, is the coffee space with free coffee provided by the Friends of the Library. And this.
Because this part of the library used to be a bank, it has what in it, children? Let’s not always see the same hands. Yes! That’s right!
They use it for storage and for shelter during tornado warnings. We are in Tornado Alley, you know.
And then there’s this. Why would I want to go to far-off places, when I can go into town and play with this?
This post is part of Norm Frampton’s Thursday Doors link-up. Go read his post(s), then click on the little blue hop-frog at the bottom to see who else is participating and where their doors are.
A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: Send your main character to the library.
MA
Dan Antion
June 30, 2016 at 7:58amLove the vault door! I think I’d prefer the main entrance over the side one. I like walking into the whole experience.
Marian Allen
June 30, 2016 at 8:51amGrand entrance with trumpets, eh? ~grin~ Cue the Imperial March, eh? LOL! Yeah, but it’s a different whole experience. Visitors come in the front door. Family and friends use the side or back door. 🙂
Jane
June 30, 2016 at 8:01amLuuuv this post!
Noticed there’s a ROW of rocking chairs in the kids’ section. Great idea. I know who’ll need those!
Love the elephant. Love the vault. YES! That is a storm shelter!!
Marian Allen
June 30, 2016 at 8:53amI don’t go to the library nearly often enough, these days. Libraries always make me feel happy and secure.
Dan Antion
June 30, 2016 at 9:08am@Marian Allen – No hotsy totsy mission in mind. I just like to see what’s going on, and that’s where they put that information.
Joey
June 30, 2016 at 11:59amWow, you weren’t kiddin, that’s a beautiful library! Love the exterior, and the Safe Place sign, and the vault, and the elephant, and the kids’ space! Really lovely share, great doors! 🙂
Marian Allen
June 30, 2016 at 1:47pmThanks, Joey. I’d live in the library, if they’d let me. 🙂
Pete Laberge
June 30, 2016 at 2:36pmJust make sure that the vault doors are well maintained, that someone outside knows the combination, that it can be opened from the inside, and that they know there is not a lot of air in there, so you cannot keep it shut long, unless modifications have been made. It is, after all, a vault!
Marian Allen
June 30, 2016 at 2:40pmAll excellent points, Pete!
Alicia Butcher Ehrhardt
June 30, 2016 at 5:05pmNice job, whoever redesigned and reengineered the spaces.
A community needs a library – it should be used even more.
If I had any energy, I’d offer to teach a course on what you need to know before you start trying to publish that book you wrote. One of our LIBRARIANs wrote a children’s book, and got taken for thousands of dollars in an inheritance by one of the Author Solutions clones recommended to her by Hay House, a subsidiary of a big publisher.
She’s basically lost all her usable rights – has to keep paying to keep anything going – and she didn’t do her due diligence about subsidy/vanity publishers – and how to be a true indie. She didn’t WANT to be a true indie – but the subsidy/vanity people are really bad. I feel for her – and there’s nothing you can do.
But you’d think the librarians would have a better grasp of the publishing world.
I’m glad she approached me – I gave her a lot of homework, starting with do not pay one thin dime for ANYTHING until at least August, when she’s read everything I pointed her to.
For one, David Gaughran’s classic Let’s Get Digital is now permanently free – and tells you everything you need to know to get started.
Marian Allen
July 1, 2016 at 8:13amOh, that’s a terrible story! She needs to contact Preditors and Editors and/or Writer Beware to see if she can sue for her rights.
Alicia Butcher Ehrhardt
June 30, 2016 at 5:06pmAnd still no picture, even though I updated Gravatar. Sigh.
Alicia Butcher Ehrhardt
July 1, 2016 at 10:05amNo. It won’t help. They’ve done exactly what they said they’d do. ‘Distribution to Amazon…’ – which she could have done herself. Etc. She got what she paid for – it just isn’t what she needed, but she thought it was.
As all newbies, she didn’t read the contract, she assumed things, they used very high pressure salespeople, they control the illustrations to her children’s book…
They are very slick, and have been taking people forever. They have very good lawyers.
And they carefully stay under the limits of what can be proved and/or sued for.
They’re the experts. In scamming new writers, not in publishing and promoting.
You’re familiar with David Gaughran’s site, and his work to expose Author Solutions’ tactics, I’m sure. I pointed her there; I hope I can help her not repeat the problem. She wants to write more books. She’s a very sweet person. And a former Children’s Librarian.
Norm 2.0
July 2, 2016 at 10:14amTerrific post Marian! Ahh sure do luvs me a good lahberry. That vault door is the best – very well maintained. Well done 😀
Marian Allen
July 2, 2016 at 10:35amThanks, Norm. 🙂