The Best Outside Sculpture - Coshocton Library

     Can you guess what book the boy to the left is reading?  He sits atop a pile of 100 books. Each book carries the title of some of the best books of the last one hundred years. So what book could this young lad be reading?

      This wonderful statue sits in front of the library building in Coshocton, Ohio. Located in eastern central  Ohio Coshocton is about 25 miles north of Zanesville, Ohio. If you have not heard of Coshocton you should make it a stop on your next trip.

Part of the Ohio canal system is located just west of town. A "canal town" of Roscoe invites visitors to wander through it's busy old time shops. But be warned that the bakery there will put a dent in your diet.
     In addition to all the other activities and history of Coshocton they have a library with what I believe is the best outdoor sculpture of any library I have visited.

 The photo to the right was taken from their website and is not the original Carnegie building they occupied from it's opening in 1904. This building is the old Post Office in downtown Coshocton. The library opened in this building in 1974 but it has been refurbished and looks brand new inside.

      In addition to the marvelous statue they have done a splendid work in providing the community with a bright, modern, attractive library. Here are the photos I have from the inside of the library.

Looking toward the entrance - Notice the balcony.
This picture was taken some years ago.

 The above picture is looking one way and the photo to the left is looking the opposite direction. The computers shown above have probably been replaced as the picture is some years old. The library is a light and pleasant place to study or just sit and read. The staff was friendly and helpful. They gladly gave me one of their library cards (not activated)  and my wife purchased one of their library bags.

 To the right is a view from the balcony. The staff said this was once walled off when it was a post office and was used by the post office execs to "peek" at the workers on the main floor.  The library has done a wonderful job with this added space. It is very pleasant to browse the stacks in this balcony area

 The statue in front is not the only place this staff is creative. We saw examples such as the "free month" to the left. Other unique and user friendly ideas are found through out the library.




Here are two views from the balcony. One looking one way and ..well you get the idea.

Now back to that marvelous statue outside. What book did you guess the young boy is reading. Yes!  You got it right. The book is not titled so whatever book you thought of fits. That was part of the design. He is sitting atop 100 books, each one titled. That is part of the interesting story of how this statue came to be. The Coshocton Library of 1904 was the 1000th Carnegie library to be built. In 2004, to celebrate their 100th anniversary, they decided to have this sculpture built.  They wanted to select the best book of each of the last 100 years but had to settle on the best ten books of each decade. (Some years had slim pickings from a literary point of view) Then the genius of this creative staff kicked in. To finance the construction they let citizens who donated $500 select from a list of books. The selected book would be added to the stack and the doners name would be displayed in the library.  I don't know if they also displayed who selected which book. That could be very interesting.

     But moving along, here are some other views of the sculpture.



  There are a few timeless books that did not fit in the last 100 years. A few of them were selected and piled on the base of the statue.  See to the right where my current girlfirend (and wife) is standing. 
(OK Stop looking for two women
in this photo -My wife is my girlfriend!)
There are a few books piled at the bottom of the picture by the base. What do you think these books are? If you go to the Coshocton Library site you will see a list of all 100 books from the last 100 years and also the list of the books on the base of the sculpture. Here is the link you will need to get there. Once on the site look for the place to click on the list of books.

http://coshoctonlibrary.org/green/centennial.php

I hope you have enjoyed this vist to the Coshocton public library.

  Check back in a week or so for more of the interesting libraries I have visited.



Ohio - Did someone steal the Library?

Have you ever heard of anyone stealing a whole library building?  Well it happened in Columbus, Ohio.  There is a lovely looking building right downtown along the banks of the Scioto River.  There are winding streets, lovely landscaping and that gorgeous building.  The Ohio State Library. 

Former home of the Ohio State Library
Now home to the Ohio Supreme Court



I was anxious to see what it looked like on the inside. In the days before GPS I had a wonderful map program on my notebook computer. It had guided me to the correct spot where it said the State Library should have been. But I could not find the  Library anywhere.  A helpful man in an expensive suit who was leaving the building told me it had  moved. I soon discovered the Library building had been stolen.  Perhaps hijacked is a more accurate description of what happened. The building now housed the Ohio Supreme Court.





 Ok so they didn't really steal the state library building, which, by the way, was actually named The Ohio Departments Building. (But the idea of high jacking still lingers in the back of my mind)  Whatever happened, the library is no longer housed in that lovely building.  

Where did they move it?  What kind of wonderful new facility had been provided for the Ohio State Library?  Visions of  a new building with state of the art technology and architecture raced through my mind as I called the library to ask how to find their new location.  They had been relocated just a few miles north, out of the downtown congestion.  

Factory buildings across the street
 from the Ohio State Library.

 As I drove to the new location I became aware of the neighborhood and decided locking my car doors was wise.  Eventually turning off the main street onto a side street I was puzzled to see I was driving into an abandoned industrial site. 

Main Entrance to the Library

Then I saw the sign for the Ohio State Library. Yes, it was relocated from a lovely downtown building to an abandoned industrial site where the Jeffrey Mining Company had made mining equipment. No it was not a fancy office building. They put the Ohio State library in a huge old deserted factory building. The high arched roof looked like it was forty or fifty feet above the factory floor.


How could that have happened. Rejecting the notion of the Supreme court having more political power than the library I just knew the Library had moved. When I pulled into the parking lot and saw the entrance I was underwhelmed.

This nice door mat
greets you as you enter.

But once inside I was delighted. The interior camouflaged the factory setting well. The staff was wonderful, the organization permitted finding what you wanted easily, and the genealogy collection was spectacular.


If a library is simply a pretty building this one missed the mark, but if a library is about finding information and helpful staff this library excelled.



The library staff was just wonderful, helpful, friendly, warm and easy to deal with in an almost family atmosphere. I spent the greater part of three days in this comfortable research center. There was a large open area with tables where we ate our brown bag lunch everyday. 

The "Great Room"

The picture above shows the huge arched roof. The bright white line across the center of the picture are the flourescent lights over the genealogy area. Look closely in the upper right dark area of the picture and you can see the beams angling up to the roofline. The whole ceiling has been painted a flat black to hide it and the lighting and functional furniture distract from how immense this structure really is. They have done a good job of taking a lemon and making lemonade. As you can see in the picture above the genealogy section is very large and contains information from almost every county in Ohio. In three days I did not run out of material, just time. I recall hearing that now the genealogy section has been moved to another library because there was no money in the state Library's budget for maintaining the collection. If that is true, it is tragic. I could call it a crime but that would mean the Supreme Court might get involved again and we know how that worked out last time. (No offense intended..just a little political humor)



Typical long row of books in the
Genealogy "Stacks"



Working in the "stacks" was an absolute delight. So much material, easily accessed and arranged in such a logical and orderly fashion. You may wonder what is so special about orderly and logical when it comes to libraries. Isn't that how they are supposed to be? Well, yes, but I have been in some where most of my time was learning how the library was organized, where they had shelved things and how to use whatever indexing and retrieval system they had.  Wherever these books are now I hope they are as easy to use as they were in the State Library.  



The lady sitting on the floor is my wife. She had  found a collection of Who's Who. She had received

"I can't find my name in
any of thesebooks"

notice three or four times that she had been selected for  Who's Who in American Educators, and  similar books. She sent in her bio but did not agree to buy the $400 books.  Yup, you guessed it. She was not in any of them.  She is beginning to think that these "vanity" books only put in the names of those who  shell out $400 or whatever the books cost.  

As I mentioned earlier the library did a great job of turning an old factory building into a functioning and comfortable place to do research. This is one of the spacious areas I found in this library. Notice the checkout desk in the background. This attractive room does not look like it is in an old manufacturing plant, but it is.  



"I don't think this was in my job description"

And finally I want to express my appreciation to the staff. They were fun people. They were helpful without being in the way. They made suggestions that saved me wasted time. They even agreed to pose with me for a picture. Now that is really going above and beyond the call of duty. If you read this and find some factual errors  please contact me. The comments made here have been my own making. I never heard a word of complaint from the fine people who worked hard to make my visit both successful and enjoyable.  Thanks.

Check my blog every week for more pictures of Libraries small and great.

Otsego County Library - My library!!

Saturday, May 07, 2011

Otsego County Library

      What does a hard working, customer friendly local library look like? Just like the one in Gaylord, Michigan.  This is my hometown library. The kind, friendly and patient staff there have been putting up with me for 30 years. When I walk in they all recognize me and mumble "Oh dear here comes trouble" with big grins on their faces.

The always smiling Elaine
With the director Maureen in the background

This library, as many libraries,  has a section where they sell books. When I try to "cheat" them out of the 50 cent price of a book by telling them I want to "check it out" I always get a smile and some comment as they tell me "No!"   When I ask them if they have a copy of "Learning to Read for Dummies" the comments are always fun. As I said they tolerate me well.  No matter how weird the request they are always willing to do what they can to accomodate me. 

        Recently remodeled inside the new look is very nice and still feels homey. They have about 15 computer stations that are almost always busy, a nice magazine reading section with comfortable chairs and have managed to still maintain a good basic collection of books. The childrens section is warm, kid friendly and active. There is even a nice room that is reserved for teens. Now the teens no longer have to put up with grumpy old guys like me staring at them, wondering what was the cause of the giggling and frantic whispering. 

Tammy (on left) and Cathy
both deep in thought

This is a well run and very active library with something new going on every time I stop in. I will be adding some more information when Maureen sees this and tells me what I forgot to mention.  I will also be adding a picture of their new library card which is ordered but not available for this posting..  My card is an old, old one. But I like it and as long a they let me I will keep using it.

        I collect library cards, but my wife collects library book bags. The one from Otsego County Library is one of the nicer looking ones.

One of the library bags from my wife's collection

       I don't know if they still have this bag in stock. I think so. If you think it is an attractive book bag you can find them on line or call 989-732-5841 to see if they are available.

        Check back in a couple weeks when I have added additional pictures and more information about this fine hometown library. In the next blog I will discuss some of the State Libraries I have visited.  Check back in about a week. I try to post at least one new blog each week. Thanks for looking at this one.

American Libraries Feb 2003

One day about 8 years ago one of the ladies in my hometown library stopped me and asked if she could use my library card collection for a display.  It must have been a slow news week because the local paper did a write up about my collection. The paper has a nice website which is where the story was picked up by the American Libraries Magazine.  

      This might be a good place to talk about the political forces at play in libraries. Funding is always an issue. How libraries are funded plays a large part in whether I can get a library card or not. If I am in Ohio it is very easy. I have several library cards from Ohio libraries that are good cards. That means my information and card number are in their system and I can check out books.  Not so in Indiana!

     Normally the cards I collect are not entered into the system so the card is useless for checking out books or other library services. Giving me a noncirculating card just means that one of the card numbers will not be recorded. About the same as if a card was lost before it was issued to anyone. Perhaps behind a filing cabinet or stuck in the back of a drawer.

     So why the differance between two neighboring states like Ohio and indiana?  The answer too often is funding. In Ohio the libraries are funded based on how many patrons they have. They are anxious to give me a "good" card because it reflects positively on the number of patrons they have, which in turn means more money.

      In Indiana they are funded by local government. Oh you can get a card if you don't live in the city or county that the library serves. Just be willing to shell out anywhere from $25 to $75  a year for a library card. Since the librarians are used to making people from outside the district pay for a card, they feel very hesitant to just give one to a souvenir collector like me.  
     State Libraries have some wonderful cards. In the next blog we will explore some of the state libraries that have given me one of their cards.

INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

  Hello and welcome to my library blog

My name is David Wiseley and I collect library cards. Yes that is a little unusual. I Agree. There must be some story behind such an odd collection and there is.

HOW IT STARTED
I have always enjoyed libraries. But never thought about collecting library cards until one day I was cleaning out my wallet. I found a library card from two colleges I had attended, one from the town i had previously lived in, one from the town where i worked, one from the small community where I now lived and another one from a larger library in a near by city. "That is quite a collection you have there"!  That was the start.

HOW BIG IS THE COLLECTION
     I don't really know.  Not many. Maybe 50 or 60. I am not concerned with collecting a large number., but libraries that are special to me for some reason.  I only collect cards from libraries that I have personally visited. 

PURPOSE OF THIS BLOG
     Librarians often want to know more about libraries I have visited. The large notebook of cards and photos is now large enough it is becoming awkward to carry. This blog will permit me to share the photos and fun stories of libraries I have visited without carrying all my collection. The blog will make all of my collection available where ever there is an Internet connection.