B2. Library Observation

B2. Library Observation

exterior of the public library. Very shiny.

For this assignment i visited the Council Tree Public library located in southern Fort Collins, CO. The Library is located on the second floor in a shopping center area and requires you to pass through a text/font related art piece on the way up the stairs. It is an orange room with text hanging from the ceiling in such a way that it appears to be swooshing around like a swarm of angry, literate hornets

Gah! ive been stung by a B!

Once at the top of the stairs i zigzagged my way to the far back of the building to the children's section and discovered that it is much more than what i expected. This space seemed to be both about reading and a great deal of other things. There were places to play, educational kinetic things with gears that you could crank and learn something about mechanics or electricity or optical illusions, computers along the wall loaded with all sorts of education programs and a very child oriented shelving system. All of the shelves appeared to be sized so that the target audience of the books on them could reach the top shelf. picture books were only 3 or four feet tall, young adult about 5 and adult about 7. 

Observing the visitors revealed that that the parents were much more interested in the books than the children. There was about 4 children (all under 6ish), two dads and one mother in the area but the fathers and one boy were the only ones actually looking for books. The mother was simply hanging out texting while the other three children were either watching cartoons or playing on the playground stuff. I was, however, impressed by one boy about 7 who actually used the pc search engine to find books and was carrying around about 12 books (actually more than he could carry. he would move the pile in segments) almost all about music. He had books like: Jake and the Philharmonic, Great Musicians, Intro to Music and more. he also had one Star Wars book.

The space was well lit and there was even a room in the corner that was filled with little tables for reading and working on crafts and even had a tiny entrance door for kids to use. it was a good space with large windows but i did not see any comfy chairs in the area for just sitting and reading.

I would and did borrow a large amount of of the required books for this class from this library. the ones i couldn't get there the librarian offered to put them on hold for me at the other library downtown.