Monday, July 6, 2015

2015 Library Project: June Month-in-Review

Hello!  Wow, I got such a great response to my last post about my son's summer library project.  Thank you.  I thought it would be fun to keep you updated on the project on a monthly basis.  We visited seven more libraries in June.  These are highlighted in blue on the map below.  (The libraries that we visited last summer are highlighted in yellow.)


Since I'm linking up with Bleubeard and Elizabeth's virtual tea party today, let's begin our tour in north Minneapolis, where you can have an imaginary teatime at the cafe in the North Regional Library's play area.  The mural in the background is an accurate depiction of Lowry Avenue, the street where this library is located.  In the background you can see a bit of the Lowry Avenue Bridge over the Mississippi River, with the skyscrapers of downtown Minneapolis beyond that.


In another part of north Minneapolis, we enjoyed the Sumner Library.  This gorgeous building celebrates its hundredth birthday this year!  I didn't get a photo, but Wikipedia has one for you to see.


The third library in Minneapolis that we visited in June was Central Library in the heart of downtown.  This enormous building has four levels!  I can't even begin to guess how many books are there.  Or how many stairs.  As you see from the photo above, the staircases there are reminiscent of M. C. Escher's famous drawing.  There are elevators and escalators, too, for which I was very grateful, since we visited all four floors.


Moving on to the suburban portions of our escapade, we visited libraries that varied greatly in size.  The largest of these was the Edina Library, where I checked out Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell.  (My take: good, but not as good as Eleanor & Park.  Have any of you read Rowell's books?)  The smallest library we visited was the Osseo Library, which is just one room in Osseo City Hall.


Other charming, small libraries that we visited include the St. Bonifacius Library (pictured above), whose building will celebrate its one hundredth birthday next year, and the Long Lake Library (pictured below), which is conveniently located in a small shopping center.  There really is great diversity among all the Hennepin County libraries.


Before I go, I need to thank fellow T is for Tuesday participant and Twin Citian Halle, who pointed out to me that the Excelsior Library has moved to a new building since last summer.  My son and I visited the new library building, where we were greeted by a delightful wood carving of a book-reading beaver.  If you include the Excelsior Library, my son and I actually visited eight new libraries in June.  Not bad, eh?  I hope that you have also enjoyed this virtual tour of those libraries.

17 comments:

Viktoria Berg said...

That is one great tour! It amazes me the kind of buildings some people are inspired to design to house literature. (It also sometimes amazes me what dumps will have to do when booklovers are clearly not influential in a community...) And the beaver is adorable. Happy T-Day and many hours Happy Reading to you and your son! :-D

Linda Kunsman said...

I am thoroughly enjoying your virtual library tours! thanks so much for sharing and a happy T day!

Carol said...

That's a lot of Libraries! I like the smaller ones myself..I get over whelmed when I go to a large library. Nice Reading Beaver there ♥

froebelsternchen said...

oH YES! I enjoy your library tours! Great! Happy T-Day!

Bleubeard and Elizabeth said...

Wow, that Sumner Co. Library is gorgeous. I love the architecture and the brick. Of course, I really enjoyed the Central Library, which, I agree has shades of Escher's art. The small libraries were fun, too, because they were so unique.

Speaking of libraries, Wichita has gotten rid of three of our libraries and two of them were in my neighborhood. They blame it on lack of funding, and I'm sure it's true, albeit sad!

Thanks for sharing your imaginary tea time at the Lowery Street North Regional Library with us for T this Tuesday. I really enjoyed this tour and hope to see more of these in the future.

Divers and Sundry said...

I'm impressed with how many libraries y'all have visited. We don't have nearly as many around here. This sounds like a fun project :)

Harvest Moon by Hand said...

What a great idea to visit a variety of libraries! When I used to take my daughters to dance lessons in downtown Minneapolis, we would visit the main library there on Nicollet. What a treat that was to visit that library! So many resources and beauty in one building.

Halle said...

Fun project for you to do!
I'm glad you made it to the new Excelsior library. It's quite nice, right?!? I'm thinking I've only made it to 7 of the libraries in the system. I don't live in Hennepin county anymore but love that I can still use their library system...so much bigger than ours. :)

pearshapedcrafting said...

These libraries are such a treat to see! Our local library has shut down but there is a big one in the city centre that has had a total makeover - it is fantastic but I am guessing that is where the funding all went! Happy T day! Chrisx

Rita said...

I was born in Minneapolis and grew up in Fridley, so I love to hear about all the Hennipen County libraries! I hadn't been to the big downtown library for years before I moved away, but I still remember how large it was and how many floors of books-books-books! But I thought there were more than four floors and I didn't recognize the staircase--and who could forget that staircase!? So I googled it and this new central library opened in 2006. Aha! That's why. Oh, and there are 2.2 million items stored in that one building! What fun to hear about my hometown. Happy T-Day!

Kim said...

Such a fun a memorable thing to do with your son!

TwinkleToes2day said...

As an avid devourer of literature I am delighted when I see or hear of youngsters hungry for books and to visit lots of libraries too is wonderful. Keep on travelling via mind as well as reality. Happy T Day :D

Sharon Fritchman said...

I loved following you and your son through your library tour, Denise! How wonderful! And I really liked seeing all of the amazing photos, too. Thank you for sharing your journey with all of us! What a great mom you are!!!!

jinxxxygirl said...

I love seeing all these libraries! I'm so glad you and your son are taking us along... Happy happy Tday!! Hugs! deb

Darla said...

That's a lot of libraries! I really like the book reading beaver sculpture.

Darla

Kirsty Vittetoe said...

Awesome share!

Denise van Deventer said...

Super cool Denise....a really great little tour and gorgeous photo's too! Your son must be loving it all! ;-)