A Day at the Library





After bribing my wife and children with Wendy’s Frostees to ensure that I would not be field tripping alone, I trekked downtown to the Main Street library on Laura Street. I had been there once on a field trip with my fourth grade class two years ago, but this was my first opportunity to really explore the premises.

The place is nothing short of a marvel, and it was readily apparent that it was not possible to utilize all of the resources that they offered. Below is a screen shot of the available services:

In terms of what I did discover, the downtown branch has created a thorough literacy environment. We began our trip on the bottom floor and the talking books/special needs library.

According to the web site, talking books materials are mailed to readers postage free and return postage is free and the special equipment needed for this service is lent to customers at no charge. Another service that I thought was interesting was their monthly movie which is in closed caption for the deaf and hearing impaired, on the first Thursday of each month.

I then went to the audio book section, and it was easily the largest collection that I had ever seen. I picked up a Sarah Vowell collection for myself and a couple of titles for my E.S.E. students. I also spent a great deal of time exploring the DVD and CD sections, before my family finally forcibly ended my scouring and we headed for the children’s section.

The children’s section was the consensus highlight of this trip. My wife and I are both elementary school literacy teachers, and so exploring such a large collection of books and multimedia titles was a real treat.

My wife Becky pointed out that the environment at this branch was extremely inviting and conducive to a “fun reading environment” which can be challenging to create, but was accomplished with the mushroom chairs and dragon couch.