It is easy to see the public library as a social place. Our public library locations are filled with people seeking information, that next best book, learning about new technology or simply wanting to be at one of the pulse points of city activity. What better time to be social than in the summer?
The Meadows Branch Library is a warm and inviting branch located right behind another very social place—a large grocery store. The library itself melds quietly and seamlessly into the environment of the Meadows Shopping Center. Over the past several months, users and supporters have let us know just how important Meadows Branch is to them. Recently, two school-age boys even donated the proceeds of their afternoon of performing on the Pearl Street Mall to the library in honor of their favorite branch, Meadows! Such kind and supportive measures illustrate that Boulder community members benefit from their libraries and care deeply about them. Donna Klopf, the manager of Meadows Branch is featured on the cover of this issue of our newsletter. Donna and her staff help make Meadows a welcoming and meaningful place. If you haven’t visited Meadows Branch lately, I encourage you to do that. The friendly staff will be glad to see you (and likely help direct you to a few great books as well). While at Meadows you’ll also see that we’ve added some new color and flare to the study rooms and Teen Space at Meadows Branch. It’s a great place to be social!
Throughout our library system we are looking for new ways to engage with our community—new ways we can learn and grow together. Library staff members keep their eyes on trends and opportunities for doing just this. What we know is that being social has taken on a whole new meaning in the past few years with the rise of online social networking tools. Twitter, the micro-blogging tool, has quickly become one of the most popular ways to follow updates about friends and groups you care about. Boulder Library has been tweeting on Twitter for several months now. This means you can easily receive quick, bite-sized updates about what is happening at your library. This may come as a reminder about an upcoming program or a link to an updated web page. Get social with us by following “boulderlibrary” on Twitter today. Happy summer!
Filed under: Director's Blog | Tagged: director, Director's message, social, social networking, summer, twitter
I really appreciate your observations on the Meadows Branch. It really is a social place and community center, and that’s why it’s so special to our family. Thanks for noticing!
I also appreciate the new look that the main library has had since you started there. It’s really nice to see the bright colors and artwork–it just makes it a more inviting place.
Keep up the good work!
I am very disappointed with recent changes to the Book Store at the library and even more disappointed with the awkward, hard to access and uninviting organization of the new one. I do not know what the library has in mind for the vacated space along walkway over the river but it is hard to imagine anything of comparable value. More tables? More display? We already have plenty of those elswhere.
Before coming to Boulder I was active over a three year period in the 90’s lobbying for a new library for our town of 30,000(Foster City, CA). We lobbied for and built into the plans a library store-a small square room which is manned by volunteers and regularly produces $20,000 a year of income for the library. Book lovers feel good about donating to this store and it is heavily used.
I loved the Boulder store, used it regularly, brought out of town visitors to see it and buy gifts. I thought the inclusion of gifts was brilliant and only wished there were more book oriented items-book bags,paper back book holders etc.
I know it is very hard to reverse decisions, but I hope the public if they agree with me will speak up and let the staff and Board know that they would like the book store back where it was.
Thanks for your comments and observations about the changes we are implementing at the library. Our staff is committed to making a better, more remarkable experience for our library customers and this has resulted in some very obvious changes to our spaces. We are working to make it easier to navigate through the building, make our collection more visible and well displayed and to freshen up the look of our interiors. Many of these changes can be seen in our reconfiguring of study spaces as well as the relocation of the used book shop. While many people were used to the location of the book shop on the “bridge” of the library, it was necessary for us to move this function to another location as it had become congested and not easy to travel through by many of our library visitors, especially those in wheel chairs or when the space was crowded. The book shop on the gallery side of the building is now a warm space that is visited by many, many people each day–especially after our fantastic programs in the Canyon Theater. We have plans for many other positive enhancements to our locations–both big and small–for the coming months. As always, thanks for your support, care and interest in your public library!
Tony