PLA Blog

Meg Canada, who works as Librarian as well as in Assistive Technology & Teen Services Online for the Hennepin County Library (I hope I got your title right!), and is also a lovely friend of mine, graciously took the time on Thursday, March 27 to give me an epic-yet-whirlwind tour of not only the Hennepin County Library system headquarters in Ridgedale, but also a quick run around the Central Library. Both libraries are wonderful, and everyone is doing such impressively progressive things, the whole tour was a treat.

The Ridgedale Library building not only houses the library, system headquarters, and centralized technical services processing of books, but also an office of motor vehicle services, local courts, a coffee shop, and a library book store. From the very entrance of the library, you can tell that the children’s librarian values early literacy, starting with the counting steps (apparently, you hear kids count those steps every time they come in), and carrying through to the rest of the library:

It was really good for me to see how their self-checkout stations are set up, one for adults, one for kids, since we’re planning on launching a similar self-checkout setup at my library in July. As for check-in processes, I got an inside look at their “high I.Q.” Automated Materials Handling (AMH) system (my apologies for the shake on the video!):

After meeting more of the staff and seeing more interesting behind the scenes workings at the Headquarters and the Ridgedale branch, we were off, heading back downtown to the Central Library. I must say, if you’ve heard anything about the wondrousness Hennepin County Library Minneapolis Central, it’s all true.The architecture is beautiful, all that light wood and glass. This was the truly whirlwind part of my tour (I was playing hookey, trying to get back in time to host the Virtual Happy Hour for the Virtual Conference), so I didn’t get to visually document everything that was cool. Like, say, the elevators that, as they go up and down, form words and letters in lights that spell out the titles of recently checked out books. Or how each floor has a uniquely-designed fireplace, complete with art (the giant “burned matches” were my favorite). Or even the beautiful lighting on the different media shelves, and the interactive touch-screen map systems that help people find things. The even have an ATM machine, not far from the coffee shop and book store. Make the trip to Minneapolis to see it in its full splendor, it’s worth it.

I did, however, get a comprehensive-yet-quick tour of Teen Central. Teens from all over the city were involved very early on in the development process, so the entire space is customized to the audience. Teens said they wanted a space of their own that didn’t look like the rest of the library, where they could eat, drink, hang out, listen to music, meet. As a result, Teen Central is a completely enclosed area within the library, complete with a meeting room that has dry-erase board wallpaper, cool flat speakers installed in the ceiling hooked up to a sound system that supports iPods but also plays CDs, excellent comfy seating near the windows, and vending machines (in the only area of the library where food is allowed). And the red-dyed wood for the shelves is *gorgeous*.

Next time I’m in Minneapolis, I’ll spend *way* more time at the library ;). Thank you so much to Meg and all of the staff at the Hennepin County Libraries for your hospitality!

Tags: hennepincountylibrary, pla08, PLA2008, tour, video

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008 at 9:22 am and is filed under PLA Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.