Round Lake Area Public Library - part 2

I had several favorite areas in the Round Lake Area Public Library (like the Fantastic Four section I showed yesterday), but I love this snack bar behind the circulation desk. I mean, having snacks in the library is nothing new, but most "hide" them in vending machines. No one openly embraces the ambience of a convenience store as boldly as this.

I'm always looking for interesting new collections at the libraries I visit, and this was the first free seed collection I've found at a library. Now, maybe I should have asked around more -- maybe it isn't a free dispensary so much as you're supposed to bring in seeds from your home garden and swap them for new seeds -- like the paperbook swaps some libraries have. Either way, I love that this is located in old card catalog drawers. Way to keep those card catalogs relevant!

 Another great idea was to co-op the little free library trend by putting a (sort of) little free library -- in the library! Now, most libraries have book sales for discards like this, but let's face it -- the revenue stream from book sales is not going to be worth the time of your staff and is better not done, unless you have Friends of volunteers handling it for you.

There's a good chance this form of labeling shelves was necessary for ESL members of the community, but using pictures for subject areas can also be a fun way to label shelves too.

Also, The Comic Book Heroes is a fantastic read for the history of the Silver Age of Comics, and you just gotta have Far Side collections on your shelves!

More shelf labeling! I imagine that finding a usable image for comic books was hard without infringing on anyone's trademarks.

I like that there's a book on Steve Ditko there. I don't know that particular book, but you need at least one book on Ditko in your 741.5 area.

Just visible in the background is a banner on the ceiling. I didn't pay much attention to those when I was there, but they seem to be spelling out some of the talking points for the value of libraries. I'm not sure why that is necessary, but maybe they have an anti-library faction in the community, like Carol Stream had/has.