La Grange Park Public Library - part 1

No, I'm not reviewing churches this week -- this is the La Grange Park Public Library. Also not the La Grange Public Library, as I was gently corrected by a librarian inside. I wonder if that's as confusing for residents as it is for tourists. But I digress.

I really like seeing recycle options for patrons in a library, the more the better. And while La Grange Park only has this one, I appreciate that it's the first accessible thing you find when you enter the building.

Next on the right inside is the Hot Picks area, and you can see that there is a strong mix of materials in various media and for various ages here.

I was hugely disappointed on my last trip to the Schaumburg Township District Library to discover their "hot picks" section was full of pro-Trump propaganda, so it was refreshing to come here and see informative books like Fear and Team of Vipers are handily accessible.

A library experience is often defined by the impression you get on first seeing the interior layout, and this library definitely treats its multiple floors, as well as natural lighting from those high arched windows, as important features.

YA gets its own corner of the first floor and, while there's lots of furniture, there's not much else to it that I can see. Kudos, at least, for not walling them off.

Like most libraries, they define YA by grades instead of by age range.

Periodicals rarely get their own room, and only sort-of did in this case, where they are paired up with the quiet reading room.

I found this a personally interesting selection. One Tree Hill, Secret Life of an American Teenager, Smallville, and Supergirl are four of my wife's favorite shows. Monty Python's Flying Circus is one of my favorite shows, and Miss Marple is one of my mother's favorite shows.

Even as a non-coffee drinker, I'm fascinated by what libraries do with their coffee machines. Some try to emulate the full look of a coffee shop, some go for part of that look (like the chalkboard menu here), some charge (like here), and others give away for free.








You can see the entrance to this alcove behind the coffee machine in the above photo. It looks crowded and cluttered and it's rare to find a copier hidden in a library these days, instead of easily accessible.