Libraries

Madlib Loop Digger

Should be the Lib (library) Digger

Libraries Touring

I've been to a lot of the libraries near me. It is a good opportunity to travel. I would recommend that everyone consider making it a hobby to travel to libraries near where they live. If only to go book hunting.

List

• Arlington - Has bees on the 2nd floor. I'm not kidding. There was a hive being maintained. It's alright, but the ceilings are a little low, and it's somewhat claustrophobic.
• Beantown (main location) - They (in the last 10 years) added a cafe, which makes it like Barnes and Noble. That is OK, but it's still a hassle to get downtown, and the city is filthy in its own lovely way. The one near Beacon Hill is small, but easy to access if you are commuting to/from North Station.
• Burlington - Has a decent programming section.
• Camerbridge - A couple of locations. One is open on sundays, but is small. The one with the large park out front is decent. Bathrooms have no doors because of junkies and homeless people and safety.
• Lexington - One of the better locations. They sometimes have meetings or entertain authors. A real neat second floor overlooking the meeting area.
• Lynnfield - Small. The town doesn't really have a downtown, so the library is somewhat smaller than it could be. It's a nice library.
• Peabody - Reportedly, they have multiple libraries. I've only been to one. The building organization is confusing. An OK library.
• Salem - A nice brick building. Within walking distance of downtown, but unfortunately, not in the center. Could be bigger, but not bad.
• Wakefield - Larger building. Worth visiting from time to time. Not bad.
• Woburn - Too small. Not enough books.

Problems with Libraries

Problem: HVAC For Privacy

Some libraries, you can hear a pin drop. It's terrible. You can't read books in such a library, because turning a page, elicits a cough, elicits awkwardness. It's hell.

Solution

The HVAC should be loud enough, so that you can read, and turn pages of books, without awkwardness.

Problem: Generalization

Libraries try to all generalize, which means they are all somewhat similar. While there is a pool, amongst the libraries, there is a still a lack of specialization. For example, it's near impossible to find good engineering books (of various specialty subjects, such as general construction and architectural themes, i.e. road building, bridge building, anything specialized with regards to creating a functioning society). Even with the pool. Instead, there is very shallow material of these subjects, and if you want to find out about engineering, you have to refer to online illegitimate sources.

Solution

In a given metro area, it's more valuable for each town to specialize their library to a given topic. While you can have 'some' generalization, there should be a focus for each library to do something that other libraries are 'not' doing. Then this gives people a reason to seek out a certain library. And this should be a known thing, not something that you have to seek out (sometimes libraries will have more books on a given subject than others, but it seems more by accident, then anything intentional).

More examples:

• public regional plumbing library
• public regional electronics library
• public regional programming library
• public regional skyscraper construction library
• public regional engineering library
• public regional manga library

etc etc etc...

Conclusion

When every library is a general purpose library, we have a regional area of 100+ general purpose libraries.