As I struggled to find a parking place, then staggered to the front door in an amazing level of wind, I realized hadn’t done any overview looking at this library’s website or anything - I just walked in knowing the address and and name and that was it.
So I was ABSOLUTELY AMAZED when I walked in the front door!
THIS IS YOUR VIEW as you come in the front door!
Now, I’m a low-key plant person. I have a small office, but with some nice windowsills and I’ve filled them with plants. Students often comment on the plants - sometimes asking me what kind they are. I tend to shrug helplessly and say “green ones?” as I’m looking up whatever they are there to look up. I have had an occasional student ask if they could come cry in my office, with the plants. (Of course, and would they like chocolate?)
So, I’m a fan of plants in libraries and I believe that they go together.
BUT THIS? THIS IS AMAZING!!!
And it’s not just the plants! See those round areas, that kind of look like reverse mushrooms two or three stories in the air? Those are pods - comfy areas for people to sit and be cozy with their books.
I love this. So much.
I don’t mean to imply that they have plants and not the typical library stuff. There are books! (This is taken from an angle to get those signs identifying each level; 3 Fiction, and 1 and 2 are Non-Fiction. But everywhere not in this specific angle is literally covered with plants hanging down from the fourth floor to the lowest level. There are plants EVERYWHERE!)
One of the pieces to my survey in the libraries is to go count different things about the physical books. Here, I happily spent time trudging up and down the spiral staircase taking me between floors, gawking out over the plants and this open space with the bookshelves. Yes: I looked so very much like a tourist that if I had a nametag saying “HELLO! I’m Not From Here!” I would not have been more conspicuous. Did. Not. Care.
There were several of these wire holders, filled with flyers advertising cool library and community programs! It looked like a lot of fun things are happening there. I loved the idea of a series of programs called Adulting 101, with the most recent program on job searching. What a great idea! Who among us couldn’t use a few tips in adulting???
And, I feel compelled to point out: Look at the plants! (I’m just in heaven here!)
The plants!
Here, I’m standing up on the fourth floor and looking out across the library. There are plants ( you may have noticed!). If we turned a little further to the left, we could all admire the art show happening over there on the fourth floor. Behind me were work tables and some maker space stuff and some kids playing games. Very cool.
If you look down in the bottom right corner, you can see a piece of the pod filled with children’s material. There were kid-sized shelves in that pod circle, and some spaces for everyone to sit and read or play with some toys. I saw both kids and their adults huddled with books, lost in the fun of reading.
When I was chatting with the staffers, and - you may be shocked to learn - gushing about the plants, I asked if they had specific staff hired to handle the plants. No! It’s ONE GUY who takes care of all of them, and only once a week!!! I was flabbergasted. I was sick not to see this, but apparently he has a trolley of some sort (not the word they used) that he can zoom across the library’s open space to water the plants and to do any necessary weeding and pruning.
I was told there is an avocado tree in there somewhere, and I absolutely believed it. (It doesn’t fruit because there aren’t any pollinators.) Honestly, if they had told me that they had a small mastodon lost in there somewhere, I probably would have believed that too.
To sum up: I know I got overly excited about the plants - but it was truly an amazing feature! Definitely unique in all the libraries that I’ve visited. But they also have all kinds of good materials, good programs - and there was voting going on during my visit, and they were handling that well too! Please do yourself the favor of dropping by when you are in Reno!
Go and find a plant to love today! We could all use more green living things in our lives.