Blog #5 - Favorite Place at Home or in Community

I'm a huge fan of libraries. If there's one place I always visit in every community I've ever lived in, it's the local library. I spent a moderate chunk of my early childhood living in and around downtown Orlando. Although there were some bright spots, most of the streets and parks were not safe places for kids to loiter, especially alone. Many of the community centers were dominated by local athletes and the state of their facilities varied widely. The public library was the PERFECT solution with it’s free after-school programs, tutoring/homework help, reading circles, screening stations for audio and visual media, computers, and helpful librarian and volunteer staff. Obviously funding can have a great impact on library facilities, collections, staff, and hours, but even at its worst, I’ve yet to meet a library I didn’t like.

The main branch of the Orlando Public Library is my favorite. It is currently the largest public library in the state of Florida, and the first to issue me a library card. When I frequented it’s stacks, the children’s department was located in the basement of the five-storey building, and housed a large piece of furniture we called the “reading tree”. It was something like an enclosed jungle gym with pillows tucked into every nook and cranny. We would climb into it with a book and promptly get lost in our imaginations. Sadly, the reading tree no longer exists, and the children’s department is now located on the first floor near the main entrance, but it is just as whimsically decorated as ever.



*Note: this is a picture of one of the pillar decorations in the new OPL children’s department. If memory serves me correctly there are three or four different pillar scenes. This photo was taken from a blog here, and its reproduction below constitutes fair use. All rights retained by original copyright holder.