The Week in Library Land: September 29 to October 5
Given the breakneck pace of the past few weeks, I think you’ll agree it’s only natural that we’d perhaps have a quieter week for a change. That certainly proved to be true seeing as we had only a handful of library activities for the week.
Adam was the big winner when it came to the coolest library visit. On Monday night, he headed over to the great Cambridge Main Library where he saw musician, activist, and author Billy Bragg discussing his new book, The Three Dimensions of Freedom with legal scholar Cass Sunstein at an event sponsored by the Harvard Book Store.
On Tuesday I worked for a few hours at the Woburn Library. It’s such an outstanding place. We usually try snagging one of the super comfortable study rooms but today there was no need for that. Instead, I settled down in the antique section of the library and got a ton of writing done. Whenever people ask us about great libraries in the Boston-area, we always mention this one, it’s really outstanding.
The beautiful Woburn Library.
On Wednesday we found ourselves in West Concord. We had plans to meet a former client in Central Square later in the day but decided to check out the Fowler Branch Library. We’ve visited before and find it to be adequate for our purposes. The last time we were there the issue of cell signal was a problem, but we didn’t need it this time.
At the Fowler Library in Concord.
Now Friday was a real mixed bag. We started our day on a call to discuss the Massachusetts State Legislature’s Library Caucus. We’ve met and spoken with a handful of its members and are interested in meeting with the members and aides to talk about what we’ve seen and learned on our travels around the state. A few ideas came up during our call and hopefully, a few of them will come to pass. We sure hope so!
From that call, we headed over to Oudens Ello to meet with Matt Oudens and Conrad Ello. It was great hearing updates on some of the libraries they’re currently working on, as well as to share some of our recent experiences in libraries they designed. In just the past few months we’ve been to Scituate, Eastham, and Millis. More are on the horizon and we can’t wait to see them!
The snug South End branch.
Since we were in the South End, we decided to visit the nice little South End Branch of the Boston Public Library. They’re getting ready for a renovation so it was nice to see it again before it closes for a time. This branch will always be a special one since it was where we met with Spencer Buell from Boston Magazine - a meeting that led to a really awesome story. We’re looking forward to visiting this branch again when it reopens.
Like we said, a quiet week - but there’s nothing wrong with a well-earned rest!