J. Erik Jonsson Central Library, Dallas, Texas
No trip to Texas would be complete without stopping in the big D, Dallas. And that’s what we did when we visited the J. Erik Jonsson Central Library. From the outside, it looks like a large, austere, concrete building. The inside was anything but. There are eight floors, with a librarian on each one who was willing to talk to us and give us some insight into the collection. The first floor had a small collection for browsing, an eating area, public computers, and a new parents room.
After looking around the first floor, we sought assistance from a librarian at the main desk. This is where we were given a directory and a suggestion to start on the eighth floor and make our way down as we toured the building. There was a QR code to enjoy an audio tour of the building, but unfortunately, we did not have our headphones with us for this visit. Blasting the audio from our phone’s speaker would have been gauche, don’t you think?
The directory showed that the first floor held the current fiction and nonfiction collections and community resources. The second floor features the Youth Discovery Center, where the teen collection is housed. The third floor held the literature, language, and religion collections and a makerspace area. The rest of the building held nonfiction collections, and each floor was themed to that subject area. The fourth floor held the arts, the fifth held sciences, the sixth held career materials, the seventh held Dallas history and archives, and the eighth floor held genealogy and history.
Off we went to the eighth floor to start our tour from the top. We met Stephanie, a local librarian who follows our pages. (It was wonderful meeting you!) Unfortunately, we don’t remember the names of the other librarians on the other floors, but thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us. We were able to learn a lot about the community! While visiting the fourth floor, we learned that there are a total of thirty branches in this network. In March, 3,700 new library cards were created, 155,000 people visited these branches in person, and the digital collection saw 193,511 visitors. Holy cow!
Eight floors are a lot to see, and it was a long visit. But here are the highlights and things we loved during this visit. The visit to the seventh floor was a huge hit for us. There was a copy of the Declaration of Independence. This was one of the 200 original copies commissioned by Thomas Jefferson. It was lost and found in a Philadelphia bookstore in 1968. It now has a permanent home at this library for all to see. The seventh floor is also home to one of the original copies of Shakespeare’s First Folio and a scrapbook of historic photographs of Bonnie and Clyde.
There was artwork to see on every floor, a pollinator garden on the fifth floor, and a great conversation was had with the children’s librarians on the second. This is where we learned that Atmos Energy, a natural gas company, helps fund field trips where local students can visit the library. There was an interesting station on the fourth floor where people could listen to music on vinyl, cassettes, or CDs. The domes are meant to be sound mufflers. Unfortunately, it was out of order and will eventually be removed. There are hopes that something similar will be put in its place.
We eventually concluded our tour by making it back to the first floor. If we find ourselves in Dallas again, we would like to bring headphones to fully enjoy the tour that was offered to us. It was evident that the first floor and a couple of the lower floors were the most popular. If one needed a quiet place to work, we would imagine that the upper floors would be preferable. This was an enjoyable visit!
The J. Erik Jonsson Central Library has so much to offer! All libraries offer more than just books, but this one was an incredible example of it. Whatever need a patron has, the J. Erik Jonsson Central Library does its best to fulfill it!