Seminole County Public Library System, North Branch, Sanford, Florida

No travels are complete without a visit to a local library. In this case, Greg was in Florida to visit friends and was able to see the North Branch of Seminole County Public Library System in Sanford, Florida. After a stroll through downtown and a refreshing beer at Dees Brothers Brewery, it was off to the library!

The library is a one-story, medium-sized brick building. As we approached, we enjoyed a statue of children walking and reading. Not always the safest thing to do, but who hasn’t taken that risk to stay with a good story? When we entered, a community/program room was to our left. There was a program when we arrived, and we didn’t want to barge in, so we went straight into the library.

Pat, one of the librarians, greeted us. She pointed out the different areas of the library and told us a bit about the community. It serves a population of 67,000, which is more than expected. She gave us details on programs and some of the challenges the library faces. She was a helpful guide for our visit.

The library is one large room. It has big windows and a large skylight, giving it a light and more expansive feeling that its footprint would suggest. To the left were several public computers, many of which were in use during our visit. There was also an interesting feature in the corner of this space: the William J. and Gloria Goodman Memorial Language Learning Lab. This is a one-person enclosed cubicle that allows people to study and practice a language without disturbing other patrons. It was empty during this visit, and it would be interesting to know how frequently it’s used and whether it can be used for other purposes. 

To the right was the children’s section. It was quiet while we were there, but Pat let us know it’s often super busy. The nicest thing about this section? The frog counting apparatus. No, it wasn’t a tool for counting frogs, but rather a frog-themed abacus. There was also a display of Lego models built by kids. Young adults is adjacent to childrens’, and it was nice to see it in use on this sunny Sunday afternoon. There is also a comfortable seating area in this section.

As is typical, the bulk of the spaces was dedicated to the adult collection, which is located directly in front as one enters. One thing that’s always interesting to see is how genres are treated. In addition to the standard mystery and sci-fi, this library also had a section of westerns. The coolest thing about that was the boots-and-spurs spine label.

A few of the other interesting things we saw around this library included a charging station and a book locker system in the foyer. It was out of order during this visit. This visit happened in early February, so we also liked spotting a display on Carnival.

Greg was touring with a friend who works at the Central Florida Zoological and Botanical Garden. When Pat learned this, she expressed interest in potentially partnering. This is the kind of thing libraries are uniquely able to do. Because they are meant to serve the entire community, libraries look for ways to work with all kinds of people and organizations.

This was a nice little library. It did feel slightly small for the size of the service area, but better a buzzing small library than an empty large one!