Shannon Schinagl: Big Ol' Library Nerd about Town

Okay, once again, these photos are in no particular order, since Blogspot is quite a bit smarter than me.

First things first: as I was wandering around Charlotte, I came across this building. You probably can't read that big banner hanging on the side of the building, but it says "Home of the Steelers!"

For those of you not in the know, most every city has a Pittsburgh Steelers bar. This is a bar or restaurant that promises Steeler fans that they will always have the Steeler game on the big screen AND that the Steeler game will get sound. In Seattle, that place is Fado. Apparently, in Charlotte that place is...get ready...Dixie's! For some reason, the fact that the Steeler bar is called Dixie's cracks me up. It's kind of an oxymoron or something. If it was, you know, Bubba's Bar or something, fine. But Dixie's? I was insanely jealous of their big banner. I've never seen that before.

So anyway... I was walking around and stumbled up on the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library. The first thing I noticed were the below posts with quotes about libraries on all four sides. I thought that was very fun!
Of course, I had to go in to investigate the children's department. I walked all around, but all I could find was a tiny corner, no more than 5 feetx5 feet, with a few picture books in it. I couldn't believe that that was all there was, so like a good library patron I went to the reference desk. That's where I found out that the children's department is in a completely different building with the children's theater. It's called ImaginOn. So I scurried over there, and it was a source of wonder! The combo of library and children's theater was so much more than two organizations sharing a building. They both had things that, alone, neither would have had. Here are some highlights.
The second floor housed the teen area. After I introduced myself to the teen librarians, one of them gave me a little tour. She took me into Studio i -- their teen video and audio center. I was blown away. This picture shows the stage where teens can film whatever they're filming. Studio i provides the cameras, tripods, lighting -- everything!

Then there are computers all around for editing, and the cube in this picture is the audio recording studio. So teens could record a song, and then make a music video to go with it at the library. It was so cool.

Also in the teen department were these booths. I just loved them. What you probably can't see well are the plexiglass windows between each booth. They are equipped with dry-erase markers, and the teens can just graffiti up a storm.

This chandelier/sculpture (see, this is the kind of thing I thought would be at The Light Factory) hung three stories high in the middle of the lobby.

I adored this. These are actually stained glass windows!

I thought this was genius. You can't see well because of the light coming in the windows, but this is how they display both children's and teen magazines: by hanging them over a rod. This is brilliant. The magazines are easy to see, you don't have to buy pricey magazine covers, and hanging them on a rod doesn't create much wear-and-tear on the magazines. The older mags are stored in the cabinets below.

Okay, a quick bit of explanation. I broke my camera and learned my Airbook can take pictures. But apparently it takes them as mirror images. Any writing is coming out backward.

Anyway, this display reminded me of the Green Sheep display that the children's staff of the Central Library of the Seattle Public Library did.

This sign says "What do you see? Can you find the characters that belong in this book?" Then paper copies of the characters are spread throughout the children's department for kids to find. So fun!