Stalking Cambridge Public Library

The as of yet unopened new CPL at 8 PM

Yum!

Getting some work done at Cambridge Library

Lucklucky

Originally uploaded by Phobean

Last week, I had to get out of the office. I’m responsible for writing, editing and publishing a newsletter for the community organization at which I work. Used to be, I could simply close the door to my office and bang out the newsletter in about three days -writing all the articles, fact checking them with the sources (usually Harvard U, Lesley U, and Cambridge gov. department offices), editing and resizing photos in Photoshop, and building the whole shebang in Quark. I can’t do that anymore. Whether it’s my unfortunate popularity at the office, or the fact that I get too distracted by having the internets at my fingertips (wikipedia is a dangerous procrastinating tool), I just can’t seem to get the newsletter done in office anymore.

Enter Cambridge library. Because I had some errands to run over on that side of town anyway, I took the hike (20 min. walk, some of it uphill) to the library. The central branch of the library is currently housed in an old school while a new building is built on the original site. The old central branch scared me -it was dark, the children’s room was down in the cellar, and there was one room where the floor was nothing but a bit of metal grate -one could look down to the next level and see people in the stacks. Strange feeling to be walking over someone’s head, hoping you aren’t kicking dirt down on top of them.

The current home of the library is equally odd. Granted, I didn’t walk through the whole thing because I needed to buckle down and do some work -it was bad enough I noticed the room devoted to new additions to the collection and had to go in and browse the cooking and crafting section.The room I settled in to work on my newsletter was the old gym retrofitted with shelves. Smelled kind of musty and there was a window encased in a wire cage up above my head. Also, the desk and seat at which I sat were, respectively, too tall and too short, so I ended up typing on the laptop on my lap. Nonetheless, it did the job. Oh, and I got some work done, too.

Stats:
Smell: C-

Comfortable place to park my laptop: D

New book selection: B+

Books ogeled:
“Great gluten-free baking” –Louise ?
“Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off: The Yarn Harlot’s Guide to the Land of Knitting” – Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
“Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World” –Isa Chandra Moskowitz & Terry Hope Romero

Images from Cambridge Library

As I’m struggling a little with the interface of WordPress, I had to post these photos separately.  Here goes:  Card catalog -on stage!  Clever and funny.  Book baskets.  I haven’t yet seen these at other libraries.  Cute and, again, clever.