I mentioned in my post about the Victoria State Library in Melbourne that its front steps and lawn are a popular gathering spot where people linger and are sometimes treated to free musical entertainments. Well, Monterey Public Library doesn’t have grand front steps or a lawn, but yesterday after school let out, we were treated to a spontaneous performance of show tunes by several local kids in their early teens. They sang, among others, “My Favorite Things” from
The Sound of Music and then a song from
Les Miserables. As I listened, I thought to myself, “I don’t know what to make of this younger generation, but I sure like it!”
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From Friday, August 20th through Monday, August 23rd...
For the first time in over 20 years, the youth area is being almost entirely redone! This is part of our Library Help Desk changes. The primary purpose of the redesign is to increase staff ability to see customers in the youth area and your ability to see the Library Help Desk with staff ready to help you. Basically, the picture books are moving to where the nonfiction now is, the nonfiction is moving to where the fiction now is, and the fiction is moving to what is now the picture book room. There will be many advantages to the move and we hope you will come and visit us to experience them next week!
So how will it all happen??
Huge carts are arriving on Thursday 8/19 and will be stored in the Community room. Work begins on Friday 8/20 at 7 a.m. when workers will load materials on the huge carts and store them in the Community room. Once the materials are out of the youth area, then the moving can begin! During this time,the youth area and the Community room will roped off and unavailable for normal use. Because of this, there will be very limited access to youth materials on Friday, Saturday and Monday . However, we hope to have the Youth area up and running by opening Tuesday - and we will keep you updated on this!
So, please "pardon our dust" (and noise) and come and see the new space on Tuesday afternoon!
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What do Monterey Public Library and the Victoria State Library in Melbourne, Australia have in common? Me! I just spent many hours in both institutions in the space of one week! But there are a few other similarities, too. They are both housed in beautiful buildings made even more interesting by displays of fine art, historic photographs, are filled with books and other resources and are very, very well used by the community for learning and enjoyment. Even our vision statements are very similar. Monterey’s is “Inspire, Delight, Educate All – the Library IDEA!” Victoria’s is “Information. Ideas. Inspiration. For everyone.” Pretty close!
