I love libraries. I love books, so that helps. But I love the idea of gathering tons of information…read moreand making it publicly available, democratising knowledge. I know the internet kind of does that too, but there's something about libraries.
But libraries can be many things, from Harry Potter-ish old, wood-lined halls of deep thinking, like the university library at Trinity College in Dublin, or the old Copenhagen University library, to public versions of a school library.
This is my local public library, and it is OK. Not great, but OK. It is definitely closer to a school library than a Harry Potter library, and spread out over several floors, making it a little difficult to navigate. I'm a new father, and I have to say, having to take two separate elevators just to get to where you pick up reserved books, or drop off books again, is a little annoying.
The layout of the library doesn't lend itself very well to walking around and browsing, which to me is the key thing about a library: the internet can tell you things you know to look for, but a library should inspire you to find out about things you never knew to look for. A library should solve Plato's paradox of learning!
I use this library pretty much only to pick up reserved copies of books, and return them again. For inspiration, there are others that are better.