Library of the Week: Meriden Library, Plainfield, New Hampshire

I didn't want to skip the last library of this term, because by request, we feature GazeboGal's local library.
The township of Plainfield has two public libraries: one located in Plainfield Village and one in Meriden Village. The New Hampshire legislature approved a petition from Daniel Kimball and other villagers to incorporate a library in Meriden Village on December 11, 1797. The library was housed in various buildings over the years. The current library was built on a parcel of land located next to the Meriden Grange and was dedicated on November 20, 1965.

Library of the Week: Suzzallo Library, University of Washington, Seattle

Suzzallo Library is the central library of the University of Washington in Seattle, and it is perhaps the most recognizable building on campus. It is named for Henry Suzzallo, who was president of the University of Washington until he stepped down in 1926, the same year the first phase of the library’s construction was completed. The library was renamed for him after his death in 1933.

Ever since it opened, the second floor reading room has inspired comparisons with the great library reading rooms of the world and is often compared to the nave of great cathedrals. Measuring 65 feet high, 52 feet wide, and 250 feet long, the reading room features a vaulted ceiling elaborately decorated with rich colored and gilded stenciling; oak bookcases topped with a hand-carved frieze representing native plants of Washington State; and tall windows with leaded glass incorporating 28 Renaissance watermark medallions. At each end of the reading room, a paneled alcove features a hanging lighted globe bearing the names of world explorers. Throughout the room, carved sandstone, wood paneling, and ironwork grills represent the craftsmanship employed in creating this space.

Library of the Week: Trinity College Library, Dublin, Ireland

The library at Trinity College, Dublin, is the largest research library in Ireland. Its history dates back to the establishment of the College in 1592. As a result of its historic standing, Trinity College Library Dublin is a legal deposit library for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and has a similar standing in Irish law. This means that the College is legally entitled to a copy of every book published in Great Britain and Ireland and, consequently, receives more than 100,000 new items every year. Today the library contains around five million books, including 30,000 current serials and significant collections of manuscripts, maps, and printed music, reflecting over 400 years of academic development.

The most famous of its manuscripts, the Book of Kells and the Book of Durrow, were presented by Henry Jones, Bishop of Meath and former vice-chancellor of the University, in the 1660s. Also incorporating the Long Room, the Old Library is one of Ireland's biggest tourist attractions and holds thousands of rare, and in many cases very early, volumes.

In the 18th century, the college received the Brian Boru harp, one of the three surviving medieval Gaelic harps and a national symbol of Ireland, notably used on the Irish Euro coins.

Library of the Week: Rosemary Garfoot Public Library, Cross Plains, Wisconsin, USA

This week I thought I’d feature the wonderful library in my small town, Cross Plains, which is about 14 miles west of Madison. The Rosemary Garfoot Public Library is the first “green” library in Wisconsin.

In order to ensure the highest quality of sustainability, the library was designed using the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system. This system recognizes performance in five key areas: sustainable site development, energy efficiency, water savings, indoor environmental quality, and materials selection. Here’s a LEED tour of our library.

I especially like the beautifully crafted circulation desk, which was created using silver maple wood from trees that were reused from the building site. The architects chose to use a Prairie style of architecture influenced by the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, a Wisconsin native. Rain gardens all around the building and a garden of prairie flowers and grasses near the entrance walk are visual reminders of the library’s commitment to living sustainably in the community.

Library of the Week: Biblioteca do Palàcio Nacional da Ajuda Lisboa III, Lisbon, Portugal

Here's a lovely library in Lisbon, Portugal. I'd like to spend the time to find more information about it (everything I see is in Portuguese), but because one of my OWLs is in crisis mode this afternoon, I'll just leave you with this beautiful photo.

Library of the Week: Cathedral Library of Kalocsa, Hungary

The town of Kalocsa is located in the western part of Bacs-Kiskun County, about 75 miles from Budapest, Hungary. The Archbishopric of Kalocsa was established by St. Stephen, the founder of the Christian state of Hungary, in 1001.

In 1733 a monastery, in 1765 a college, and in 1768 a printing press was established in the town. In 1782, Archbishop Adam Patachich founded a library by combining his private collection and that of the Bishopric’s, thus establishing the Cathedral Library of Kalocsa (Bibliotheca Metropolitanae Ecclesiae Colocensis). By the second half of the 19th century, the archbishops turned Kalocsa into an educational center of national reputation.

Today one can admire over 130,000 books here, an ever-growing collection of codices and incunabula, scriptures, songbooks, and books on medicine, law, astronomy, and more. The photo shows the reading room of Archbishop Adam Patachich, decorated in beautiful Baroque style, containing many volumes with gilded leather covers. The library’s historical exhibit is also housed in this area.

Library of the Week: Kloster Schussenried Bibliotekssaal, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

Schussenried Abbey (Kloster Schussenried) was a monastery in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, founded in 1183. The abbey suffered tremendous damage and losses in the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648). Many of the monastic buildings were burnt down by the Swedes, and the lands were largely laid waste. But sufficient recovery had been made by the 18th century for comprehensive rebuilding to be undertaken, and the present name Neues Kloster (“new monastery”) refers to the Baroque reconstruction from 1752.

The main attraction of the monastery is the magnificently light-flooded Rococo library hall (Bibliothekssaal) in the center projection of the North Wing. The locked bookcases are arranged in two stories. The ornamentation is among the richest of the 18th century in the German-speaking world. The ceiling fresco completed by Franz Georg Hermann shows in bewildering detail the workings of divine wisdom.

Library of the Week: Amelia S. Givin Free Library, Mount Holly Springs, Pennsylvania

I’m in the mood for a cozy reading room this week. Let’s find a chair by one of the windows and settle in with a novel. Our library of the week is an architectural jewel.

One of the finest examples of the Richardsonian Romanesque architecture is the Amelia S. Givin Free Library in Mt. Holly Springs, Pennsylvania. The architect was James T. Steen from Pittsburgh; he was a prominent architect who also designed the old Western Pennsylvania University (now University of Pittsburgh). The original building was built in 1889 of brown limestone quarried from nearby Hummelstown, Pennsylvania. The interior contains examples of Moorish fretwork woodwork done by Moses Ransom of Cleveland, Ohio.

In addition to the lovely woodwork, there is an intricately tiled fireplace, semicircular arched windows, and a circular reading room. The building has been expanded, adding greatly to the size available for the library's book collection. The library was added to the National Register of Historic Places on August 11, 2004.

Library of the Week: The Library of Congress, Washington, DC, USA

The Library of Congress (LOC) is the largest library in the world in terms of number of books and shelf space. It comprises three building—the Thomas Jefferson Building (1897), the main building of the library; the John Adams Building (1939), which contains 180 miles (290 km) of shelving (compared to 104 miles [167 km] in the Jefferson Building) and can hold ten million volumes; and the James Madison Building (1980), the third largest building in D.C. (2,100,000 square feet), which houses the Mary Pickford Theater, the Law Library of Congress, and the United States Copyright Office. The LOC is the research library for the United States Congress and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States.

The LOC’s own website has complete information about its history. Today I’d like to feature some photos of the beautiful Jefferson Building. It is known for its elaborately decorated interior. Throughout the building is a compendium of the work of classically trained American sculptors and painters of the "American Renaissance."

Here is the famous Reading Room:

Ravenclaws might enjoy the murals depicting women in science. This photo is a composite of the paintings in various locations. The sciences the murals show are the following:

Top: Chemistry, Zoology, Astronomy, Geology
Bottom: Botany, Physics, Mathematics, Archaeology

And did you hear the recent story of the Cooper's hawk in the Library of Congress? The LOC blog tells about it here, and describes her rescue.

Library of the Week: Seattle Central Library, Seattle, Washington

Hat, hat, hat! I’m inspired this week by the amazing Ravenclaw hat challengers for Quidditch. Well done, everyone! So I thought I’d feature a library that inspired a hat pattern.

The fabulous Koohaas hat by one of my favorite designers, Jared Flood, is a tribute to Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas’s design for the Seattle Central Library.

Seattle’s Central Library was completed in 2004 and designed by Koolhaas of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture. The building’s bold, dramatic, cantilevered form is, according to the catalogue, “wrapped in a mesh skin of diamond-shaped panes of glass (much like a fishnet stocking) set into a matching steel grid that operates as both a transparent curtain wall and part of the structural systems. As Herbert Muschamp described, ‘the interior's overhanging platforms have been draped with a metal and glass building skin, as if it were a piece of cloth. Hence the exterior folds.’ ”

Although the library is an unusual shape from the outside, the architects' philosophy was to let the building's required functions dictate what it should look like, rather than imposing a structure and making the functions conform to that.

For example, a major section of the building is the “book spiral,” designed to display the library's nonfiction collection without breaking up the Dewey decimal classification system onto different floors or sections. The collection spirals up through four stories on a continuous series of shelves. This allows patrons to peruse the entire collection without using stairs or traveling to a different part of the building.

Other internal features include: the Microsoft Auditorium on the ground floor, the "Living Room" on the third floor (designed as a space for patrons to read), the Charles Simonyi Mixing Chamber (a version of a reference desk that provides interdisciplinary staff help for patrons with questions answered or doing research), and the Betty Jane Narver Reading Room on level 10 (with views of Elliott Bay).

Like any public building, there are lovers of the design and critics. I’d love to hear comments from those of you who have visited the Seattle Central Library. And I plan to add Koolhaas to my queue.

Library of the Week: The International Library of Children's Literature

AndoThe International Library of Children's Literature (ILCL), located in the Ueno Park, Tokyo, was established in January 2000 and started its services in May of the same year, using a renovated one-third of the former Imperial Library building. The full opening of the expanded space was in May 2002.

The main building, designated as a historic building by the Tokyo metropolitan government, was constructed in 1906 and expanded in 1929. In architect Tadao Ando’s design and structure of the library’s new addition, the architectural heritage of the interior and exterior was preserved as much as possible. The steel frame, reinforced concrete, and glass extention by Tadao Ando added approximately 5,433 square meters to the older brick building.


The ILCL is the first national library of its kind in Japan. It has three roles--a special library for children’s literature, a place for children to get close to books, and a museum of children’s books. The ILCL supports the activities of local libraries, provides direct services for children, and is a national center supporting research and study on children’s literature. The ILCL work is guided by the principle, “Children’s books link the world and open up the future.”

To see an example from the digital library, this link will take you to ten pages of "Momotaro" (The Peach Boy), a well-known Japanese nursery tale. Click on the little arrow to start.

Library of the Week: Maughan Library, Kings College London

The Maughan Library is in a 19th-century Gothic building located on Chancery Lane in the city of London. It was formerly home to the Public Record Office, the so-called “strong-box of the empire,” and is now the main library of King's College London, forming part of its Strand Campus. It was designed by Sir James Pennethorne and built between 1851 and 1858. Inside the library is the octagonal Round Reading Room, inspired by the reading room of the British Museum.

The Maughan Library has been housed in this particular building only since 2001. Even though the library collections cover a wide range of time periods (Special Collections, for example, has items from the 15th century), the library is a modern operating institution. The old building offers over 330 computer terminals for patron use, and the 1000+ patron seats available in the library include group working spaces.

Library of the Week: Wren Library, Trinity College, University of Cambridge, England

Sir Christopher Wren designed the Wren Library at Trinity College, Cambridge University, and it was completed in 1695 under the Mastership of Isaac Barrow, a friend of Wren’s. A local master mason, Robert Grumbold, supervised the building work and chose exterior stone with a pinkish tinge that catches the evening sun quite beautifully.

The library has exquisite classical proportions and maximizes space and light by having bookcases below window level. On the first floor are a series of marble busts of college alumni, including Sir Isaac Newton and Francis Bacon. At the far end of the library is a statue of Lord Byron by Thorvaldsen. This was originally intended for Poet's Corner in Westminster Abbey but was refused; Trinity was glad to accept it.

Some of the College's most notable manuscripts are displayed in the Wren Library, including an eighth-century copy of the Epistles of St Paul, John Milton's shorter poems in his own handwriting, and the original manuscript of Winnie-the-Pooh. A modern library and reading room are not open to visitors.

LOTW

Hello Claws and fellow Library lovers! I am only slightly late this week. Thanks for understanding, I was away all weekend and then you always need to recover from those vacations!! So here we are at the Folger Shakespeare Library! Enjoy!



Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington D.C., USA

"Home to the world’s largest and finest collection of Shakespeare materials and to major collections of other rare Renaissance books, manuscripts, and works of art, the Folger serves a wide audience of researchers, visitors, teachers, students, families, and theater- and concert-goers."

More information can be found here.

LOTW

Hello Library Lovers! It's time for another dose of Lucius Libraries!

This week's library is the Duke of Humphrey’s Library, Bodleian, Oxford University, England. I'm having trouble finding out too much information on this one, but as I like to leave you with a little something, I did find this website http://catholicoxford.blogspot.com/2006/06/duke-humphreys-library-and-bodleian.html. Which tells us "In 1444, it was decided to put a second storey on the Divinity School to accommodate a gift of books from Duke Humphrey of Gloucester.[1] The new floor was finished in 1470.

Through the passage at the east end of the school, we get into the Schools Quadrangle of the Bodleian Library. This great collection, which now contains five hundred thousand books and forty thousand manuscripts, was added to the existing library of Duke Humphrey by Sir Thomas Bodley[2] in 1602. There are extensive vaults beneath the build­ing, and an annexe was recently opened on the other side of Broad Street. Since 1610, the Bodleian has enjoyed the right of receiving a copy of every book published in the kingdom. (From Goulder, Pilgrimage Pamphlets: Oxford & Cambridge, 1963)"

This information does coincide with other writings I have found on the inernet, there just doesn't seem to be a whole lot written.

But without further ado...


Duke of Humphrey’s Library, Bodleian, Oxford University, England.

LOTW

Hello 'Claws and library enthusiasts! I missed Monday. Sorry about that. I am not even sure where it went. That will teach me to play with my time turner...

Without further ado...


Vatican Library, Vatican City, Rome

"The Biblioteca Apostolico Vaticana, or Vatican Library is one of the world's oldest archives of books and contains numerous important texts, with 1.1 million books and 75,000 manuscripts. These include the oldest known Bible in existence, the Codex Vaticanus, four very early copies of Virgil (from the fourth century AD), the first and second letters of St Peter on papyrus scrolls, letters from Michelangelo grumpily demanding payment for his work on the Vatican, letters between Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn: the historical scope and diversity is immense, and today the library is a valuable resource for researchers."

More information Here.

"Vatican Library in Rome, founded in the 4th cent. but dormant until given new life in the 15th cent. by Pope Nicholas V. It is the oldest public library in Europe and one of the chief libraries of the world."

More information Here.

LOTW

I went on hiatus there for a little while. Sorry about that 'Claws. Let's get a sparkly new library for the week up, shall we?



Here we have The Grolier Club Library, NY, NY, USA.

The object of the Grolier Club (to quote from its Constitution) is "to foster the study, collecting, and appreciation of books and works on paper, their art, history, production, and commerce. It shall pursue this mission through the maintenance of a library devoted to all aspects of the book and graphic arts and especially bibliography; through the occasional publication of books designed to illustrate, promote and encourage the book and graphic arts; through exhibitions and educational programs for its members and the general public; and through the maintenance of a Club building for the safekeeping of its property, and otherwise suitable for the purposes of the Club."

More information can be found here.

LOTW

I keep forgetting Monday's exist! And You... Yes you! You didn't poke me to remind me I forgot to post the library.... okay I'm just kidding. I wouldn't blame someone else for my mishap. Bad Prefect... no butterbeer!

But without further ado... this weeks library.

The George Peabody Library is truly love. You can read all about it's history here. A small excerpt says...

Reflecting the scholarly interests of the nineteenth century, the library consists of a general reference collection on virtually every subject but music. The library contains more than 300,000 titles most of which date from the eighteenth to the early twentieth centuries. Notable strengths in the collection are archaeology, British art and architecture, British and American history, biography, English and American literature, Romance languages and literature, Greek and Latin classics, history of science, geography, and exploration and travel including a large map collection.

George Peabody Library, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

LOTW

Another quickie this week! Also, sorry it's late. I was away on Monday. :)

For your viewing pleasure!!!



The Real Gabinete Portugues De Leitura Rio De Janeiro, Brazil!!

Library of the Week!

Hmm I missed Monday this week. Someone hit me with a remebrall the next time I am late okay!?

This weeks library is from a personal home library. I just loved the little corner of desk showing and then archways filled with books. It sort of reminds me of what the HoH's office might look like. :)