If you haven't had a chance to venture to the new Central library, you can check out some gorgeous pictures at LoveItALot. Here's one of my favs:
If you've been to the Central branch, what are your thoughts?
2 comments:
Clarissa
said...
I recently went down to check out the new library and absolutely hated it! Even though the very modern design is cool it isn't functional for a place like Hamilton. Everything will get dirty very quickly ( I saw hand prints and smears all over the glass) and the glass walls are a neat idea but have a sad view of the street and crunbly buildings across the road. The layout was very confusing. I saw no order to how things were placed. The automatic check in was sort of hidden in the back corner and when you did find it, it looked like they forgot to factor it into the floor plan and had to stick it in some random spot. There was so much room for people to sit and work but the desks were and seating were low and I know I wouldn't want to spend even one hour doing homework hunched over at those tiny tables. That kind of seating is made more for a coffe shop where people sit and chat for twenty minutes and leave, I thought they were very impractical. Also I though the kids area was pretty cool. But why in the world did they decide to place a kids area on the first floor of a busy public building for some weirdo to come and take one of the kids? I also thought that the DVD / matiral pick up area was poorly planned. I realise that the point of the closed in area with the alarms was to prevent people from stealing DVDs but if someone wants to grab there holds then go up stairs and study or what not they will have to check out their items first before leaving the area or suffer the dirty looks and questions of the staff and guards. I know this sounds high maiteneced but if I am a regular at TerryBerry and I alwasy grab my holds before going upstairs to browse the teen section and having to check out some of my books then having to check out more later would get pretty annoying very quickly. I would have also made the holds / DVD area larger, since it was a super small space. The aisles were barely big enoguh for two adults to stand beside in. Also from the second I steped into the library I felt like I was in a prision that was trying not to be a prison. There were so many guards and alarm systems and library staff watching your everymove I couldn't wait to get out of there! To me a library should be a friendly place were you can stop and chat with the staff that you always see and lazily walk through all the shelves. But at Central I felt like I had to move quickly, keep my head down and not talk to anyone or I would be hauled off to a back room to never see the light of day again! I was also shocked to find out that the city did not intend to renovate the rest of the library to meet the same modern standards as the first floor. All in all I was pretty disappointed and as long as Terryberry's doors are open I will never never never go to Central again.
2 comments:
I recently went down to check out the new library and absolutely hated it! Even though the very modern design is cool it isn't functional for a place like Hamilton. Everything will get dirty very quickly ( I saw hand prints and smears all over the glass) and the glass walls are a neat idea but have a sad view of the street and crunbly buildings across the road. The layout was very confusing. I saw no order to how things were placed. The automatic check in was sort of hidden in the back corner and when you did find it, it looked like they forgot to factor it into the floor plan and had to stick it in some random spot.
There was so much room for people to sit and work but the desks were and seating were low and I know I wouldn't want to spend even one hour doing homework hunched over at those tiny tables. That kind of seating is made more for a coffe shop where people sit and chat for twenty minutes and leave, I thought they were very impractical.
Also I though the kids area was pretty cool. But why in the world did they decide to place a kids area on the first floor of a busy public building for some weirdo to come and take one of the kids?
I also thought that the DVD / matiral pick up area was poorly planned. I realise that the point of the closed in area with the alarms was to prevent people from stealing DVDs but if someone wants to grab there holds then go up stairs and study or what not they will have to check out their items first before leaving the area or suffer the dirty looks and questions of the staff and guards. I know this sounds high maiteneced but if I am a regular at TerryBerry and I alwasy grab my holds before going upstairs to browse the teen section and having to check out some of my books then having to check out more later would get pretty annoying very quickly. I would have also made the holds / DVD area larger, since it was a super small space. The aisles were barely big enoguh for two adults to stand beside in.
Also from the second I steped into the library I felt like I was in a prision that was trying not to be a prison. There were so many guards and alarm systems and library staff watching your everymove I couldn't wait to get out of there! To me a library should be a friendly place were you can stop and chat with the staff that you always see and lazily walk through all the shelves. But at Central I felt like I had to move quickly, keep my head down and not talk to anyone or I would be hauled off to a back room to never see the light of day again!
I was also shocked to find out that the city did not intend to renovate the rest of the library to meet the same modern standards as the first floor.
All in all I was pretty disappointed and as long as Terryberry's doors are open I will never never never go to Central again.
Thanks, Clarissa. I'll pass along your thoughts.
(to be fair, I think that the number of staff are there to be helpful, not menacing. I'm sorry you didn't feel that way)
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