LIBRARY REVIEW: East Branch

THE GRAND OPENING ON NOVEMBER 22, 2014

I have been a lover of libraries for many years now.  One of my favorite Disney moment was in Beauty and the Beast, when Beast shows Belle his private library and she exclaims, "I have never seen so many books in my entire life."  There is something wonderful being surrounded by shelves filled with books. I love being in a large room with other readers and you are all in this quite peaceful space. Everyone, head is in a book, in worlds of your own imaginations, but we are still sharing the joy of reading which floats in the air.  I have explored many of the libraries in the Milwaukee County system.  For this week blog I thought I review the re-opening of the East Side Library, which they now call the East Branch.  Or was it always called the East Branch?  I'm not sure if I just referred to it as the East Side location in the past.  They completely destroyed the old library and they rebuilt a new building and now there are condos on the upper floors of the library.

The new library has a very modern look about it and it has it's very own fireplace.  They have large windows that give a good view of North Avenue and Bean's & Barely, a local restaurant across the street.  They have a small room for  silent study.  There was a descant amount of people hanging out on the Saturday afternoon, when I decided to visit. There is a children area, which includes a dry erase board that they can draw on, which is pretty cute.  There is a conference space area, you will view this when first entering the library.  Ashley came here a different day and said they were holding a meeting in this location.

CHILDREN AREA

CONFERENCE SPACE

I would have thought the library would have been bigger.  Ashley, mentioned to me that she expected there to be more books.  And I agree there did not seem to be as many rows of book shelves as I would have hoped for.  They may have thought about making the library two floors giving more room for extra books and more desks for college students to work at.  However, I did notice they had laptops that you could check out and use inside the library, which is really nice.  Many of us have are own personal computers and other electronic devices, that we forget some people depend on the library to gain free access to computers and the Internet.  Overall, I did enjoy the time I spent reading in this library and hope to make it back there soon. 

READING BOSSYPANTS WHILE SITTING BY THE FIRE