As you may know, Banned Books Week just ended.
The week got me thinking about libraries — in particular, my hometown library in Glens Falls, New York.
When I was in middle school, my best friend Emily and I would end the school day, hop on our bikes, and ride to Crandall Library downtown. For me, the library wasn’t just a place to read books, whether they’d ever been banned or not. For me, the library meant independence.
Charming, isn’t it? We’d just ride there by ourselves, do our homework, and do research for upcoming projects. The infamous “bee debate” comes to mind, in which we had to argue for (or against?) the right to keep bees within the city limits. (Small town, remember.) I don’t remember what side we were on, but I DO remember that we won :)
Anyway, this was the room you encountered when you arrived.
We’d veer off to the right, where the card catalogs were (when’s the last time you said THAT?), and where important, grown-up research was conducted. When I was in elementary school, I spent hours in the children’s room on the second floor.
While the institution was founded in 1892 by local hero Henry Crandall, the building you see above was built in 1931. Then in 2009, Crandall Library added a large, modern wing, designed by Ann Beha Architects.
While I don’t always love contemporary additions on traditional buildings, I think this one is hugely successful. Glens Falls has so much cool Victorian architecture — including Victorian Italianate and Queen Anne — that I think it would have been silly to try for a historic look.
Anyway. This little trip down memory lane brought to you by Banned Books Week, whose tagline is, appropriately, Celebrating the Freedom to Read. The freedom to read and, in my case, the freedom to ride your bike downtown with a friend, lose yourself in the quiet of the library for a few hours, and get home just in time for dinner.
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