Herriman Library, Utah

Herriman Library, Utah was a new public library in a new community. There was very interesting use of art works to tell the story of the area. It was a lovely, light library which was well used by the community.



Signage showing the children's area...



You could see the current energy use within the building.


You can look at more photographs of Herriman Library by following this link (and you can read the descriptions), or you can look at the slideshow below.

Novel destinations

This was a lovely summer reading promotion poster from Herriman Library in Utah. It really like the way the local canyons and buttes are made of books. The retro look works really well

J.Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City

You can look at some more photographs of the J.Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City in the slide show below.

Prescott Public Library, Prescott, Arizona

Prescott Public Library had an impressive range of artworks associated with it. There was a long mural behind the library which included fanciful elements like this dragon, as well as elements from the history of the area.



There was a strong local studies presence in the library as well, with the Kachina doll featuring.



You can see more photographs of the mural and the library in the slide show below

Brigham Young University Library, Provo, Utah

Brigham Young University Library, Provo, Utah has a recent extension to the library, it was mostly underground, but with the glass entrance to open up the space and to provide a light well. Other light wells to the extension were visible through the garden landscaping.



You can look at other pictures of this university library through the slide show below.

roving reference at Appaloosa and Mustang Libraries

Roving reference is about taking the service to the client, without expecting them to find a staff member to help them.  You go and find who needs assistance.  I have written about this before, but it is such an exciting area, more can always be said, and new possibilities and examples keep coming forward.  There are still a lot of libraries who are not using roving reference, or any similar idea, to help people in their libraries who would like a bit of assistance and who may not come and ask for help.

A new term I discovered recently was "shoulder to shoulder" reference service, because the client is next to the staff member. This is the term being used in Appaloosa Library, Arizona.  You are taking the client with you and the service points are designed for this.

There were several of these pods through the library to aid in the proactive delivery of roving reference. While seats are shown, I mostly saw staff standing with the client, after having been walking around looking for people who they could assist. This is a proactive model and it was very exciting to see it in operation.


This shows another view of the information pod.  Staff really were walking around and looking for people to help.  They were covering the entire library space.  It was not intrusive, and it looked like it was effective.

It was part of the service helping people find what they were looking for, before they were frustrated, or left.  The staff used positive body language as well as non-invasive questioning.

This service point below shows a slightly different style of desk in Mustang Library, Arizona.  The staff space was at the Info end, and public opac at the Search space.  This also was very effective for roving reference.


It really is about asking "are you finding what you are looking for?" or a similarly open type of question, and not expecting the client to come to you - you need to seek them out.

Burton Barr Central Library, Phoenix Public Library, Arizona

Burton Barr is the central library for the Phoenix Public Library. There are impressive views over down town Phoenix from the top floor of the library. The library sign on the street (shown in the top photograph) is a great way of finding this library. It was an impressive (and very eye catching) combination of sign and art work.
This photograph  (below) shows one of the eye catching signs from within the library.
You can look at other photographs of Burton Barr Library, below, or follow this link for the photographs with more information.

Coffee cups for a shop fit out

This photograph was taken in a pop up shop in Brisbane. The small shop sold kitchen wares and food related books. The major design features were lots and lots of paper coffee cups.  They were stacked up as shelves and clustered as sculptures hanging from the ceiling.

You can see some other photographs of this shop here...

#bookbites - my reading for September

This is the #bookbites tea cosy



My reading for this month included:

• Spider trap by Barry Maitland (always a pacy author)
• Bet me by Jennifer Crusie - featuring food as a way of connecting the main characters
• Seven ancient wonders and Six sacred stones both by Matthew Reilly, and both e-audio.  They are entertaining, pacy reads
• Hammered by Kevin Herne - think druid in modern Arizona taking on a Norse god
• The beer cook book by Mary Novak - what is not to like - how to include beer in your cooking from soups to fruitcakes (and yes the recipes are fun to make too)
• The story of England by Michael Wood - this follows Kibworth from the time of the Romans to the present and is based on very detailed archival records
• Fun Inc by Tom Chatfield is an excellent overview about the role of games and their potential in our lives
• Inside cyber warfare by Jeffrey Carr - the name says it all
• Dark Jenny by Alex Bledsoe - pacy, engaging and a disturbing read - kind of showing how far people will go to prove a point
• Ghost story by Jim Butcher - I knew it was a set up, and it shows the danger of not balancing the good of a wider group with the good of an individual (and I am not sure it was meant to be making this point)
• Baking with passion by Dan Lepard and Richard Whittington - I have not been able to try any of the recipes yet - but they are on my to do list
• Tess Mallos - The complete Middle East cook book - impressive
• Coraline by Neil Gailman - creepy, but very postive
• Ready player one by Ernest Kline - about a slightly future world with games and very strong 80s retro elements (it was a page turner - or should I say tapper as I read this, like some of the other titles listed, as an e-book)
• A new culture of learning : cultivating the imagination in a world of constant change by Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown - excellent
• Double back by Mark Abernathy - recent thriller set partly in East Timor around the time of the vote for independence

Grand County Public Library, Moab, Utah

This library was awarded the Best Small Library in America by Library Journal in 2007, and it is a lovely library.  The landscaping, shown below shows how the design fits within in the local environment. 




The entrance to the children's had 'read' posters featuring many locals, including national park workers (there are two national parks very close to Moab).



This shows just one of the comfortable seating areas in the library, and other outlook from it.



You can read about these and other photographs here, or you can look at the slide show below.