Category: 
Salt Lake City Pl. let this Northern star be a guide
Coming towards Salt Lake, we are a bit disappointed at first. After a drive through beautiful scenery we see enormous smog hanging over downtown Salt Lake. We expected a clean, healthy town, but as Andrew our tour guide explains, it is because of the mountains that hold the air. A light breeze and it’s gone. The disappointment had already made way for amazing and admiration. Wow what architecture. The sun on all those windows. All that light. The vision of transparence is proven to be such a success. This is how libraries should be. Even the elevators are all glass. There are but few things kept behind closed doors. You can see that the patrons love it. It is their library, their bookshelves, their computers, their music, their magazines. So why should not they get a good look at their stuff. When the people in the library, both staff and visitors, take pride in the library there is room to grow. To really become something special. We have to work on that pride and go around tell it to anyone who wants to listen. We have the best job in the world. It may be easier to realize that when you are standing in a garden on top of a beautiful building, but it is true and let that building be an example. Let’s share ideas. I mean a department of independent magazines, mostly privately made by patrons and in 1 copy, donated to the library. Hundreds of them in all color and shape. This is Shanachie style to the limit. We love it. But there is much more. Everywhere there are surprises in the building. Hidden quotations, little rooms in the youth department, where kids find refuge to read quietly or Game online. Art exhibitions with original drawings of the Simpsons. A coffee corner. It does not stop. Another great thing was the cooperation with the shops in the building. They even have a library bookstore and a place where people can go if they want help in their writing. A sort of writing class that can help to get people’s writings published. I hope our video may inspire librarians to make the trip to Salt Lake. You have to see it for yourself. The library without walls is getting close here. No censorship, open on Sundays and that in the Mormon capital of the world. We have to leave. Head south for that devil’s pit Las Vegas, but not before we inhale some fresh air in Bryce.
You can also view & download the Quicktime Version below.
