4 ms·

I was in Boston last week on business, and I took a meeting at the Boston Public Library downtown in Copley. I had the exact same thought walking through that a

by wjossey 10y ago

I was in Boston last week on business, and I took a meeting at the Boston Public Library downtown in Copley. I had the exact same thought walking through that area on a Saturday morning. It was packed (although not quite to capacity). I casually observed what was on screens, and it was everything from Facebook, to games, to Wikipedia.

nck4222 10y ago
I suppose I haven't been to many large main branch libraries, but the BPL main branch is amazing to me. The building itself is incredible but the services they provide are top notch. It hosts great scheduled talks/discussions (for instance on Tuesday Neil Gaiman will be there for an on-stage interview). The quiet workspaces are great places to get work done, and something about the architecture/interior/history really helps keep one motivated while there. Maybe this is normal for every state but any resident of MA is eligible to get a library card. It's worth it for the digital rentals alone. They also host free tours of the building, which I haven't done yet but have been meaning to.
AznHisoka 10y ago
Used to remember when my public library would kick you out if you did anything that wasn't research-related. Now I see people playing Minecraft and browsing FB on library computers...
dredmorbius 10y ago
So long as we're showering love on libraries, the Boston Public Library was the first municipal public library in the United States, established in 1848. http://www.bpl.org/general/history.htm http://www.bpl.org/general/history.htm On a vaguely related note, in looking up information on production and copyright of books within the US a few months back, I dug through the history of the Library of Congress, and specifically the Librarian's annual report to Congress on the state and status of the library, dating to about 1860. It's quite the trip. The Library, Internet Archive, and Hathi Trust have most of the reports, in scanned PDFs. (Flying my library freak flag....)

by wjossey 10y ago

nck4222 10y ago

I suppose I haven't been to many large main branch libraries, but the BPL main branch is amazing to me. The building itself is incredible but the services they provide are top notch. It hosts great scheduled talks/discussions (for instance on Tuesday Neil Gaiman will be there for an on-stage interview). The quiet workspaces are great places to get work done, and something about the architecture/interior/history really helps keep one motivated while there. Maybe this is normal for every state but any resident of MA is eligible to get a library card. It's worth it for the digital rentals alone. They also host free tours of the building, which I haven't done yet but have been meaning to.

AznHisoka 10y ago

Used to remember when my public library would kick you out if you did anything that wasn't research-related. Now I see people playing Minecraft and browsing FB on library computers...

dredmorbius 10y ago

So long as we're showering love on libraries, the Boston Public Library was the first municipal public library in the United States, established in 1848. http://www.bpl.org/general/history.htm http://www.bpl.org/general/history.htm On a vaguely related note, in looking up information on production and copyright of books within the US a few months back, I dug through the history of the Library of Congress, and specifically the Librarian's annual report to Congress on the state and status of the library, dating to about 1860. It's quite the trip. The Library, Internet Archive, and Hathi Trust have most of the reports, in scanned PDFs. (Flying my library freak flag....)