{"id":35341,"date":"2026-06-12T08:06:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T13:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/?p=35341"},"modified":"2026-06-12T08:06:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T13:06:09","slug":"libraries-little-convention-centers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/2026\/06\/12\/libraries-little-convention-centers\/","title":{"rendered":"Libraries: Little Convention Centers?"},"content":{"rendered":"

When we first moved to southwest Missouri, the branch library in the next town over was in a storefront just over from the Walmart. They were building a new branch, and it opened not long after we settled. I took my young boys to several story time activities there, and it was our home branch for a couple of years before their schooling and other activities took us into Springfield every day. Fifteen years on, the library system decided the town needed a new branch, so they built a new one to replace the still newish (fifteen years old for a library? C’mon, man, like a church building, that’s a pup that has not yet developed character–not that either is built with character any more). Whilst it was being built, I applied for a part-time job as a shelver at that branch, thinking maybe librarian might make a good second career choice for me–probably not, given what modern librarianing is<\/a>. I was actually called in for an interview, but I demurred–a friend’s daughter also applied for the position, and I didn’t want to take it from her.<\/p>\n

So after the grand opening of the new building, my beautiful wife had an (overdue) book to return, so we stopped by the new building which features an auditorium, a computer lab, meeting rooms, and…. One room with books, a small set of shelves which looked like it had fewer books than the previous small branch had.<\/p>\n

Last week, as part of the Summer Reading Program<\/a>, one of the activities was to go to a different branch of the library. I don’t know whether to count the small town (but growing rapidly town, he added to keep the Chamber of Commerce people happy) or the Springfield-Greene County mothership branch as my home branch–I generally choose the mothership as my “home branch” when I fill out the Winter Reading Challenge forms, but over the last couple of years, I’ve only gone into the library to either pick up or return a reading challenge form.<\/p>\n

Our travels took us through the middle part of the city (as we went to ABC Books and a street mural, another activity for the summer reading challenge), and we stopped by the Midtown Carnegie Branch. Ah, Carnegie. So you know what you’re in for: An older branch with character. We visited this branch in the summer of 2017, when the boys and I visited all<\/em> the library branches as part of our own summer challenge (including far-flung branches in the northern part of the county in Ash Grove and Fair Grove, which is in a room at the fire station). This branch has also had an expansion, a modern graft onto the brick and mortar front of the building. When we entered from the rear, we had options to go up or to go down, and I said to the employee\/volunteer (?) at the desk inside the door that I wanted to go up to the books, and I went up to find…. Again, fewer books than previously<\/em>. I went to the philosophy section which was a single shelf, about 20 inches of books<\/em>–in my previous visit, I picked up Daniel Klein’s Every Time I Find The Meaning Of Life, They Change It<\/a><\/em> (which I just listened to as an audio book in December<\/a>, so you might have recognized the title). The section was mostly pop-philosophy (not that the Klein was any different), but the total stacks, again, were, what, 12 or 20 sets of shelves? Not a hella lot for a middle-of-the-city branch, and not a lot of primary sources in the mix (I think I’ve written a screed on this before, but I couldn’t find it quickly).<\/p>\n

Ah, general reader. I am not a library scientist<\/em>, but my understanding of history is that, back in the olden days of centuries past, when books became more available, people put together private groups that would trade books amongst them, or private lending libraries made them available, or you could subscribe to lending libraries for cash, and public libraries were designed to democratize access to books for the public.<\/p>\n

Ah, but nobody reads now–not many people–and libraries seem to have cast around for new missions to keep, you know, their employees employed. Which is now budget-intensive things like computer labs, maker spaces, and larger and larger meeting rooms and auditoriums (as well as training programs and, let’s be honest, a capex hit on providing me with mugs I rarely use). I should note here that the mothership branch has a decent set of stacks, but it, too, recently underwent an expansion. Not for more room for books, of course, but rather a larger auditorium for programs and, I suppose, to let.<\/p>\n

Which is why I draw the comparison to convention centers<\/em>, at least in terms of the need to refresh (technology, at least) every couple of years. To keep up with modern needs. Which, I reiterate, does not seem to be books.<\/p>\n

Is the public library really, really<\/em> necessary in the 21st century if it is not there to have stately buildings, safe spaces, and books<\/em>?<\/p>\n

You know, I am a fan of privately run community libraries who, run by volunteers and stocked by donations, made books available to the public. However, the ones that I have supported over the years have become public<\/em> libraries–eager for the certainty of funding and access to, well, funding. I haven’t been to them lately, but I wonder if they have fewer books now that they’re public libraries? To be honest, I think that the Community Library in High Ridge, which I frequented when I was in high school, might have had stacks on par with the branches I visited this month.<\/p>\n

So perhaps librarian<\/em> is not the new career I am looking for. Maybe Library Board would be a better fit, where I could say, Are you serious?<\/em> and No<\/em> a lot. Which I’ve already trained for in a long career in software quality assurance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When we first moved to southwest Missouri, the branch library in the next town over was in a storefront just over from the Walmart. They were building a new branch, and it opened not long after we settled. I took my young boys to several story time activities there, and it was our home branch […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3334,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3334"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35341"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35343,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35341\/revisions\/35343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}