For my public library visit, I chose the Central Library in Chesterfield County Public Library system.  The library is situated across from both a police station and the county government center.  It is not located in a walker friendly location and is mostly accessible by car. There is ample parking in front of the library with an additional side lot.  When entering the library, there is a reference/circulation desk and a table with a county magazine listing all of the summer programs at all of the different county branches.  Consistent with Rubin and Rubin (2020) more than half of the summer programs are aimed for children, families, and teens and provide opportunities for socialization (p. 109 & p. 111).  By the entrance, there is also a big sign listing the programs happening at this specific branch location.  As a public library, Central Library is designed to meet “the educational, informational, recreational, and cultural needs” of its community (Rubin & Rubin, p. 80).

Digital Access  https://library.chesterfield.gov/152/Central-Library 

The library’s web site is very easy to navigate and serves the entire county system.  On each page there is a search box for the catalog and a link to “Chesterbot” to get questions answered or talk to a librarian.  There are links for suggestions of activities for different age groups, research, different things to do, and how to use the library.  The library has a fairly robust array of streaming and downloading available including Libby for e-books, audio books and magazines, films on demand, just for kids access videos, and hoopla which includes a wide variety of electronic resources.  In terms of programming, the Chesterfield county public library system has several virtual opportunities as part of their summer programming.  The wi-fi is accessible from the parking lot and the library includes 12 computer workstations for patrons as well as two open catalog kiosks on either side of the information desk.

Space and Physical Access 

Central library is on a single floor and has a variety of cozy seating areas as well as desks with seats where people can work throughout the library.  While the library itself is not particularly large, it includes a number of reservable spaces: a business suite, a quiet work room, a large meeting space, community room, two small meeting rooms, two study rooms and a very large makerspace.  One of the large meeting rooms is also a special collections room: one side is the local history department library and the other side is a law library with a stage between the two collections with space for tables and/or chairs.  The library is handicap accessible, has several handicap parking spaces and the shelving throughout the library is no more than about 5 feet high and all shelves can easily be reached by someone in a wheelchair.  

Services and Collections

In addition to the special collections room, the library is segmented into sections by type of reading materials. For example, for adults, there is fiction, non-fiction, biography, and graphic novels.  The same collections are available for children and teens.  The non-fiction collections are organized by by Dewey Decimal while fiction and biography are organized alphabetically by author.

The library has several shelves where patrons pick up material they put on hold.  There is a DVD collection but there did not appear to be magazines or newspapers available.  Resources are open and available to anyone who enters the library, but to access the computers you need a library card. There do not appear to be Spanish language resources readily available but Chesterfield county public libraries has a world languages library and can have resources sent to the branch by request. I did not observe or find reference on-line to resources for the visually impaired.  Chesterfield county public libraries has a number of special collections including Civil War and World War I trunks, ukuleles, book club bags, hotspots, a financial literacy game trunk, and Virginia state parks backpack to name just a few.  This library still offers curbside pickup.  Another special feature of this library is an emphasis on homework help and individual research meetings with a librarian for students and other patrons.

In summary, this public library is well appointed to meet the educational, informational, recreational, and cultural needs of its community (Rubin & Rubin, p. 80).  In particular, Central Library has a future focus on the importance of place: physical spaces where people can interact with others, learn, engage with new ideas, and create (Rubin & Rubin, p. 119).

References

Chesterfield County Public Library (n.d.). Central library (digital image). https://library.chesterfield.gov/152/Central-Library

Rubin, R. E. & Rubin, R. G. (2020).  Foundations of library and information science (5th ed.). ALA Neal-Schuman.

Sharnoff, K. (2022). Computer work area (photograph). CC-0.

Sharnoff, K. (2022). Learning pod (photograph). CC-0.

Sharnoff, K. (2022). Local history and law collections (photograph). CC-0.

Sharnoff, K. (2022). Loud and clear magazine (photograph). CC-0.