Introduction

The Meyera Oberndorf Central Library located at 4100 Virginia Beach Blvd., in the Town Center/Pembroke area of Virginia Beach, VA is the main library of the VB system. Named after the former mayor of Virginia Beach and built in 1988 as the Central Library, it was rededicated in honor of Mayor Oberndorf in 2009 as a tribute to the time and effort she gave to the city.

Digital Access

The library’s website https://www.vbgov.com/government/departments/libraries/Pages/home.aspx

 and digital access are incredibly comprehensive with most of their services being available online and connections to VBgov.com are available to locate other areas of the Virginia Beach government. The site is easy to navigate with links to materials (books, ebooks, audio books), programs/outreach for kids, teens, and adults, and services offered are clearly marked. Interestingly there is even a place to earn a high school diploma with the Career Online High School program.  Special collections are particularly interesting with hundreds of titles online to peruse in full. This particular library doesn’t have accommodations for the visually impaired but does have information about the Bayside branch that houses those materials.  This is definitely a strong website with access for nearly everything the system offers.

The Space & Physical Access

The library is a large two story open space with an ample amount of natural light coming in from high windows. New titles and audio books are prominently displayed to one side as you enter the library and a variety of casual seating and booth style workspaces occupy the right past the check out stalls manned by librarians. As you go further into the space on the first floor  the general collection lay to either side with nonfiction on the left and fiction on the right. All shelves are canted at an angle which makes the space feel even larger than it actually is. There are a variety of spaces in the library reserved for study groups, tax preparation and meetings.  A library store where patrons can purchase donated used books to help fund the library is lit up by a fun, bright neon sign.  Other spaces on the first floor include a children’s room reserved for picture books and dressed in bright primary colors, a young adult section which houses the YA collection and several computers, comfortable chairs and booth-style seating, and the special collections/archives. There is a loft second floor that is home to the Local History and Virginia Genealogy resource. In addition to the collections in this area are a public computer lab and carrels for the public to access. The outside of the building is a modern, contemporary style with large parking areas and a bookmobile featured prominently in front near the road.

Services & Intellectual Access

One of the first things you notice upon entering is the signage.  Everything is clearly labeled and lit up.  There are standing and sitting stations for accessing the catalog complete with note paper and writing utensils available for jotting call numbers and sections. The fiction section is clearly marked in alphabetical order and the nonfiction section uses the Dewey Decimal system but is not only marked with the number but has contents labeled above each shelf in a lit up sign all of which make locating materials a breeze. Other services such as notary, technology checkout, games checkout, and a seed library are all available here. The library also offers tax help for patrons and storytimes for children but interestingly there is no literacy program for adults in need. I had a lengthy conversation with one of the librarians who is working to help an elderly low income patron secure a literacy coach for reading; this is truly the only disappointment on my visit.

People – Patrons & Staff

This is a fairly large and busy public space with patrons engaging in a variety of activities from tutoring to working at stations to browsing. Everyone appears to be welcome with all areas of the library being put to use by at least one patron on the afternoon I visited. The staff was wonderful, helpful, and diverse, no stereotypes here!!  Purple haired, tattooed librarians welcome!!! A rather refreshing change.

Collections

The collections are fairly standard for a public library space: popular fiction, a wide variety of nonfiction, kids, teens 6th-12th grade, special collections that include local history and genealogy, a vast array of audio books, video collections, take home tech, and of course, the seed library! 

I feel like there is so much more to this library than I realized or bothered to explore that I actually feel a little embarrassed by my lack of knowledge.  I’m also a little overwhelmed by the amazing number of services and programs this library provides to the public, so many that it was tough to describe them all.  I did note however that not only is the space handicap accessible but they even offer motorized scooters for patrons with disabilities, rather like the ones you would see at a grocery store.