Libraries are one of the most fascinating places to me because they are buildings full of written works that you can just view and utilize for free. As you all may know, I’m a huge fan of the concept of the distribution and preservation of knowledge. And libraries are sacred in a way, since they are free of capitalistic and political influence (supposedly cough cough). “Libraries literally aren’t just a place to obtain books for free. They’re one of the few public spaces left in our society where you’re allowed to exist without the expectation of spending money.” -@_Amanda_Killian on Twitter

Visiting new libraries is really fun because not only do you get to see the varying selections of books and materials available in different places, you also get a glimpse into so much more. The architecture of the building, what services they offer, how they shape the community, and other neat little bits and pieces that contribute to the library’s character. 

So today I decided to visit six public libraries around where I live to explore and review them. I think it’d be cool to shed some light on the local libraries and points of interest. As an extra fun bit, I brought along a friend and a newly bought Polaroid camera. At each library I took a picture of one cool little thing that we thought was interesting or worth capturing. I will note, the camera I used was a Poloroid Go, which along with the film it uses, is very tiny. That along with the fact that I have no experience with photography means that the photos taken are actually all super low quality and kinda bad. But that really adds to the authenticity and charm of instant cameras in my opinion. 

The first library we visited was the Bethel Park Public Library. We actually entered it through the back entrance, which had a little courtyard. Very cute. Library is quite spacious and there’s plenty of miscellaneous rooms for events and activities. The overall design of the library is more modern and the selection of books is quite plentiful. While perusing through shelves, we found a book titled “Recipes made with Love”. This was a small collection of recipes written by locals! Published in 2005 (I think? I actually forgot to note it down after getting a glimpse), it contains recipes from various women presumably who lived in this area including all sorts of delicious home cooked recipes ranging from full meals to deserts to all sorts of random edibles. 

The Poloroid picture I took for this library was of this little bird cage/diorama I randomly found on one of the shelves. It was. Neat! In addition to that, I also want to note that the PokéStop for this library in Pokémon Go is a picture of the front sign with a deer standing next to it at night with the camera flash reflecting off the deer’s eyes. As if the deer has target-locked onto you and was about to enter attack mode. While this is a hilarious photo for the PokéStop, scrolling through the list of past pictures for the PokéStop, we find this was actually the SECOND picture of a deer standing next to the front sign at night staring at the camera with glowing lights. I like to believe that deer just love coming here for some reason to stand next to the sign and there just happens to be enough Pokémon Go players to document this phenomenon for some reason. Unfortunately I forgot to screenshot this, but I will make another trip down there in the future to get some photos. Maybe I’ll run into the PokéStop deer myself and contribute to the next generation of pictures for the PokéStop. 

The next library we visited was the Castle Shannon Library. I will henceforth be dubbing this library as the Pizza Hut library. And you will soon know why. 

Are you seriously going to look at me with a straight face and tell me this didn’t used to be a Pizza Hut?? In all seriousness though, it probably wasn’t really a converted Pizza Hut. But I think it’s a lot funnier if we all just agreed it was. This library was a lot smaller than the Bethel Park one. The inside was essentially just one large room but the selection of books did cover most everything you could want. We toured the nonfiction section and found one of the labels on the shelves to be mislabeled (gasp!). It said fiction instead of nonfiction. Unfortunate mistake perhaps… or maybe a particular librarian had strong feelings about the books in that one section that made them print that label out as an act of rebellion. Who knows?

The next library on the list was the Mt Lebanon Public Library. This one was one of the best ones out of the ones we visited. It’s massive, has plenty of little quiet places for you to just sit, relax, and read, and the selection of content is amazing. They even lend out video games! I saw a copy of Elden Ring! God I wish I had a console to play it on (ya’ll need to stop scalping PS5s you sonsabitches). We spent quite a while at this library, just checking out random stuff. They had a manga and graphic novel section where we found a Korean Batman manga. Downstairs they had a bunch of books on sale and I found a copy of a book called “Three Bags Full” by Leonie Swann. It’s apparently a murder mystery story told from the perspective of goats trying to solve the murder of their shepherd. I was instantly sold and knew I needed to own this book. My friend ended up buying it for me since I didn’t have appropriate cash on me. 

The picture I took at this library was this funny little meme the librarians placed on the book return shelves, instructing people to let the professionals handle the reshelving. Sorry for the image quality, here’s a higher resolution picture I took with my phone: click here! (there’s also another sign in the back with a similar message)

The next destination was Scott Township Public Library. I will say, not that it’s a problem, but it seems like all the libraries in this area are named after just the general area where they are located. I suppose this is common practice, either named after the place or the famous old guy who the library is dedicated to, but how cool would it be to have a weirdly vague and odd library name like “Bombaduffelwrought Library” or something. Just a thought. 

This library was definitely the smallest. It consisted of just one large room, and most of the books were fiction books. It appears the library is mostly a children’s library. I will say, the selection of music CDs was sufficiently large and I did also see some Bollywood movies on the movie shelves. So that was funny. Since children’s books were the focus, we saw a lot of books that we were familiar with during our childhoods. Captain Underpants, Magic Treehouse, Goosebumps, A to Z mysteries, Series of Unfortunate Events, but surprisingly no Animorphs. Interestingly when discussing with my friend, she did not recall seeing many Animorphs on the shelves in the back of her middle school classrooms. But she was aware that this was a phenomenon seen in other schools. So I guess you can categorize people into those who had Animorphs growing up and those who haven’t. 

I took a photo of this “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” tapestry. I believe this was actually one of the very first books I recall reading when I first came to America. I swear as time goes on I will get better at taking photos. These all kinda suck.

The last library we visited (actually technically not last, we did visit one more. But I will not be discussing that one yet since it’s currently going under renovations and I would like to review it once it’s done) was the Bridgeville Public Library. This one was also technically just one large rectangular room, but it was waaaaay bigger. It has plenty of little reading desks and tables as well as this big fireplace sort of area at the very end filled with some activities material such as board games. I actually have visited this library before in the past and I recall finding a Calvin and Hobbes collection. It’s a cozy place to just read some comics. There’s something to be said about the simplicity of the place. This library is kinda just located directly in a neighborhood. It doesn’t feel disjointed or like it’s own thing like a lot of the other libraries we visited. So it was cool to see just other people’s homes nearby. 

Outside the library was an art piece. A bed made of books. The books were moldy because of the rain and elements. But I think the artist probably knew that. It’s just an art piece I guess.