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One Way to Take Care of Business
The long-awaited Silver Lake Branch Library is finally open. With hundreds packing it in at the grand opening ceremony this morning, the library soon cleared out leaving room for families in the kids corner, internet surfers, locals looking for books and at least one guy blogging on LAist (yes, there is WiFi here and outlets for laptop power).
Built to the environmentally-friendly gold LEED standards, native plants line the building, solar power dot the roof, showers and a changing room for cycling-inclined employees is found behind closed doors, among many other aspects.
Throughout the building, quotes from Silver Lake residents and others who influenced the neighborhood culture in some way can be found. Councilman Eric Garcetti says it's worth a trip to explore all the nooks and crannies, finding quotes all over. Woody Guthrie can be found in the kids section, Beck in teens, the Red Hot Chile Peppers above checkout and Marilyn Monroe in the community room.
Add to that a first-of-its-kind for Los Angeles, an automated book return conveyor belt that scans and sorts the books. It's a pilot project to see if such technology actually saves time and resources (below is a video of that machine in action).
The library sits at the corner of Glendale and Silver Lake boulevards. Open every day except Sunday, the library opens at different times. 10 a.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays and noon on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It closes at 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday with a 6 p.m. closure on Fridays and Saturdays.
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The library looks great and I'm all for having more of them.
However,considering that our state is broke and the that our city's infrastructure (i.e. roads,water mains,etc.) is a mess, I'm having trouble seeing the value in spending the taxpayer's dough on a book return conveyor belt. I mean seriously,who's wet dream was that? And how many books could have been bought instead?