L is for Library #AtoZChallenge

Join me on the A to Z Challenge: I'll share a different thing from my new home, Cincinnati, every day for 26 days in April.

If I had to pick one thing I love more in Cincinnati than anywhere else on earth, this is it: the local library. And happiest of happenstances, this letter has come up during National Library Week.

I had thought I had read somewhere that the Cincinnati-Hamilton County Library has 42 branches, which obviously is the correct number for a library to have, but when I double-checked this morning I only saw 41 on the list. Bummer.

How do I love the Cincinnati Library? Let me count the ways:

1. It's connected to the OhioLink system, which means I can borrow a book from any municipal or university library in Ohio (participating libraries, that is). 
2. The librarians are incredible. I mean, all librarians are superheroes, but these are superheros who are able and willing to chat about everything. Seriously, there's nothing these folks don't know.
3. The Main Library is the busiest library branch in North America.
4. ... and The Public, a movie that deals with (among other things) homelessness and mental illness, just finished filming there a couple months ago. I may even go see that one in the theater.
5. Books auto-renew on the first due date.
6. Their social media team is first-rate. Want to follow some amazing bookish folks? Find them on Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, and Instagram. Especially their Pinterest. Holy smokes, that Pinterest page. Don't miss it.

The Main Library downtown:

It's not a great pic on the lower right (the library, and thus
this garden, was already closed for the day when I arrived),
but that's one of the local pig statues, pulling a cart of books.

It is a magnificent place, and among its many wonders is a delightful Friends of the Library store. The New York Public Library gift shop may have gotten more of my awe, but the Cincinnati Library shop is much dearer to my heart.

My own branch library:

is the Corryville branch, which just celebrated its 100th birthday earlier this month. It's a Carnegie Library, just like the original library in my hometown, but unlike that one it's still in active use as a library. I love it so very much, for all that I tend to swoop in, drop off read books, pick up on-hold books, and race out again.

Also at the Corryville library, there's this:

Some of the many, many "Libraries are for all" signs in
bunches of languages all around the library.

 and this:

and I definitely wasn't moved to tears at the sight of either of those things when I saw them at my library. Nope. Definitely not me. Must have been some other person who cries over every freaking thing. (Obviously, me being moved to tears would be a bigger deal if it didn't happen approximately 4158 times per day.)

Come visit me. We'll go to the library. (Yes, I may take you other places after you've seen all the book places in town, but only if you're appropriately enthusiastic about all the books.)