Go West…

As an outreach librarian for the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, I find myself in various neighborhoods throughout the city from week to week. In my year-end reflections, I’ve realized that through my job I’ve had the opportunity to discover new (to me) or otherwise unfrequented parts of this exquisite city of ours. Thanks to some programming I’ve been involved in over the past year, I’ve become much more familiar especially with two of our more western neighborhoods – The West End and Sheraden.

The West End branch of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh is one of our 19 locations which has had the benefit of a recent renovation. Now replete with a newly paved parking lot and elevator access, along with a very warm and comforting sitting area, this little branch is managed by colleague Mark Lee. It is a gem in the West End neighborhood both physically and with regard to the multitude of programming that goes on both in and outside of this sweet space, provided to visitors by a very excellent and welcoming staff.

The West End branch of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh

Those of you who only know the West End as that place at the end of the West End bridge as you leave Heinz Field, would be surprised to know of all the library activity that goes on in that neighborhood. Beyond the branch at the corner of Neptune and Wabash are also the offices of the Allegheny County Library Association. Here, county librarians and library advocates work to promote library services around the county. In addition, just next door to the West End branch is the Library Support Center, which houses some great library workers who are responsible for everything from cataloging and labeling the many items that you see on our shelves, to the shipping department responsible for getting those materials out to the city and county libraries.

Here, too, resides the wonderful sorting machine, the staff who attend the machine, and van delivery staff (10 drivers, 1 manager and 8 vans!) – all of which make it possible for your requests to go from one library in the county to another in the matter of just a few days. These special workers are akin to Santa’s elves for the magic they perform in sorting and delivering to your local library that bestseller, DVD or much needed item for your child’s school project. (In 2013 alone, 4,099,800  library items were moved among the 74 libraries served by the shipping center).

A portion of the magical sorting machine which sorts hundreds of thousands of items a month!

Just beyond the West End, over a hill or two and around a couple of bends (through the hamlet of Elliott – which requires some further research on my part), one eventually gets to the neighborhood of Sheraden not even 2 miles from the West End. Here, the Sheraden Carnegie Library branch (headed by Ian Eberhardt, whom you may have seen on your TV as of late) shares a building and hallway with the Sheraden senior center, tucked away on Sherwood Avenue. Although one of our smaller branches, this location lacks for nothing in terms of programming, and has an extremely welcoming and helpful staff too!

For those of you who aren’t familiar with this neighborhood, it is home to what I believe to be one of the most beautiful school buildings in the city of Pittsburgh, Langley K-8. Named for the same Langley of Langley Air Force base fame – Samuel Langley, a 19^th c.  Western University of Pennsylvania (University of Pittsburgh) astronomy professor. The school sits high atop a hill in Sheraden, but be careful not to attempt to gaze at this school as you’re making your way through the busy intersection that sits just below, as I have a tendency to do when I’m out that way.

Photo courtesy of wikipedia.org

Both of these western neighborhoods, and more specifically, the senior centers that reside nearby to the neighborhood branches welcomed me for some exciting technology programming recently. I’m grateful to the centers, their directors and the fact that these programs opened up new doors and vistas in my daily work. I’m looking to discovering more of our many neighborhoods in the coming year(s) of my outreach and hope to share some more with you in 2015.

Happy New Year!

-Maria J.

Welcome Back!

tvguide.com (CLICK HERE)

This past Monday the displaced West End staff was called back to our library to begin the process of re-opening. Originally I was going to mention this fact mainly as a way to introduce the topics of  spring cleaning and renovations, and to highlight all of the amazing things you can do now that the weather is starting to cooperate. However having spent the last week with my old co-workers, kneeling on dusty floors, opening boxes of books with screwdrivers and realizing we can only find boxes 6,7,10,15,20, and 23 of non-fiction I decided I wanted to make this post about something else.

Family.

It isn’t often you find yourself working with people that you would actually be friends with outside of the office but at CLP – West End that is exactly what we have. Walking into our awesome new building on Monday didn’t feel like walking into work. It felt like coming home. Remember the first day of school? When you ignored all the work that laid ahead and focused on the familiar  smell of the lunch room and the sounds of laughter that filled the halls…. you weren’t worried about your classes or your teachers. In that moment all you cared about was reconnecting with old buddies, sharing your summer stories and feeling like you belonged. That was our Monday. As this week has come to a close we have opened PLENTY of boxes, we have cleaned and shelved with the best of them; but we have also gossiped about our lives, made jokes and had a great time. And the dork in me can’t help but think this is what Harry had to have felt every year when he got on the train to Hogwarts.

A work in progress.

We are still working hard and we will be for the next few weeks. You would be amazed at how difficult it is to get the entire collection back on the shelves. Every day we get a little bit closer and we know we will soon get to see all our patrons and friends from the neighborhood.  Our official celebration is scheduled for Saturday, May 17 from 10 am to 2 p.m. We will have activities for all ages, our awesome librarians will be around to talk about the upcoming programing and, of course, there will be cake. So stop by and check us out; we’re all family here.

 

-Natalie

 

We Are Family

In Pittsburgh, we are truly family. When members of a family lose one of their own, they grieve. When they lose several, they hurt, more deeply than can be imagined.

For the moment, let’s put aside money and politics and contention and think about loss and what it means in our lives. Let us feel loss. The loss for our neighbors. The loss for our friends. The loss for our colleagues.

The loss for our community.

Hazelwood, Beechview, West End, Lawrenceville, and Carrick and Knoxville.

As it stands now, the first four of these branches of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh will close and the next two will combine into a new, yet to-be-built facility.

Many of us associated with the library, customers, staff and friends, are going through the various stages of loss that are so well known to all. Right now, we are in the very early stages.

Among poets, Emily Dickinson is, perhaps, the master of loss. Here is her evocative rendition of what we, as a community of neighbors, friends, and colleagues, are experiencing right now:

After great pain a formal feeling comes –
The Nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs –
The stiff Heart questions–was it He, that bore,
And Yesterday, or Centuries before?

The Feet, mechanical, go round –
Of Ground, or Air, or Ought –
A Wooden way
Regardless grown,
A Quartz contentment, like a stone –

This is the Hour of Lead –
Remembered, if outlived,
As Freezing persons recollect the Snow –
First – Chill – then Stupor – then the letting go –

– Don