New library branch in the Strip more like a twig
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David Yake of Polish Hill, a teen librarian in Bridgeville and a volunteer for the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh's experimental micro-branch in the Strip District, helps John Stuparitz from East Liberty.
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It's the size of some New York City apartments and smells like chocolate and lavender, but there was no mistaking that what bloomed near the entrance of the Public Market in the Strip District Friday morning was a library.
A shoebox branch, this experiment in outreach is the Carnegie Library system's first effort to bring a presence to the people where they gather. The initiative -- called "the library in your community neighborhood and school," or LYNCS -- is a partnership between the library system and the University of Pittsburgh.
Sarah Loudenslager, a master's student in library information sciences at Pitt, is a project manager at the micro-branch and was part of a team that spent February snagging Public Market shoppers to ask them what it should offer.
Besides its tiny browsing collection, it offers pretty much what any branch location offers. Whatever book you can't find you can reserve at this location for delivery to your local branch. You can apply for a library card and use the library's data base and the Internet.
You can even sit at a little table and read -- but here you can read while munching on slices of smoked duck, a Greek salad or pulled pork sandwich.
Molly Krichten, the LYNCS coordinator, said she relished the location "in the best smelling part of the market."
Flanked by a Sustenance Bakery and Third-Day Luxury Soaps, the market library is just inside the entrance on the right. It got pretty crowded at one point before noon yesterday, when Paula Taggart's almost-3-year-old Mary was doing laps around a display of craft books.
Ms. Taggart said that while some library branches have limited weekend hours, this one's Friday-Sunday schedule fills "a great need." The hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday; 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday.
First Published April 16, 2011 12:00 am
