10
Jul
2010
Why My Library Is Cooler Than Your Library
UPDATE: Welcome everyone from ALA! I am honored to be mentioned in the most recent ALA newsletter. Please take some time to look around.
There I was last week, on the third floor of the Seattle Public Library’s central location downtown, taking advantage of their subscription to OED.com, and chatting with my husband online, when I look up and notice an inordinate amount of people hanging around. And most of them weren’t homeless. No sooner had I mentioned this to my husband than music comes on and a girl with purple streaks in her hair throws up some papers and starts dancing!
Soon, two people join her and it spirals from there. Some people sitting on the big cement planter behind me stand up, so I stand up to see better and then THOSE PEOPLE START DANCING.
Yes, it was a flash mob.
I feel like this is something I’m happy to have seen before I die, or before it goes out of style. I’m wearing a tan corderoy hat, if you want to try to spot me.
Y’all’s libraries got nothin on the SPL.
Also, it looks like a spaceship, it’s elevators and escalators are the color of green tingleberry Now and Laters, and the whole fourth floor, which is mostly conference rooms and bathrooms, is red, with curved walls (you think that you’re looking through a red lens in that picture? You’re not).
Your library IS cooler than my library. I’m so jealous.
That was flipping awesome!!!!
Ok – first of all your library is about 25 times the size of mine, which makes it automatically 25 times cooler than my library. Add the flash dance experience and I am ready to sell my house and move to Seattle
Yes your library is way cooler than mine. It’s a heck og a lot bigger than mine as well. The one library in my city, which is the largest branch does something…. neat. As it’s had a problem with people ie young hooligans up to no good, hanging out at the front entrance of the library. So, the library has taken to playing loud classical and opera music to keep them away. That counts as trying to be cool right? (The had to do this, as patrons were fearful to go into the library, do to those standing around outside of it).
Either way, your library is awesome!
That is unbelievably awesome!
i couldn’t find you, but did you dance along too? I tend to dance in stores when good songs come on without realizing it…and I sing too! LOL Probably to the detriment of other customers. That is the coolest thing ever. I’ll have to visit that library if I get to Seattle. That looks AWESOME!
I dont think your library is cooler than mine, when im at the library, the last thing i want to see OR HEAR is a bunch of hippies organized by some stupid fad text message flash mob trend dancing around to crappy music and disturbing my peaceful library experience. So ill respectfully disagree with you and Ill stick to my peaceful, quiet library with classic art on the walls and normal colors on the floors. The way a library should be. And im 32 years old.
Jake,
All I can say is what I told a friend of mine a few years ago when she visited. She said that she liked her libraries to be old and musty. I reminded her that all old and musty libraries were once shiny and new. Also, because it lasted only the length of the song, it was less distracting than the man talking to someone in his wristwatch named Brian who sat near me the other day.
Seattle Public IS the coolest library. My wife and I are both librarians and on our trip to Seattle last summer, SPL was our number 1 destination. We even got my brother (who lives there) to get his library card.
That was fantastic. I work in a Library and would definitely join in if we had a flash mob come in. Thank you for the smile and wonderful feeling of happiness that only music can bring out in people.
The Seattle Public Library is WAY cool to allow the whole Seattle Theatre Group flash thing, and oh what fun. Must have brightened everyone’s day except for the solitary dour Scandinavian here and there who was there to study, LOL.
Terrific! Loved the vitality of your library even BEFORE the music started. And, from what I could see, the overwhelming response was positive. My library’s too small (and conservative) for this, but I’d participate if given a chance. GREAT way to show off the library as a vibrant part of the community. What fun.
So did someone check out this book on the way out?
http://catalog.mlc.lib.mo.us/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=12796K67Q8750.13047&profile=ki&uri=link=3100016~!824045~!3100001~!3100002&aspect=subtab35&menu=search&ri=1&source=~!horizon&term=Flash+mobs.&index=PSUBJ#focus
For a non-fiction title, this has circulated pretty well in my library. Although I have yet to see an actual flashmob.
Wow, that is fantastic! I would love to experience a flash mob sometime.
What a cool event. The Seattle library is a beautiful building and one of the best in the nation. Love the high ceilings and openness of the building. The participants did a first class job of organizing this event and dancing to the music. Looks like they rehearsed a lot. When I get to Seattle, I have to visit this library.
Thanks for the flash mob experience!