The Library VISIT!!!

Taking a Trip to the Good Ol' Library

Today, I went to my neighborhood library. I live in Altadena, Ca aka Narnia. Altadena has its own library system that consists of one main library and one branch. The branch library mostly consists of children material. Its called the Bob Lucas Library. I live two blocks from this library. Further up the hill, which I live upon is the Main Library which is open Monday thru Sunday.
The Main Library is located at 600 East Mariposa Street in Altadena, Ca. The website for this library system is www.altadenalibrary.org. The phone number is (626) 798 - 0833. The Altadena Library has so much to offer.

I usually go to the library on Saturday. It is very spacious. It is divided into two main sections the children’s area and everything else which consists of the Adult section, YA section, Movie Rental, and other miscellaneous things like computers and Reference. The Reference section consists of many different things. It is first ordered by the Dewey Decimal System and then it has specific places that have different materials like dictionaries and atlas as well as CQ Researcher, Science Fair Projects, University related items, and etc. There is more than place that you could find reference items. The main section is behind the adult librarian’s desk. The rest is located around the library. There is selection of very old books that are reference located at the beginning of the Adult non-fiction section, some of the books date back to the early 1900’s maybe before that. There are reference material situated in the Children’s Area.

The library offers a variety of services. Every Tuesday they have a free internet tutoring class. In order, to go to the class a person must register with a Librarian. It is a 45 minute to 1 hour class and it teaches a person how to be internet suave as well as computer literate. The library also offers different story times for the little ones. Come on Monday and they have Teddy Bear Storytime at 7:00pm. You can wear your favorite PJ’s and bring your favorite bear and listen to awesome bedtime stories. Then there is also, Preschool Storytime on Wednesday and Thursday at 11:00am. This Storytime is perfect for age 2-5 years of age. Another service that the library offer is passport services. Can come in and fill out your passport information with the library. They take out a small fee of $25 to process your application. Passport services has also takes passport pictures , notary service, mail service, and passport renewal. Its almost like going to the mail office. The library has a once a month Adult Book Club and every summer they having a reading program for children and young adults.

The library goes by the Dewey Decimal System and it’s a public library. The materials that they have for check out are books, DVDs, VHS, book on tapes, book on Cds, books in espanol, magazines, and other materials. In each section, there are different types of books that can be checked out like mystery, non-fiction, science fiction, young adult, cliff notes, career books, manga, and etc.
The library website consists of different functions. It has tabs that categorize the placement of different information. Library Hours would be located under “About the Library” and there online databases would be under “Reference and Research”. There Electronic Resources and Online Databases consists of programs called Biography Resource Center, INFOTRAC, ProQuest, Live Homework Help, and many others. The most popular databases are Live Homework Help and ProQuest.

I think what I like about this library is that everything is so put together, everything is organized. Their waitlist to use the computer consists of scanning your library card or typing it in and waiting for your name to come up on the computer monitor and if someone tried to get on the computer that was meant for you they couldn’t because it says that it is reserved for you and only your library card would work. I also like that you get 2 hours on the computer and if you wanted to, you could burn things onto your cd or flash drive from their computer. They sell flash drives, cds, and floppy disks. You get free rentals on most dvds. There is like over 20 computers in the library. They have couches, tables, comfy chairs, puzzles for children, rocking chairs, and antique décor. There is so much in the library that it just mind boggling. I just can’t write all of it down.

This library does have some setbacks like I don’t like that you have to pay to put a book on hold. I also don’t like, well, I can’t think of anything else at the moment. Overall, I had a great and informational time at the Altadena Library the "Main One".