Bath Public Library

After our quick, one hour visit to Stonehenge, we visited the old Roman city of Bath. It would of been nice to of stayed longer at Stonehenge but in all fairness, it is just a bunch of rocks in the middle of a field. Anyways, while on our visit to Bath, we found the local library. It was a little strange since the library was above and inside a shopping center, but it was a great library inside. Just for reference, the library was opened September 26, 1990.

The Bath Library, like the Barbican, has small book shelves instead of tall book shelves in simple roows. Above each section was signings indicating what the section was and they were easy to read. There were several quick select book stands for people to see books easily. In the back of the library was microfiche and film that people could look up. Back in that section is also a huge stack of card catalogs. If the records were before 1986, they aren't in the computer system. The patrons need to use the card catalog. In that section, it was mainly for if patrons wanted to look up old county documents and research family trees. In another section was maps. They had maps of about every county and town in the UK. They were nice heavy duty maps people could check out, use, and return. To me, that's a nice service so people don't have to keep buying new and different maps. Unlike the Barbican though, this library had a huge teen book section along with the children's section. Like the Barbican as well, patrons can check out music, videos, and dvds.

Another service the library offers is an exhibit room and a conference room for the patrons to use. The current exhibit was on local flowers. Most of the services in this library though come at a price. Even members of the library have to pay so much to use the computers. To interlibrary loan a book cost about £3 and the library can order whole scores of music, but that can cost between £15 and £20. I guess that's okay since it's not costing the library any money to provide some of the services. Overall, it was a great public library. I felt more at home in the British public libraries than I do in the US. And sorry for the eyeball picture. It was the only sign I saw that had the library logo on it.

To learn more about the Bath Public Library, please visit www.bathness.gov.uk/libraries

The scary eyeball picture was provided by the blogger.