Marvelous, Magnificent, and Magical

As I mentioned in my last post, while at the library convention in Toledo, we had the opportunity to tour the Toledo Public Library.  It is a marvelous, magnificent, and magical place.  We took a shuttle bus from the hotel over to the library.  They held a reception for us there with free hors d'oeuvres and desserts and a cash bar.


After walking through the lobby, you enter this area where the ceiling is actually at the top of the second floor. All the way around the four sides of the wall up above are these ornate paintings.

This photo shows a little of the size of what is one of the main rooms of the library.

A musical trio played jazz and other contemporary songs throughout the evening in the background.  They are sitting down over to the right in this photo.

On one side of the building is this large room which houses their audio visual items--such as movies on videocassette and DVDs, music CDs, and audiobooks. 

The desk in this room is shaped like a grand piano.

Keyboards are painted on the end caps of all the shelves in this area.

 In one corner is what looks like a giant jukebox with a flat TV screen in the center of it.

What I found most impressive was the Children's Department at the library.  It was up on the second floor.  One of the first things you will notice upon entering the Children's Library is this giant book with a door through it where you can "step into a book."

There were a lot of fun end caps on the book shelves here too.  I loved this giant!

These two lions guard the shelves at the back of the librarian's desk.

This is what the carpet looked like in the main part of the Children's Library.

Another section of the Children's Department had a cool space theme and decorations.  This is what the carpeting looked like in the space section.

Hanging from the ceiling and painted on the wall were planets and stars and such.

Fish swam around inside of an actual aquarium that was part of a giant replica of the book, The Rainbow Fish.

All over the walls were framed prints of cover art and illustrations from classic children's literature books.  You can see some on the wall in the photo above.  Here is one from Dr. Seuss.

Speaking of Dr. Seuss, I loved this statue of the Cat in the Hat.

Two different cars appeared to be coming out of the walls and were perfect for children to climb into and pretend to be driving.

Doorways for all sizes of children (and adults) led into another section of the library.

In the room on the other side of those doorways, all kinds of art were built into the walls, painted on the walls, and even hanging from the ceiling.  I didn't take pictures of all that was in there.  Many more scenes were painted on the walls.

 

These little doorways...

led into this fun room for the littlest visitors to the library.

There were even computers at teeny-tiny tables with teeny-tiny chairs.

Another large room on the other side of the second floor held this puppet theater.

The basement of the library held a parking garage, a cafe, and a gift shop run by the Friends of the Library.  The gift shop pictured below sold candles and bookmarks and other sorts of things you might find in a book store along with many shelves of used books.

A Baseball Field, a Giant Blue Frog, and a Bookworm Wearing Glasses?

I traveled to Toledo this past week to attend a library convention there.  It was a fun and interesting time, but I am glad to be home again.  I took some pictures while there, of course, and wanted to share a few of them with you.


It was a nice surprise to see the sign they had up at our hotel.  Who knew they would give ME such a warm and personal welcome.  See, they even put my picture up there on their sign!  

They had some of the shelves in their gift shop decorated especially for me too!!  Can you see all the daisies?  Obviously they knew I was coming and wanted to make me feel welcome.  ;-)

Well, OK, maybe I'm reading a little too much into those daisies!


The view from my hotel room was interesting. It was of the Toledo Mudhens baseball stadium.  Of course, there were no games being played while we were there.

Seriously, though, we were given a warm welcome, and the hotel was comfortable and was suitable for our needs.

The convention and expo were held in the attached Sea Gate Convention Center next door. These "Do Toledo" signs were hanging from the ceiling of the convention center.

Inside the expo center was a trade show with various vendors set up at booths promoting their wares.  Before the expo opened, I was a little amused by the fact that they kept it all a secret behind some curtains protected by a lone security guard.  Honestly, anyone could have just gone to another section, moved the curtain aside, and entered the expo area, so I'm not sure what purpose the security guard served (other than to amuse me, of course!)

This is what the expo looked like much later after the area had closed for the day.  

Here is some of the artwork decorating the halls and entryway of the Sea Gate Center.  This venue is also used for concerts and other big events that come to town.

A giant blue frog with buildings from the Toledo Skyline painted on him greets visitors at the entrance doors to the center.

One of my coworkers participated in a 5K walk/run that was held during the convention.  This is the group that participated.

The bookworm agreed to pose for a picture for me alone.

This is the view from the front of the hotel looking out at downtown Toledo.

We spent most of our time in workshops during the three days we were there.  I learned some new things that will be helpful to use in my job.  We also attended a reception at the Toledo Public Library and took a tour of the building there.  It is an amazing place.  I took lots of pictures there, but I am saving them to show you in my next post.  I hope you come back for it because I have some neat things to show you.