We all carry in our heads a video clip of the librarian hushing us for talking. But during my sojourn into the Decatur public library, the loudest voices I heard were two staff members at the checkout desk.
Not that they were loud at all. It’s just that the entire building was so silent.
A lovely sound. The sound of knowledge.
All the patrons were absorbed reading or working at the inviting desks.
The staff moved noiselessly among the stacks and patrons. Even parents with their kids immersed in a new story were reading aloud quietly.
The architecture and decor throughout the building seemed designed to induce this silence.
So many solid angles and smooth curves that turned inward and stood firmly.
The books all waited patiently on their shelves or table displays, inviting us to have a peek.
The Reference shelves acknowledged the decades of information right on their cover spines.
I rolled out a microfilm newspaper just for the joy of seeing all those records so compactly stored.
I was delighted to see that Nancy Drew mysteries, first published in the 1930s and which I read as a child, still held a prominent place in the children’s section.
And equally delighted by the timeless sycamore tree guarding the entrance to the building.
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