My last couple of walks to the Tuesday Farmer's Market almost killed me with the heat and the lightning and what not. In addition it seemed like a lot of my favorite vendors had taken the summer off or closed entirely. So, today I was looking for an activity that I could partake in that would - entertain a toddler;
- get me away from plumbers;
- require me to walk no further than the Maple Street Starbucks;
- have ample A/C.
It has occurred to me that although I have lived in this neighborhood for seven years I have underutilized our Nix Branch of the New Orleans Public Library. I think that I've been there three times total. I knew that they did story time on Wednesday mornings but I never thought that Lil Miss was quite ready to sit still in a room full of toddlers so I never checked it out. They do however have a brightly carpeted area with plenty of children's books so I thought that I would stop by today.
So, after a nice visit to our favorite commercial coffee shop and amusing myself all the way with bad made-up plumber jokes (How many plumbers does it take to screw in a light bulb? "That's not my job ma'am."), I headed back for the library.
The Nix Branch got very little damage from the Hurricane. It opened soon after its broken windows were fixed. It's a small branch with one main room, an office and a small bathroom. They have a fair selection of books and a growing stock of DVD's which are free to borrow and therefor cheaper than Blockbuster. There were certainly enough age appropriate books to keep Lil Miss entertained as we found a spot on the carpet. Some of the books seemed a little outdated. For example, in the kids section, a well worn 80's Michael Jackson paperback made me shudder. There are several computers there for public use and plenty of staff to assist. My only complaint was that there was no water fountain and my water bottle was on empty causing me to refill with lukewarm NOLA tap water - yum.
According to the Nutrias website there are seven library locations open and one bookmobile. There are more on the way. The most active branch is the Main Library on Loyola Avenue where they feature a monthly book club, "Baby Jam Time" for the 0-18 month set and, get this, "Lan-YAP: You and a Pup Reading Time" complete with a therapy dog that your kid can read with. At first glance I thought that you were welcome to bring your own dog but fortunately that's not the case.
Once the streetcar is up and running I intend to make a visit to the most beautiful branch of our New Orleans public library system, The Latter Branch. This particular branch just got $100K in funding for a total renovation. Quite a few branches feature story time and a few offer basic computer instruction. All of them are free and a great place to stop by to escape the heat and read the paper.
