#2 Part Deux: South Hill Branch - I Really Did Go Visit It, Right???

Being a very, very good librarian in training, I spent my birthday this year visiting not one, but two different libraries. The first was the South Hill Branch at Frasier and 45^th-ish. This branch has some quite colourful designs painted outside, but trying to grab a snapshot of them from the sidewalk was rather challenging. I simply could not seem to catch a moment when nobody was walking by, and I didn't want to catch someone in the picture without their permission to post it here. Finally a got a shot and only later noticed that the window reflection makes it look like a car advertisement.

This was a surprisingly busy branch in the middle of the day on Wednesday but seating was rather scarce. Every public computer was full and at least three inquiries about getting on computers were made while I was within earshot of the reference desk librarian. When I wandered over to the Young Adult section I disturbed three patrons seated on the floor sorting through several piles of books. There was a neon green bean bag chair in the corner there, but as it was occupied, no picture was taken. I finally managed to snag a wooden chair up against the front window for a bit, which gave me the chance to sort through my haul, since, as usual, I left with far more than I had intended to get. One item, Gil Jordan, Private Detective: Murder by High Tide, I got simply because of the design inside the cover – or more particularly because of the detail in the lower right corner of the inner cover.

Actually to be honest, I also chose it because I realized it was Franco-Belgian comic in, as I was to later learn, the ligne claire style. If you do not know what that means, think The Adventures of Tintin comics. I vaguely remembered a friend telling me once about a comic’s publisher that periodically reprints, in nice quality editions, translations of European comics otherwise impossible to find in English. I’m not certain if this is what my friend was talking about, but it certainly was a beautifully executed book - excepting that they "Americanized" the name from Gil Jourdan to Gil Jordan. Other than that, my only beef with the book was that it got caught in my book bag when trying to pull it out later and my yanking on it resulted in it flying upward and bashing me in the eyebrow.

The selection at South Hill Branch was not large. I noticed that, compared to Collingwood, it had a much smaller and less colourful children’s area though still quite a selection of children’s materials. What it had instead was a notable Tagalog collection. As it happened, I accidentally sent another hold to this branch a few days later and had to return to pick it up. It wasn't until then that I realized their holds area was smaller than at most any other branch I've visited, though the little corner was crammed full of items. Overall, though, I found this branch oddly unmemorable. It took me forever to write this post, because I simply had hardly any thought or memory of being at this branch compared to all the other ones that I have visited now.

I had made certain ahead of time that this branch had another adaptation of Jane Eyre on the shelves as a reason to visit it initially. It was the 1973 mini-series with Sorcha Cusack as Jane Eyre and Michael Jayston as Mr. Rochester. Sadly I personally found Cusack to be blank and boring as Jane Eyre and the mini-series adds an unfortunate voice over that often tells you quite exactly what is already occurring on screen or adds some odd comment on the moment that you really, really wish they would have endeavored to SHOW you (this being a visual medium and all) rather than pedantically telling you. The viewing experience for this mini-series was quite painful and to be honest, largely punctuated by me reading homework or wandering off to the kitchen mid “dramatic” scene to go find something to nibble on. Unless you are like me and have set yourself some inexplicable goal to watch every adaptation of Jane Eyre available via your local library system, I do not recommend wasting valuable life on this version.

--Anna