Victoria: Emily Carr Branch

 

Emily Carr Branch

3500 Blanshard Street

I went to another library in Victoria too! (This was actually the first one I went to, and basically the first thing I did in Victoria. Their libraries are far away from each other!)

This library is named after Emily Carr, a Canadian artist who's art I've seen in the Vancouver Art Gallery. I an't say I remember her art, so I guess it wasn't too impressed by it, but while in Victoria I did discover that she owned a monkey. Whaaat? That's crazy! There was a bronze statue or her downtown with the monkey perched on her shoulder, but I sadly didn't get a photo of it. Next time I guess. (This blog post has photos of the statue and the monkey.)

The library itself seemed fine, I guess nothing about it really stood out to me. Though the fact that I couldn't borrow any books was definitely one of the reasons for my feeling that way.

Next time! Back to Vancouver (I promise!).

Victoria: Central Branch

Central Branch

735 Broughton Street

So I went to Victoria (on Vancouver Island) last weekend to visit some friends, play in a Magic: The Gathering tournament, go to a robot burlesque show, and, because this is what I do now apparently, check out some of the libraries there.

What I discovered at the Central Branch was both awesome and depressing. The awesome part? They're participating in Free Comic Book Day! That's this Saturday (May 4th). FCBD is one of my favourite days of the year (along with Halloween) and I look forward to it every year. Even if I don't personally like the comics, I'm excited by the many other people who will get free comics they can read.

In addition to the library giving away free comics, they're also running a comic making workshop with an artist who'll be at the library throughout the day drawing! Awesome.

One of the libraries in Halifax (where I used to live until I moved to Vancouver for school) is also doing something for Free Comic Book Day, and I'm kind of jealous of my friends who get to go.

Okay, so why is this depressing? Libraries doing things is great right? Yes, it is, but the depressing part is that a classmate and I contacted the Vancouver Public Library about doing something for FCBD and were shot down. Booooo. Or maybe I'm just depressed by the photo I took showing the weird way books in Victoria are organized.

A Christmas books section? It's May! Why do they have this?