Synecdoche - The D.C. Southeast Neighborhood Library

"Shelf Life" is a compelling article from The Washington Post Magazine this past weekend. The author, Eric L. Wee, writes about the staff, the building, the community and the people who do and don't use this 82 year old branch of the D.C. library system.

I found it particularly interesting because Alice and I had a stimulating yak fest last week about whether there was such a thing as "The public library" in the sense of the general representing the specific, and whether public libraries will have to be way different from one another depending on their home communities. More on this as we muddle through the thinking.

Perhaps this is an unconsciously suitable touch but the Post has several articles in the same edition of the magazine as "Shelf Life" is in but it seems to be the only article accessible without registration.

Link to this courtesy of the Teleread blog (which is, if you're not aware, a good place to stay up on ebook stuff) . The post this link is in talks about the LibraryCity initiative. Haven't decided what to say about this, so I haven't.