Go where the (free) books are...

When you move to a new town, there are a lot of things you need to think about. Changing your address, finding a new gym, discovering good restaurants, knowing where to park your car so you do not get a ticket, and the list could go on. As a teacher, one of the CRUCIAL things I needed to take care of was getting a library card. Many teachers can agree that the library is our friend. It allows us to rent countless of books for FREE (as long as you return them on time). I love free things. To imitate one of my grad school peers, Alissa, I decided to focus this blog entry on Evanston’s Public Library. (Check out Alissa’s blog Lit Love and Libraries)

Evanston library has three locations: the main library in downtown Evanston, the North Branch, and the Chicago Avenue/Main Street branch (which is walking distance for me and opened in January). The main library has four floors with the children’s books on the first floor and teen loft on the third.  The children’s area of the library is whimsical and fun with bright colors. It takes over almost the entire first floor, so it’s very spacious. However, my favorite part was the teen loft. This section of the library is sectioned off on the third floor and you have to walk through a door to get into the loft. There are lots of comfy chairs, shelves and shelves of young adult literature, and rows of computers. The teen loft also has it’s own blog! The young woman working the loft was very knowledgeable and friendly, you could tell she loves young adult lit.

The only downside of going to the Evanston Public library is you have to pay to park in the garage... so this limited my time there. On the upside, Evanston Public library is hosting a HUGE book sale August 9-11. Their website states Chicago magazine calls it “simply the best”.