I went to the new central library downtown today and was very impressed. They still have books in there. Good news. I actually had a DVD to return. There was a guy standing in front of the returns slot, hesitating. I went right up to it and shoved the DVD in there, even though it seemed different than all the other return slots of every other local library branch. The DVD was snatched from my hands by a conveyor belt which whisked it off to who knows where. The new commons area is vast and airy, I imagined a performance there by some sort of local version of Cirque De Soleil, acrobats in tights who are limber and familiar with the Dewey Decimal system. There are plenty of brochures and maps and flyers and posters in the library, a good sign of a strong line-up of events for 2008. In the kids section, there were plenty of cool chairs and innovative seating arrangements, pods and such. Many of the adults were waiting impatiently for the kids to move on a dn give us a chance to sit in the egg shaped chairs with great views of the city. I will report on more features of the new library in future posts. It closes at 5pm on Saturdays so I didn't have enough time to fully investigate the new digs.