Technically it's the Monroe County Library, Key West Branch and it is said to be the oldest library in the state. It may well also be the prettiest.
Life in a county 112 miles long and frequently less than half a mile wide presents a challenge when it comes to offering services. The library system does a remarkable job keeping branches open all along the island chain and you can order books through the computerized system for delivery. In the Lower Keys there is this the main branch with libraries also in Big Pine and Marathon.
I enjoy spending time in the library perusing the stacks and checking out the readers intent on their books. One gets a comforting feeling that as long as people crave reading all is not lost in our civilization.
I took this picture (below) in 2008 when public computing was still relatively new and clunky compared to our pocket computers today. The library now offers wi-fi as well as computer screens.
On my most recent visit the library had a bunch of ship dioramas scattered around the reading rooms and they were most enjoyable. They are on permanent display as of last October from the Key West Historical Society and they are the work of artist David Harrison Wright.
They are under glass and thus impossible to photograph with any hope of capturing even a tiny part of how beautiful and expressive they are.
I loved the attention to detail and the short histories that accompanied each ship as part of the Society's drive to remind Key West of its fascinating maritime past.
The library is a forum for local art of all kinds alongside the books and tapes and CDs.
Do Not Reshelve Books. I suppose we cannot be relied upon to do even that correctly. Mr Dewey would be disappointed.
The library is a refuge, often for homeless people with a day to spend once more accomplishing not much.
Also for people who want to get out of the heat to enjoy a serene and quiet place to think and browse or read (from 2008:). I like sharing the reading space surrounded by books and readers whoever they may be:
Lots of parking for cars and bicycles and the occasional scooter too...
Though curiously enough there is lots of free scooter parking painted into Elizabeth Street outside the library. The library parking lot is gravel which is tough for motorcycle stands.
Sometimes I like to duck into the library and peruse the shelves. I snatched one book on canine behavior and the treatment of dogs that seems to accord with my attitude of total canine involvement.
Cheyenne was deprived of stimuli in her former life but I am trying hard to make up for that. Stimulation for people as well as dogs.
I used to enjoy sitting out in the garden in back but lately it has been locked. Doubtless an anti bum device that punishes us all.
Modern libraries are so much more than simply book depositories it's hard to know how librarians manage their roles in society. The library in Key West, as it is so many towns is a refuge for people with no place to go, and as such it has become a sort of drop-in center for the dispossessed. It has computers to give everyone a chance to glean what they need from the Web:
The library is still mostly about books and reading, so we of course enjoy lots of heavily loaded shelves along with perhaps a seasonal theme:
But we have electronics to feed as well and the library is good place to stop by for a DVD, or if you are old fashioned they still have some video tapes:
They cater to youngsters and offer a room for their use, next to the meeting room at that end of the building which offers a space for lectures and movies and the like:
Despite the modern demand for electronic gadgetry the library holds firm on the no cell phone rule, pushing patrons out into the cold if they have to yell into the box in public:
The city-county library system in Monroe County has the usual problem facing public services in a county that is a hundred miles long and a mile wide in that there have to be lots of branches up and down the islands. I have used the Marathon, Big Pine and Key West libraries as well as the library at the Florida Keys Community College and found them all to be excellent refuges. And despite the usual lack of funds for a service that could improve the community immeasurably they do well with what they have.
I guess it is helpful for me that I work nights in that the hours do tend to serve the unemployed but library closings seem inevitable in our newly impoverished world.
In a city filled with retirees in winter the library is a hive of reading activities:
Some of my younger colleagues look at me in horror when I talk about books. "I don't read!" Belen announced proudly. So I looked at her and said: "The only difference between you and a dog is that the dog can't read!" which isn't original but she was annoyed enough to bring a book to work, on the Holocaust of all things. Illiteracy is something that is still often considered shameful but there's enough of it around that there are ads for volunteer reading coaches posted at the library bulletin board.
The library has always been a mark of civilization in a community and the fact that Key West's goes back in various guises at this location to the 19th century is a reminder that this was once Florida's biggest city. It seems odd nowadays to imagine that little Key West was the most salubrious town in a state plagued by heat, humidity, insects and illness. Key West was on the main shipping routes from the Gulf of Mexico and there was money to spare for a little culture in the town.
When I lived on the margins in Key West getting a library card was the ticket to comfortable living afloat. A library card offered free entertainment in a town that lacked NPR on the radio and that lost its free TV with the departure of the translator antennae up and down the Keys. I presented my card one day to withdraw a book and the librarian checked the address as they do. "700 Sailboat Lane?" I nodded holding my breath. " Hmm," she said looking dubious. "This sounds like a Cheryl live aboard special." I nodded acknowledging my address as the approximate location of the sailing club on Garrison Bight. I owed Cheryl a lot for her help and now she's died I can confess she weaseled me a library card at a most opportune time. She made the library a shore base for a lot of transient sailor and I think of her every time I visit.
The library is a handy place to park but overstaying one's welcome isn't a good idea. Its a county facility and there is usually a County Deputy hanging around ready to get scofflaws towed. On the other hand there is a rather decent little pocket garden next to the library which is a good place to hang when you do find somewhere to park:
The homeless population certainly seems to have shrunk this year. The garden was almost unoccupied much to my surprise:
How old fashioned.Not an electron in sight. We cannot however leave the library and this inadequate tour without a reminder that this is Key West, land of the million signs:
The notion that coughs and sneezes spread diseases seems rather quaint sixty years after the end of World War Two and it's public service announcements ("Careless Talk Costs Lives"). Someone at some point thought chickens were a public health threat and put up a sign to that effect. There are people who think chickens are a threat. Some controversies never die and happily the library will be there to keep us informed.
If I like it I skip to the end (non fiction is best for power reading) and when I am bored I put the book down and try another title, selected at random. I get to peruse tons of books like this and have learned to feel less desperate as time goes by about the number of books still left for me to read as I slide ever closer to oblivion. Even our modest library on woodsy Fleming Street, South Florida's first public library seems overly filled with unread tomes:
So there's this writer dude sitting in a hot tub with some friends and a bunch of strangers and he says he thinking about putting together a list of the best places to live but the only problem is he can't think of what the criteria should be. Much discussion apparently ensues among the occupants of the star lit tub (I remember this bit quite well, I think) and finally one of the nude bathers comes up with a truth that the writer grabs and runs with. The Third Space. That's the criteria for the best place to live.
The book with the crappy title introduced me to this grotesque notion of the Third Space alluded to above. The idea is that your First Space is your home, and your Second Space is your place of work, and these spaces can also be social centers to some extent. But the Third Space is where the social life of the community is on display and available. In other words if you think about places you might like to live you will find they offer vibrant and attractive Third Spaces. The dull, worn out communities don't.
...a place from which to watch the sunrise or even the sunset, far from the crowds at Mallory Square (which is too commercial and touristy to be a proper Third Space).
As is obvious in these pictures shot today this is definitely low tourist season in Key West. 
What used to be the only independent bookstore in town has competition now and thank god for that. The workers at Voltaire smiled when I remarked how nice it was to have a store with friendly people operating it. "We hear that a lot," they said. And yes I have heard from visitors who buy quite a few books here that Island Books is a perfectly pleasant place to shop. 
We don't frequent all our possible Third Spaces, some I enjoy more than my wife does of course, but there are quite a number of public gathering spaces, that we visit from time to time. Some get too much attention from our 