I would like for this next project to spend a few hours in the public library downtown. The library is interesting in its architecture, and has apparently won a national award for best library, yet it is also a congregation point for all sorts of colorful characters. It's right by the park in the middle of town, where a lot of homeless people hang out and they wander over to hang out inside occasionally. It is also a place where a lot of families and petitioners and old people frequent, so mere observation should give me a decent body of material.
I think I'm going to chill at the front desk for a couple hours because that's where all the confrontation happens, but I will wander around the library to see all the screaming kids and such. But mostly it will be a profile of the check out counter, hopefully some people will get angry over some fines or something.
So more than following a direct chronological order, it would be an establishing introduction, a series of vignettes and a conclusion.
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I'm really thinking about doing a profile of a place, too. I think there is something intriguing about profiling a location - and its a lot easier to avoid the whole "book report" aspect that doing a personal profile can sometimes lead to! I'll be interested to read yours.
ReplyDeleteI hang out at the library all the time. It is a pretty interesting place, but I would avoid the front counter.
ReplyDeleteThe real action is upstairs, either in the tech lab or at one of the computers up there. Those people are real characters. The women who monitors the tech lab (it's in the back by the copy machine) could probably direct you to some characters.
While you work on this piece, think about the role a public library should play vs. the role the one downtown plays. It might help to visit some of the other branches, especially the one up on Paterson.