Calvin Smith Library

We still use the SL County Library system, even though we are half a mile from a SL City Library and really kind of far away from a County Library. We have to go to the library about once a week, which was very convenient when Jovie's dance class was at the Millcreek Community Center. I could switch over to the City system, but I have my 14-digit library card number memorized and our hold list is at the county, so it's harder than it sounds. 

This week, Ikey was desperate for a new book, so I traipsed all over the county to find the next book in the Heroes of Olympian series. I found myself at a library we haven't been to yet, the Calvin Smith branch in Millcreek. 

 

Look at this happy face! He's glad he's got his 600-page book and we're glad too, until he told Jovie and me to "cut out the distractions" so he could concentrate. He finished this book in two days, school days when he was in class for about seven hours. Since school started, he's read the Percy Jackson series, Heroes of Olympus series, and the Kane Chronicles. 

Riverton Library

 I'm not a huge fan of 1999 architecture, so I preferred the older municipal buildings next door.

A sky bridge! In Riverton?

Draper Library

The children's section of the Draper library has a train theme, which was very popular with this crowd.

The old Park School near the library is just waiting to be restored and put to good use. 

Herriman Library

Ruth V Tyler Library in Midvale

 It was a rainy day when we went out to find the Ruth V Tyler Library in Midvale. It's not a big building, and it's not water-tight because the librarians were busily sopping up rain in the Children's section. 

 It was raining so hard that the underpass we were going to use to get back to the east side of I15 was flooded and closed off. We just decided to drive around and look at stuff for a while and found a cool old rock church and the Midvale City offices.

Whitmore Library

Whitmore is our home library. I use the "hold" feature at the library probably to excess, and I pick up all our holds here. We visit this library at least once a week. It's the headquarters of the County Library system and it's a big building. It was completed in 1974, which was apparently a time when professional women who were Vice Chairman(?) of the Library Board were referred to with their husband's name, i.e. Mrs. Irvin W. (Jean) Taylor. What a confusing way to identify a woman!

I'm not in love with 1970's architecture, but it's interesting in a way. 

Holladay Library

Holladay Library is a small and short building that was completed in 1972. It has a cool statue up front.

Whitmore Library has a reading tent like this too. 

Millcreek Library

 We love the Millcreek Library! It's a cool new building with a great sculpture and bench out front.

We love the art that's part of every part of the building.

The kids were excited to "eat with the old people" which means lunch at the Evergreen Cafe which is part of the senior center. It was fun just like always!

Millcreek Community Center

It's music camp week and ballet week. We needed to make up for a bunch of ballet lessons that Jovie is missing due to her heavy vacation schedule. We'd never been to the new Millcreek Community Center, so ballet make-up was a good excuse.

It's fantastic!

It's stylish and new and shiny. The library has a cool conveyor belt and sorter in the book return, really friendly librarians, and cool chairs in the kid's section.  The Evergreen Café is frequented mostly by people from the Senior Center. The seniors were all very friendly to us because the kids had pretty good manners. The food at the Café was good and cheap.

Yes, this counts as good manners. They are using their fingers, but they aren't yelling or running around. Not too bad, kids!

Book update: We read the whole Ramona Quimby series. We read the first two books in the Hardy Boys series, but I had to edit out too many references to guns and death threats so we've given up on that for a while. We started the Encyclopedia Brown series and I've figured out every mystery so far. Ikey finished Set 1 and Set 2 and half of Set 3 in the Reading for All Learners series. He read the word "CLASSIC" off a bowling alley sign while I was driving down the road the other day. He is not afraid to try to sound out any word. Jovie read the word "Fish" off a truck.