This summer the Norfolk Library celebrates the remarkable variety of art that has been on display at the Library since the art exhibition program was begun by the Library Associates in 1974. The 50th Anniversary Exhibition features the work of 27…
Read More »Birmingham Central Library (1927-1984) Birmingham, Alabama Local citizens raised funds to build Birmingham’s first free-standing central library, which opened on April 11, 1927. Considered a model facility at the time, the four-story Beaux…
Read More »Haskell Free Library & Opera House US-Canada Border Stanstead, Quebec & Derby Line, Vermont The address of this Library is enough to leave you intrigued, as it stands on the US-Canada border, and not by mistake. Founded in 1901, the Haskell…
Read More »Administrative and Cultural Center Rovaniemi, Lapland Alvar Aalto, architect Rovaniemi is the capital of Lapland in northern Finland. Almost totally destroyed during World War II, today it’s a modern city known for being the "official" home…
Read More »Orkney Library Book Mobile Orkney Islands, Scotland The life of a librarian doesn’t usually involve ferry timetables and marine forecasts. But for the Orkney Library, that is as important as cataloguing and classifying books. While the main…
Read More »Vilnius Jewish Public Library Vilnius, Lithuania In recognition of the celebration of Hanukkah, we feature a Jewish library in Vilna (now Vilnius). The library dates back to the late 19th century when a Jewish book collector and philanthropist,…
Read More »Soeman HS Library Pekanbaru, Indonesia Soeman HS Library is a library and community center in Pekanbaru, the capital city of Riau Province on the island of Sumatra. Built in 2008, the Library has a number of facilities including an auditorium, an…
Read More »X?wi7x?wa Library (First Nations House of Learning Library) Vancouver, British Columbia 2023 marks the 30th anniversary of the opening of the X?wi7x?wa Library at the University of British Columbia. Xwi7xwa (pronounced whei wha) Library is…
Read More »Cheongun Literature Library Seoul, South Korea Veterans Day 2023 marks the 70th anniversary of the end of the Korean War. This issue of the Night Owl features the Cheongun Literature Library, which is surrounded by lush forest along the…
Read More »Puppet Library In the Heart of the Beast Theater Minneapolis, MN There are just a few puppet lending libraries in the United States. They include Boston's Puppet Free Library, its hundreds of puppets housed in a church basement. Minnesota's…
Read More »Luang Prabang Library Laos The Luang Prabang Library is part of the National Library system of Laos. Luang Prabang is a colonial town sitting on the edge of a peninsula at the merging point of the Mekong river and a lesser watercourse.…
Read More »Biblioteca Sandro Penna Perugia, Italy It looks like a flying saucer has landed amid the historic houses of the hilltop town of Perugia. In fact, it is one of the world's most unusual-looking libraries. Named for the 20th-century Perugia-born…
Read More »Sanlian Library Nandaihe Beach, Qinhuangdao, China Sitting on the beach with a simple silhouette and no road access, the Sanlian Library has been dubbed the world's loneliest library. It isn’t actually that far from civilization. Although…
Read More »Wailuku Library Wailuku, Maui, Hawaii C.W. Dickey, 1928 The heartbreaking loss suffered by the Lahaina community includes the heavily damaged Lahaina Library, one of eight libraries in the Hawaii State Public Library System in the County of Maui.…
Read More »Karhu-Korhonen Library / Jäkäläpää Cultural Center Jäkäläpää, Lapland, Finland The former maintenance building of the Jäkäläpää Wilderness Airport, owned by the Lapland Gold…
Read More »Marrickville Library Sydney, Australia Marrickville was once a village of market gardens. Then brick making began in the 1830's, and the building boom of the 1880's transformed the village into a suburb of Sydney, the gardens replaced by…
Read More »Click here to View the Information About "The Norfolk Library Night Owl - July 28, 2023"
Read More »Beach Libraries Beach libraries are popping up around the world. In Albena, Bulgaria, on the Black Sea coast, sits an open air library which boasts over 6,000 books in as many as 15 languages. Designed by German architect Herman Kompernas, the…
Read More »Click here to View the Information About "The Norfolk Library Night Owl - July 14, 2023"
Read More »Sam Guindon: Family Roots July 2 - 31, 2023 Opening Reception Sunday, July 2, 4:00 - 6:00 p.m. Oil paintings by Sam Guindon will be on display at the Norfolk Library for the month of July. Sam is a local artist who has been inspired by the beauty…
Read More »Imperial Beach Library, 2017 San Diego, CA Jeff Katz Architecture with domusstudio Interior Design: Delawie Architects Now that summer is officially here, we feature a library designed for the season. The Imperial Beach Library is part of the San…
Read More »Harriet Beecher Stowe Center Library Hartford, CT The Harriet Beecher Stowe Center holds the largest collection of materials related to Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896), author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the influential anti-slavery novel and…
Read More »Public Library Constitución, Chile The building of a public library in the city of Constitución was part of a public-private initiative taken after an 8.8 magnitude earthquake and tsunami devastated the town in 2010.…
Read More »McAllen Public Library McAllen, Texas The hulking husk of a vacant Walmart in the Rio Grande Valley is enjoying an unlikely second act. When the big-box retailer moved to a larger location down the street, the building might have been destined…
Read More »University of Warsaw Library Warsaw, Poland We'd love to take field trips to libraries around the world. But, in lieu of that, the photos below are just in from a Norfolk Library staff member visiting friends in Poland. The new university library…
Read More »Click here to View the Information About "The Norfolk Library Night Owl - May 19, 2023"
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Read More »Vasconcelos Library, 2007 Mexico City Architect: Alberto Kalach For Cinco de Mayo, we feature a library in Mexico City, which has drawn mixed reviews. Some have acclaimed it as one of the 21st century's most iconic buildings, while critics have…
Read More »Joan Maragall Library, 2014 Barcelona, Spain Architects: BCQ arquitectura barcelona The Joan Maragall Library is located in and under the the grounds of the Villa Florida, a surviving masía (the typical farmhouses of prosperous Catalan…
Read More »Story Pod Newmarket, Canada Atelier Kastelic Buffey The Story Pod, a community-supported lending library designed by Atelier Kastelic Buffey (AKB), serves as a book exchange and an urban marker in the town of Newmarket, drawing curious residents…
Read More »Library on the Quay, 2014 Tongling, China This library was built on an abandoned quay by the riverside. The quay used to be part of an industrial wharf, which has now been incorporated into a riverside park. The architects, ATA Studio, intended to…
Read More »Click here to view the Information About "The Norfolk Library Night Owl - April 7, 2023"
Read More »Hillary Rodham Clinton Children's Library and Learning Center, 2013 Little Rock, Arkansas Based on experiential learning with hands-on education, the Hillary Rodham Clinton Children’s Library and Learning Center was built on an abandoned six…
Read More »Mortlock Library of South Australiana, 1884 Adelaide, Australia The building now known as the Mortlock Wing of the State Library of South Australia opened in 1884 as a "Public Library, Museum and Art Gallery for the colony of South Australia" with…
Read More »Dún Laoghaire Central Library Dublin, Ireland Carr Cotter Naessens Architects It's St. Patrick's Day, and we feature a new library on the Emerald Isle. The LexIcon Library and Cultural Centre in the Dublin seaside town of Dún…
Read More »Not Just Library (J.C. Architecture, 2020) Taipei, Taiwan Libraries can be found in all sorts of buildings that once served other functions. As models of adaptive reuse, they bring these structures back to life. Last week we featured a library…
Read More »Rumia Public Library Rumia, Poland In September 2014, the deteriorating train station in Rumia was renovated and reopened as Stacja Kultura (Culture Station), which combines the functions of a railway station, a public library, and a cultural…
Read More »Korolenko Central City Public Library Mariupol, Ukraine A sobering Night Owl on the anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. During the full-scale invasion, the Russian occupiers damaged 221 libraries and destroyed more than 100 libraries in…
Read More »Union Carnegie Free Library, 1905 Union County, South Carolina At the turn of the 20th century, steel industrialist Andrew Carnegie created one of the most far reaching philanthropic programs in the nation’s history, donating millions of…
Read More »The Secret Library Daraya, Syria The remarkable story of a small, makeshift library in the town of Daraya, and the people who found hope and humanity in its books during the four-year siege of that city, unfolds in Mike Thomson's compelling book…
Read More »Livingstone College Library, 1905 Salisbury, North Carolina Robert Robinson Taylor, architect The legacies of African American architects and designers—who have contributed greatly to the development of our built environment, although often…
Read More »Cloudscape Library Haikou, South China MAD Architects, 2021 With the celebration of the 15-day Lunar New Year festival in full swing in China, we feature the Cloudscape Library in the city of Haikou on the island of Hainan in the South China Sea.…
Read More »Halifax Central Library Halifax, Nova Scotia schmidt hammer lassen, 2014 Located at a crossroads in one of the city's most historic neighborhoods, the Halifax Central Library received the prestigious Governor General’s Medal in…
Read More »King Library and Archives Atlanta, Georgia The King Library and Archives in Atlanta is the largest repository of primary source materials on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the American Civil Rights Movement in the world. The collection consists…
Read More »John Paul II Municipal Public Library Opole, Poland January 6 is Three Kings Day, marking the end of the Christmas season and celebrated around the Christian world with different traditions and customs. In Poland, ?wi?to Trzech Króli is a…
Read More »Babino Library Babino, North Macedonia As we approach the wee hours of the new year, we feature a library in one of the least populated villages in North Macedonia. The village of Babino used to have more than 800 inhabitants, but now there are…
Read More »Administrative and Cultural Center Rovaniemi, Lapland Alvar Aalto, architect Rovaniemi is the capital of Lapland in northern Finland. Almost totally destroyed during World War II, today it’s a modern city known for being the "official" home…
Read More »Columbus Metropolitan Main Library Columbus, Ohio For decades, the Columbus Metropolitan Main Library – originally one of dozens of Carnegie libraries built at the turn of the 20th century – sat adjacent to, but disconnected from,…
Read More »Qatar National Library Doha, Qatar The mission of the Qatar National Library is to preserve the nation's and region's heritage and enable the people of Qatar to positively influence society by creating an exceptional environment for learning and…
Read More »Bibliothèque Communitaire Deschapelles, Haiti The creation of a library in Deschapelles was the first project initiated by Sister Cities Essex. Shortly after the devastating January 2010 earthquake in Haiti, residents of Essex, Connecticut,…
Read More »Pritzker Military Museum & Library Monroe Building Chicago, Illinois The Monroe Building was designed by Holabird & Roche in 1912, and the lobby with its brilliantly-colored, rhythmic vaulted ceiling comprises one of the world’s…
Read More »The Norfolk Library: Night Owl - November 4, 2022 The Library of Muyinga (BC architects, 2012) Burundi, East Africa Muyinga’s first library was community-constructed out of locally sourced earthen blocks, clay tiles, and eucalyptus beams.…
Read More »Contertainer Public Library Batu, East Jawa, Indonesia The Contertainer is a public library designed by the Indonesian firm, Dpavilion Architects, that repurposes steel shipping containers to house both a library and a health clinic. Shipping…
Read More »Magdalene College Library, 2021 Cambridge, UK The new library at Magdalene College in Cambridge has been called spellbinding. Daylight floods down into the warm-wood interior through vaulted skylights, while tall brick chimneys carry warm air up…
Read More »Stinson Memorial Library, 1914 Anna, Illinois In 1903, Robert Burns Stinson left his entire estate to the city of Anna and specified in his will that the money was to be used to build a fireproof public library. Perhaps the Great Chicago Fire of…
Read More »Hispanic Society Museum and Library New York City The Hispanic Society of America was founded in 1904 by Archer Milton Huntington (1870-1955) with the object of establishing a free, public museum and reference library for the study of the art,…
Read More »Royal Archives Round Tower, Windsor Castle The iconic Round Tower of Windsor Castle is home to the Royal Archives – a unique collection of documents relating to the history of the British Monarchy over the last 250 years. The Royal…
Read More »Liyuan Library, 2012 Li Xiaodong Atelier Jiaojiehe, China [Ed. Note: Since we began the Night Owl's Libraries Around the World in 2021, people have asked me which one of the 86 libraries I have featured has been the most memorable for me. The…
Read More »Night Owl, September 2, 2022 Copper Queen Library Bisbee, Arizona For those new to the Night Owl and our "Libraries Around the World" opening segment, each week we feature a different library, rural or urban, ancient or modern, notable for its…
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