Improbable Libraries by Alex Johnson

A recent book sale at the University of Chicago Press brought this book to my table.

Alex Johnson, Improbable Libraries : A Visual Journey to the World’s Most Unusual Libraries (Univ. of Chicago Press, 2015).

(If you live in or near Hudson, NY, you can get this at the Hudson Area Library or through any of the other 65 libraries in the Mid Hudson Library System)

As I travel around the world I visit libraries everywhere. They are always full of surprises. This book brings a whole new range into view.

Kansas City Central Library

Home library

From my own visits to libraries, I have many memories of surprises and the improbable. Over the summer of 2021, I visited the Rochester NY Public Library. This while on a walkabout investigating the aqueduct that carried the Erie Canal across the Genesee River in downtown Rochester. The library building is of Great Depression vintage.

The library was built partially on top of the former Erie Canal.

The signs below speak for themselves.

Add art to your walls with a library card.

On another note,