THAT'S SOME LIBRARY!

“...I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written...” (from John 21:25)

Mary Ann and I visited many places and did many things in the Missouri Ozarks during our May 1-12 vacation.  In the coming days I want to write about some of them.  I expect this will surprise many of you but I want to mention the public library located in one of Springfield, Missouri’s most modern and prosperous areas.  It’s The Library Center on South Campbell Avenue.  The Library Center is part of the public library system of Greene County and the City of Springfield.  Amy still did not have internet access set up at her new apartment, so a few times, Mary Ann and I went to the library to check our e-mail.

As a person who graduated from a Springfield, Missouri institution of higher learning (Central Bible College) I am greatly bothered by the stereotype that everyone in the Missouri Ozarks is a backward Redneck.  While there are admittedly SOME people in the Ozarks who do live up to that stereotype, there are many highly educated and sophisticated people in the Ozarks.  I know many would picture an Ozarks Public Library as some rundown old building with out-of-date volumes where people leaf through 1959 issues of Life Magazine.  In fact, The Library Center in Springfield, Missouri makes the main branch of the Framingham Public Library look really shabby.  (And, the Framingham Public Library is one of the best in Boston’s suburbs.)  The Library Center was built in 1999.  It actually looks even newer than that.  It’s a sharp looking one-story building featuring a cafe, an auditorium, a gift shop, and a first class library with the latest and best internet access.  I’m not good at estimating square-footage, but I’d say it’s at least as many square feet as the main Framingham Public Library, but probably bigger.  Mary Ann and I LOVED this place.  If I lived in Springfield, Missouri,  I’d frequent this place often.  Seriously, I wish the Framingham Public Library trustees could check this place out.  They’d be impressed!