San Carlos

The San Carlos branch library sits at around 8,000 sq. ft and was built in the mid 1970s.

Entrance

The branch is actually the eastern-most library in the SDPL system (with the exception of the new Skyline Hills branch, set to open this month), and the geographical location of San Carlos reflects its terrain. The neighborhood is home to the Lake Murray reservoir, one of the most popular destinations in the county for fishing, kayaking, birdwatching, running, cycling, and other recreation. The library is also located less than a third of a mile from the trail head of Cowles Mountain. The summit of Cowles, at an elevation of 1,593 feet, is the highest point in the city of San Diego.

Stacks

The library has the standard architecture and layout of one of the older branches. It's self-contained in one large room, with seating and computers in the center and the children's' area, stacks, and the circulation desk on the periphery.

Announcement: New Skyline Hills Branch Opening

The City of San Diego has announced on its website that the new Skyline Hills branch library will be celebrating its grand opening on Friday, October 14th. The library will be hosting a community celebration of the opening on noon of that day, and tours of the new building will be offered.

Mayor Kevin Faulconer, SDPL Director Misty Jones, and other San Diego officials broke ground on the new library almost exactly a year ago:

 The library is the first new branch built in San Diego since 2009.

Tierrasanta

The Tierrasanta Branch library is located in the Tierrasanta neighborhood, a residential suburb of around 30,000 residents. Signs in the area refer to the neighborhood as "an island in the hills," an description that's not inaccurate; the area is secluded, surrounded by canyons on all sides except the west.

Front of the Library

The library is similar to many of the small branches in the SDPL system. It's one main room with the staff desk near the entrance, the computers and main seating areas in the center, a children's section on the side, and the stacks in the back of the library.

Stacks

The library reminds me a lot of the neighborhood itself-- small, quiet, secluded, and has kind of an Earthy feel. Tierrasanta overall has kind of a small town, Middle America feel, something a lot of neighborhoods in San Diego don’t really have. It's middle class, there’s no effects of tourism, it’s somewhat isolated like I said, it has one library, one community center, one rec center, one library, one high school, things like that. Something that I've learned over the course of this blog is that every branch, even if only subtly, really reflects the area that it's set in. The Tierrasanta branch is no exception.

Stacks

Serra Mesa- Kearny Mesa

One of the newest and nicest libraries in all of San Diego, the Serra Mesa-Kearny Mesa branch opened in late 2006. The library has a collection of over 50,000 items, including books and other media, and it holds a computer lab of 40 computers available for public use. The 16,000 sq ft branch, now almost ten years old, is more than three times the size of the old library Serra Mesa branch that it replaced.

Entrance

The library also houses an office for the the San Diego Workforce Partnership's Metro Career Center. The center offers numerous resources both online and in-person for job searching, such as job boards and job search workshops.

Stacks

The library is located on Aero Drive, a major east-west road that essentially extends between the 163 and 15 freeways. The road also essentially serves as the border between Kearny Mesa to the north and Serra Mesa to the south. Kearny Mesa is primarily a commercial area, home to many retail centers, office parks, government agencies, and the Montgomery Field airport. Serra Mesa, to the south of Aero Drive, is much more residential, home to around 24,000 San Diegans. Check out the aerial photo below and notice the airport to the north, homes to the south, and the library (circled in red).

Aero Drive

Mission Valley

The Mission Valley library is one of the newer and larger branches in the system, built in 2002 and sitting at around 20,000 sq. ft. Due to its central location in Mission Valley, its proximity to a trolley stop and major retail stores, its ample amount of space, and its large collection of books, computers, and other resources, this library is probably the busiest branch in the SDPL system that I have visited so far, not including the Central Library.

View from the Stairs to the 2nd Floor

I visited on a Tuesday, and I can only imagine how busy the library is on weekends. Nevertheless, the size of the library and the many different rooms and patios extending off of the main room provide ample quiet and secluded spaces. The architectural structure of the building is similar to that of the City Heights branch in that the library consists of one large room with a tall ceiling and a terrace at the back of the library that overlooks the main floor.

View from the 2nd Floor Balcony

The second floor also has a nice covered outdoor seating area.

Outside Seating on the 2nd Floor

Mission Valley is an interesting part of the city. It's certainly not what would be considered a traditional "neighborhood," although there are an increasing amount of apartment complexes and condos being built in the area. Yet, it's an area where people from all over the county congregate-- it's the location of Qualcomm Stadium, where the Chargers and SDSU Aztecs football team play their home games, it houses two of the biggest malls in the city, Mission Valley and Fashion Valley, and it geographically sits at the heart of the city boundaries. It is easy to see, then, why the SDPL system invested in building a large library in this area.

Stacks

Pacific Beach/Taylor

Only a three minute walk from Mission Bay and a five minute walk from the Pacific Ocean, the Pacific Beach/Taylor library is surrounded by the cool, soft, slightly salty breeze that beachfront residents know so well. Although I've yet to visit the La Jolla or Ocean Beach libraries, I suspect that the Pacific Beach/Taylor branch is likely the closest in distance to the shore. It is flanked on the west and south by coastline, both shores located within a quarter mile of the library.

Also, a general note: I'm going to start taking more photographs at the libraries, because my short descriptions don't really do them justice. In general, I've been avoiding taking pictures because I don't want to invade people's privacy, even if it's in a public place, but I can get by taking pictures of exterior areas, meeting rooms, or secluded stacks of books. If nothing else, at least those pictures will give a feel for the interior design of a branch, if not help the viewer to picture its layout.

Main Entrance

It is clear that the architecture and design of the library was planned with the beach at the forefront. The 12,500 square foot structure is designed in a the shape of a nautilus shell, and the shell pattern permeates through the layout of the building through arrangements of the interior design and artwork. Surrounded by various outdoor seating areas, library has numerous windows and no shortage of natural light, including a large skylight that stands over the main circulation desk.

Multipurpose Room/Gallery

The library block also has a small park with grassy hills and sand pit.

Grassy Area

Sand Pit

Pacific Beach is one of the older neighborhoods in San Diego, but holds a youthful vivacity due to its young population and vibrant nightlife. It is home to many college students and young professionals, in addition to families and older folks. This beach itself has a beautiful boardwalk and is a favored area for surfers and other beach-goers, and many popular bars, restaurants, and shops line Garnet Avenue just steps from the shore.

Special Visit: UC San Diego Geisel Library

Although not affiliated with the San Diego Public Library System, the Geisel Library is one of the most iconic structures on the University of California San Diego campus, as well as in the city of San Diego as a whole. It is one of the two buildings that compose the UC San Diego Library (the other being the Biomedical Library, located about a 5 minute walk away in the med school), and was constructed in the early 1970s. Originally known on campus as Central Library, in 1995 the structure was named after Audrey and Theodore Geisel (the latter more commonly known under his pen name, Dr. Seuss), who were generous benefactors to the library.

The building consists of eight floors, though the main entrance to the library is on the second level and the third level consists only of an outdoor patio and much of the concrete frame that holds the structure. The first floor is actually underground, and is home to much of the staff only areas, computers and media viewing areas, and specialty material storage such as journals and music score. The second floor is the main entrance to the library and home to different information and assistance desks. The floor contains two large wings, east and west, which each have computers and printers. The west commons on the second floor also holds the special collections and library archives. The fourth through eight floors hold the majority of the library's collection, and also have tables and study rooms around the perimeter of the floors.

Overall, it was an interesting comparison for me to explore the Geisel library after visiting seven SDPL branches thus far. Even without observing the general demographic of the patrons in the building, there is a clear distinction between an academic library at a research university, a library built to enable past knowledge to be studied and shaped into ideas of the future, in comparison to a public library, designed to provide resources to the local community that extend beyond the cover of a book or the dimensions of a screen. Both kinds of libraries have their unique strengths and goals, and visiting them both gives me an appreciation for how broad the role of libraries in our society really extends. 

For more information on the Geisel Library, visit them online:

http://libraries.ucsd.edu/about/us/geisel-building.html