West Belmont Public Library

An old-​school small neighborhood branch. The building is of early 1970s vintage, like Edgewater before its recent reconstruction, or the current Roden location. (Actually, it reminds me very much of my hometown library in rural central Pennsylvania, which is not an insult at all, just a point of nostalgia.) West Belmont is very small, really, but a tiny library is better than no library, and I love what these branches do for their respective neighborhoods. On a Saturday afternoon, this location was hopping with activity from patrons of various ages and backgrounds.
It’s so great to see people using the library, especially kids. One entire side of the facility is devoted to children’s materials and activities, with a few shelves of teen stuff on the other side; thus, more than half of the space addresses the neighborhood’s young people.
As I searched for my item, I really enjoyed roaming around. Everything about the interior took me back in time – the wooden tables and chairs, the shelving units, the bulletin boards, the walls. And the smells. So evocative. Those renovated branches are nice but they just don’t smell the same.
Anyway, I was looking for an audiobook and finally found them on the right/​north side of the building next to the reference materials. I’m sure that someone would have helped me had I asked, but I preferred to immerse myself. I hope to find more of these old-​school CPL branches before they’re all gone.

I’m on a quest to visit every branch of the Chicago Public Library system.
TOOOO CUTE. That was my first thought upon seeing the West Belmont branch across the street. It’s a smaller branch, but there is a nice selection of newer and older titles. The music selection could use a few new CDs, but there were a LOT to choose from. It might be because I visited on a Saturday… but this has to be the quietest library! Even with a few kids in the children’s room and a group of Book Beats (summer reading program) volunteers chatting, the branch was verrry quiet! I would pick this as a place to study or get work done; it doesn’t seem like a great location to look for museum passes. And the librarians are on the older side.