Garner library building a striking, multi-faceted specimen of architecture

It occurred to me very recently that I've been living in North Carolina for almost a year now, and I hadn't obtained a public library card yet.

I had used the public library quite often in the many years I lived in Indianapolis. Yes, I used it for reading material. But for the most part, especially in the 1990s and early 2000s, I went there much more often to rent musical compact discs (CDs).

At first, before the creation of burnable blank CDs, I'd use the library CDs to make mixed music cassette tapes that I'd listen to on my car cassette player. When burnable CDs finally hit the market, I then launched a project to re-create as many of my mixed tapes on CD -- a considerable challenge considering that most of my tape mixes were on 90-minute tapes and CDs held a maximum of about 70 minutes of content.

The librarians at my Indy library branch got to recognize me and know me by name. Occasionally we'd chat briefly before I headed out. I stopped my CD renting about 10 years ago, which in turn led to a downturn in visits to the library.

So when I went to the Southeast Regional Library in Garner last week, I did so with excited anticipation, remembering how important the library was to me some 25 years ago in Indy. When I stopped at the main desk to inquire about obtaining a card, the women who greeted me kindly asked me a couple of quick questions -- had I had a library in this system before (no), do I live in Wake County (yes) and do I have a picture ID (yes).

That started the process rolling, and as she entered the appropriate information from my driver's license into the library database, I asked her questions about the Wake County Library system. She told me that there the system does not have a "main" library (like the one in Indianapolis does), but it does have a facility, in Raleigh, that is referred to as the system headquarters.

She said the various branches are different sizes, and the ones with the word "Regional" in the name (such as the one in Garner) are the ones that offer Sunday hours. The others do not.

The saddest revelation that came from my "interview" of the library staffer was that, unlike the Indy library system, Wake County libraries do not stock/rent CDs or DVDs/videotapes. None at all. She saw the disappointment in my face. I told her the backstory I explained to you above, and I told her that even though I long ago ceased delving into creating music mixes on CDs, I hadn't completely dismissed the notion to do so in the future. In fact, I thought to myself, who knows I may find myself in a nostalgia funk and want to try something like that again.

The other main difference between the library system here and the one in Indy is obtaining a card -- and replacement cards -- in the Wake County system is free. In Indy, I recall paying a nominal fee (maybe $1 or $2) to get a card and another fee ($5 comes to mind) to replace it. Also, in recent years, the Indy library requires cardholders to renew their cards every three years. I don't recall the Wake County librarian mentioning a renewal process. I just visited the Indy library website and could not find any mention of fees for obtaining a new or replacement card.

The Southeast Regional Library has a distinguished chute-like main entrance as illustrated in the photo leading off the post. I liked the photo because of the way the little girl in the bottom right corner is peeking around the drop-off boxes to check on her the older person she was accompanying.

You can't enjoy the full architectural features of the library from the road or even the front's main entrance. You circle it, which I did. You can see the novel directions and shapes it takes in the pictures below. Oddly, or ironically, on a quick first view (which is all I gave it), the library's interior is not nearly as fascinating. Pretty normal, in fact.

As usual, to pull up a larger, sharper version of an image, simply click on the picture. This is particularly important if you access the blog from a mobile device. To see a full gallery of images from my visit to the Southeast Regoinal Library in Garner, follow the link in this sentence. If you'd rather not visit the gallery, you won't miss much. My shoot was limited to the outdoors, and what you see in this post constitutes the core of my library shoot. The few other photos in the gallery don't really add much to the photo story.

Photo geek stuff: I shot all these pictures with my Canon 6D and Tamron 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD lens equipped with a polarizing filter. I made three exposures of each composition for later melding into one frame using Photomatix high-dynamic range (HDR) software.

The library from one of its shady backsidses (above). After the girl left the area, I got a closeup of the book drop-off bins (below). 

An exit on the backside of the building (above) and a rare (to me, anyway) contained landscaped drainage basin (below). 

Above: If the architecture has a distinguished feature, it would be this rounded, cone-topped element just to the left (as you face the front) of the main, chute-like entrance, which would be off to the right in this view.

And if there is a secondary architectural feature, it would be this staggered, triple jut-out facet depicted in the various perspectives above and in the two images immediately below. I would characterize it as "secondary" only because it is located on the backside of the building, mostly hidden from conspicuous view by the tall trees you see in the second photo below. 

Above: When I was inside getting my card, I didn't notice an area accesible by the public to these attic-like areas on an upper level. So I'm not sure what to make of them.