Mechanics’ Institute Library
LISNews published a post today about a 2004 story on the membership libraries. The main library featured intrigued me as I didn’t know of it before. The Mechanics’ Institute Library and Chess Room was founded in 1854 in San Francisco and is the oldest library on the West Coast and one of the oldest chess clubs in the US. Its’ purpose was to promote adult education, technical learning and industry with collections appropriate to that purpose. The building and collections were lost in the 1906 fire but a new building reopened some four months after.
Since then though, the collections focus has been greatly broadened to include the arts, business, literature and social sciences. But I bet the special collections still have great technical and scientific books. Borrowing is reserved to members but tours are open to non-members.
As the first USF librarian at the Lakeland campus (now Polytechnic), I opened the USF Polytechnic Library in January 2007 and have developed its various services. I've held positions as information broker, Internet consultant and academic librarian in Canada, the US and Europe. A blogger since 2001, I've created and maintained several sites in, and outside, of the biblioblogosphere. I'm active in SLA, and currently serve as on the boards of the Academic Division and the Florida-Caribbean Chapter.
