Central Library After Hours Book Return For Motorists, Not Pedestrians
Our library system is wonderful, I feel fortunate to live just two blocks from the magnificent Central Library, which recently had a $70 million dollar renovation. Returning a few items the other day when the library wasn’t open I realized the renovation included a new return box.
There I am on the sidewalk in my wheelchair looking for the slot to slide the items in.
I had previously assumed the ramp you see behind the library return box was for passenger loading/unloading, but perhaps it is so pedestrians could easily get into the street to return books & videos.
Most other libraries in St. Louis have easily accessed return boxes, not requiring competing with moving traffic. Here are a few examples:
Does someone at the St. Louis Public Library think everyone downtown drives everywhere? Returning books a few blocks away means getting in the car? Another day I asked a librarian at the circulation desk who confirmed they only have the one return box.
It appears the new book return is accessed from below so librarians don’t need to go out with a cart to retrieve items, a wise choice given the volume at Central. Not providing a way for pedestrians to return items without having to enter the street is yet another example how everyone involved either 1) drives and didn’t consider the pedestrian viewpoint or 2) deliberately made a decision to make returns a challenge for pedestrians.
Neither is good.
— Steve Patterson
Good point but not limited to just the City Library. A few of the county libraries suffer from the same fate.
Well there’s a lot of choices; you could motor out to the street and drop your books off, or you could wait and return the books while the library is open, which is normally my choice because I typically like to get new books after dropping off the books I have read, or I guess you could choose to complain.
Or he could helpfully point out a problem, and the library could be happy to fix the problem. It’s probably a violation of the ADA laws, you know, those pesky little things.
Illegal, no. Inconvenient, for some, yes.
I wonder (out loud) if it may in fact be a violation of ADA? If it’s “inconvenient for some” as you say, it may be “impossible for others” (as I say). It’s obviously inconvenient for abled individuals to access the night depository. But it’s nearly impossible for a chair-bound person to access the night depository. In that regard, I believe the 1990 ADA code requires that equal accommodations be provided to both the disabled and the abled. In that respect, applying the principle of logic called con-contradiction, the architect/contractor should make changes that will make access either “inconvenient” for both or “impossible” for both.
Most likely it’s not a violation of the ADA, I’ll check with someone I know at the DOJ to find out. Why is it not a violation? All pedestrians are treated equally. And that’s why I didn’t mention the ADA in my post. My problem is all pedestrians returning books when the library isn’t open must step into the street.
Steve, thanks for making that clarification
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What I find odd is that they didn’t think of multiple options in the first place. All the new libraries in my new home that are part of the Contra Costa Library system (Bay area in CA) which are great facilities have multiple options to drop off library books after hours from curbside to pedestrian to even drop offs that feed directly into the automated system within the library itself. Not sure if it is requirement, policy on part of the county library association or just plain better architects/designers. Heck, it could be limitations on structure itself but simply adding a box that faces the other direction is an easy fix
Another example of poor design, this is probably a custom book drop, or if it is from a catalog surely they have models that allow both auto and pedestrian drops. The fact this is the only drop at the Central Library makes it clear just how little awareness there is about pedestrian and ADA issues in the governance of the city. This is a brand new library (renovated) this is 2013, how can this not be a central concern when we are choking the planet with oil and fossil fuels.
St. Louis city planning reeks of this type of decision making. Why are these types of decisions still so low on the priority list? Especially in this case when a simple change accommodating both constituencies would have cost next to nothing.
The law of supply and demand dictates the auto-centric choices. If there were a sufficient pedestrian demand, that design would have been used. People like their cars. Period.
The demand is that different from 9th and 13th?
And who makes up this law of supply and demand? Guess what, you will get fewer pedestrians if there is not a book drop along the sidewalk. The library itself is a pretty good haul from the street especially for elderly and ADA.
The truth is it has been the strategy from the start, discourage pedestrians in every way possible through public policy and then turn around and say, “see everyone prefers cars anyway”.
The fact is a dual pedestrian/auto centric solution was available but not taken. It describes the attitude of people who care about nothing, if not themselves.
Double Period..
So, let me get this straight. If there is something you ‘demand’, and the supply happens to meet that demand, all those who’s demands (needs, really, in the case of the handicap accessible drop-box) are not met by ‘supply’ are just SOL?
How do you think demand is created, out of whole clothe? Demand is created in a number of ways. MarketingPRopaganda being one of the most insidious of these. But another one is done simply by introducing a product, or in the case of the drop-box, a service, and letting word-of-mouth create demand by spreading the news of a product/service and allowing it to filter out into the consuming public over time.
If the SLPL introduced a drop-box accessible to EVERYONE (you know, every human being), no doubt it would be utilized with great frequency, even those with no disabilities who would prefer not to walk into a traffic lane. One other thing. If the Postal Service, which, I might add, is in the Constitution of the United States, can have sidewalk drop-off, then it would seem here that we have even more precedent for the SLPL to follow, as if their own system didn’t already provide examples.
So there is no return next to the actual accessible entrance under the fancy (but in my opinion ugly) new canopy? I guess they wouldn’t want to ruin their design with something functional.
Actually, this issue might have a fairly easy fix. A sheet metal worker can cut-out access on one of the accessible sides, install a stainless steel hood above it to deflect rainfall, and provide a stainless steel access door with integral chute. Estimated cost: less than $ 4 K
I don’t know how it is designed internally. I presume it was designed to reduce damaging materials being returned. That might present an easy solution.
Library director Waller McGuire hasn’t replied to my email about this issue yet but I expected better.
Heck, just install another box with drop slot facing the sidewalk and have access from the side so books are not retrieved standing out in the road.
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Between your idea and multiple others this is an easy fix that helps that many more patrons would benefit from even if Fozzie thinks only demand from auto centric society should be met.
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Unfortunately, the only person who might demand change is the underwriter whose is covering the libraries liability coverage. It is only going to take one distracted driver and one pedestrian user at the same place at the same time. I hate it when it comes to those thoughts because the only ones who gain are the insurance and lawyers.
Waller McGuire, Executive Director of the St. Louis Public Library on the parking situation at the Central Library:
“Parking is always a challenge, people always ask about that. There’s something about St. Louis and the Midwest, I don’t think anybody would be satisfied unless they could drive up the steps and park in the Great Hall. But we have parking all around us, we don’t have our own garage so actually that’s probably something that we’ll start looking at. Now we are a city library so we’re not out in the country where you can just pave over a meadow and have acres of parking spaces. So people can still find us but there are meters and we’re working to see if we can broad – We have a small lot for patrons but that’s still a challenge for us.”
*Sigh*
Source: “St. Louis on the Air”, KWMU Dec 10, 2012
Waller McGuire, Executive Director of the St. Louis Public Library on the parking situation at the Central Library:
“Parking is always a challenge, people always ask about that. There’s something about St. Louis and the Midwest, I don’t think anybody would be satisfied unless they could drive up the steps and park in the Great Hall. But we have parking all around us, we don’t have our own garage so actually that’s probably something that we’ll start looking at. Now we are a city library so we’re not out in the country where you can just pave over a meadow and have acres of parking spaces. So people can still find us but there are meters and we’re working to see if we can broad – We have a small lot for patrons but that’s still a challenge for us.”
*Sigh*
Source: “St. Louis on the Air”, KWMU Dec 10, 2012