I took a break from painting the condo this morning and walked to Salt Lake City’s Big Beautiful Library. Even though the library was being constructed when I last lived in the area, I never had a public library card in Salt Lake City before. So I went into the library as a totally new library patron. Although I didn’t explore the whole library in detail, I think I am a fan. There’s a nice glass atrium/lobby with some shops and cafes. I went to Marc Fossen’s favorite comic store Night Flight Comics, and picked up a couple comics. They don’t really have a big enough manga section for me, but I’ll probably stop by there to pick up regular comic books. The ground floor of the library demonstrates some lessons from retail – the large print collection is there along with a browsing collection and many book displays that would help a library patron run in, grab a new book, and check it out without having to spend a bunch of time in the library if they were in a hurry. I spent most of my time on the second floor, where the fiction and YA sections are located. I was pleasantly surprised by the graphic novel collection – they had superhero titles mixed in with Palomar, Girl Genius, and some manga. I also liked the teen zine display and the GLBT section. I checked out Bambi and Her Pink Gun #2, Hikaru No Go #3 and #4, Kaze Hikaru #1, Beet the Vandal Buster #1, and books by Diane Johnson and M.M. Kaye. So it was a good first visit to the library for me!