Library Matters

The last week of April is National Library Week. It was first sponsored by the American Library Association in 1958 and observed by many places across the United States. During the time of every year, it reminds us how much libraries have motivated and supported us to read.

The term “Library” was rooted in a Latin word, Liber, which means a collection of books. The place first considered as the library was in Sumer in Mesopotamia, Middle East, where people discovered clay tablets and cuneiform scripts that were organized systematically.

Libraries offer both physical and digital access to reading materials. Their collections range from newspapers, journals, and books to cassettes, CDs, DVDs, or even video games.

Due to the library’s immense collections, they are often arranged in a multi-level system. The most efficient way to access all clusters of books is to place a vertical connection from the Circulation Desk (or Access Service), such as staircases. With this vertical circulation, readers can quickly access various documents and collections.

To make this card, a memory from a neighborhood library came to mind. This library’s atrium staircase reminds us of a WELL feature:

“Evidence suggests that improving aesthetic and atmosphere with design, music and artwork, as well as tailoring motivational signage and prompts to the audience or population the space serves, may help increase intervention effectiveness.” —WELL V03, Circulation Network: Design Aesthetic Staircases

Moreover, individuals typically burn around 2 to 5 calories when climbing a flight of stairs. When climbing stairs for 30 minutes, an individual could burn about 235 calories, almost equivalent to a hamburger with a single patty.

On this momentous day, we placed this card by the elevator so that we would remember to boost our knowledge and health the next time we visited the neighborhood library.