Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2022-08-31/Serendipity

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In last month's edition of this column, Vysotsky wrote about libraries and the joys of using photos of libraries that are available on Wikimedia Commons. I emailed him about the joys of contributing photos of libraries to Commons and about a project I've been thinking about for a long time. He invited me to write about it in Serendipity and helped choose some of the photos. He'll return next month. --S

Before the pandemic my favorite Wiki activity was taking photos of the small towns in Pennsylvania, especially in central Pennsylvania among the ridges and valleys of the Appalachian Mountains. In almost every small town, I’d park my car at either a church (except on Sundays) or a library. Both were easy to find: the churches have steeples, and libraries usually have road signs (like the ones above). They also usually have free parking and interesting photo opportunities. The libraries were usually the better places to take a break: cool water, clean restrooms, free wi-fi, helpful librarians. and sometimes books on local history. Libraries have done their part in spreading the sum of knowledge from even before the founding of the Library of Alexandria in the third century BC. There’s no better place for a Wikipedian than a library!

Some of my favorite spots are shown below. I never thought I’d run into the Library of Alexandria in a town of 388 people in Pennsylvania. The Halfmoon Township library in Centre County follows the practice of combining the library with the municipal offices, and in this case also includes a pizzeria. Closer to home, the Darby Free Library is one of several libraries that claims to be the "oldest public library in the US." It was founded in 1743 as a subscription library and didn’t become a true public library until 1898. The only building the library has ever owned was designed by a church architect and built in 1872. It looks very much like a church – so I was bound to stop there sooner or later. A Carnegie library is still operating in its original building in nearby Ridley Park.

Last month’s Serendipity column by Vysotsky reminded me of my long held goal: Wikipedia should have at least one photo of every library in the world. Vysotsky insists we need two photos of each – one exterior, one interior. So be it. It won’t be much more difficult.