A few weeks before PLA 2026 in Minneapolis, MN travel conditions were looking worse and worse. The partnership leadership team of Urban Librarians Unite has some challenging travel needs and as we watched conditions get worse out of NYC we decided to throw caution to the wind and make a road trip out of it. Ostensibly it would be easier on Lauren’s nerve pain and would keep me out of proximity to ICE, which nobody in the org trusts me to be around. In the end it was remarkable. What started as a way to avoid travel stress turned into a remarkable journey through seven states with stops along the way at remarkable and inspiring libraries.
We left Brooklyn, NY early on a Sunday morning full of coffee and ambition. Our first stop was the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, open on a Sunday and busy as could be. It is a gorgeous, fresh, innovative building that is part of a thriving hub of cultural institutions. Staff were completely on top of things but unobtrusive despite every table being occupied. They were welcoming and happy to hear about what we were doing and encouraged our journey. There was a zine creation space, a long library table covered with synthesizers, and a theremin right out there on the floor for you to play with.
As I looked at the program guide, the glass floored stacks, and the freshly painted molding I saw every crazy idea I’ve had as an administrator in libraries over the last decade come to life and done well. It was wonderful and startling and humbling to see all of it and more—so much more—on display and available to anyone who walked in the door. There’s a great used bookstore nearby and good ice cream.
It was an awesome visit.
Then we got back on the road.
We pushed on to Cleveland before we crashed. When we got there at opening the next morning I can honestly say I have never seen a happier library in all of my life. The Cleveland Public Library is MASSIZE, filling two huge adjoined buildings—one classical, one modern. The collections on show were fun, with Robin Hood ephemera and dozens of chess boards but there were remarkable collections not on show as well like the most prodigious collection of Indigenous language instruction materials gathered in one place that I have ever seen. The director, Felton Thomas, was kind enough to hang out with us for a little bit and talked about how it works best when he gets out of the way.
Well, it’s working great: Old school, new school, this place is just the shit. Lauren made the remarkable observation that nobody we talked to was grumpy or off. Statistically there should be at least one curmudgeon. Well, not that random Monday at the Cleveland Public Library.
From there it was onward to Toledo for the next stop on a busy day. Director Jason Kucsma is a personal friend and an old friend of the organization but he was travelling with his family on a much deserved vacation. The staff who took the time to meet with us, both at his request, and just on the random walk we took were lovely and lively and open and happy to talk about their work and ours. The building is fabulous with incredible art deco murals in the original building and a wonderful rambling rooftop courtyard on the new wing. The absolute star of an already pretty wonderful space is the children’s space. It’s a massive celebration of curiosity and is really more akin to a really great children’s museum than it is to any children’s library I have ever seen.
We finished the day with South Bend, IN, a bright recently renovated library where the staff are putting up the good fight in their community. There was LOTS of VERY hardworking urban library work going on in a space that has a connected community center as part of a kind of public palazzo. Also, another striking children’s space with different levels and an awesome water tower. There was what looked to be a great Friends of the Library Bookstore which was unfortunately closed and they had the library porch swing benches that Lauren flouted as an April Fools prank a few years ago. The community has a lot of very visible pride and trust in this institution and they are doing the work of the public library on every level.
Road trip note here. The border of Indiana and Illinois, near the Chicago suburbs, where your hotel is back off of a highway exit that seems to mostly exist in order to create cul de sacs for motels is a strange, unnerving, and windy place. For my part, an unfortunate round of feetloaf at Cracker Barrel was fodder for jokes for the rest of the trip.
Madison Public Library was soaring and spacious and filled with art and wood, so much wood. Director Tana Elias made time for us and she and her staff seemed to get everything we are trying to do with Urban Librarians Unite and were all super generous with their time and enthusiasm. They do a really great job with how they handle bathrooms and Narcan there, among other things. The children’s room is huge and bright and has an adorable baby jail that I would have loved as a dad of an active crawler/climber. There were wonderful crawl spaces and secret spots for kids all over and a wonderful variety of spaces and privacy options for the adults as well.
When we got to Eu Claire we were both getting pretty tired so when we walked up to the Eu Claire Library we thought we would probably just kinda buzz through. Inside though it was like a magical box, a tardis, bigger on the inside than it should have been. It used all the angles to carve out spaces and separate areas in every direction. There were great views of the river, a special space for tweens, and a cool catwalk. The gallery on the top floor was active with programming and had cool well curated collections on the walls. It was a super refreshing break.
All in all, it was a long trip there and back, thousands of miles, but Lauren and I have been friends for a long time. I listen to pulp horror fiction audio books, Lauren works on her farm in Star Valley. We strictly ration ourselves to one blow out fight per conference and this time we got it out of the way before PLA even began. I think that is pretty good considering we covered more than 2000 miles overland on this trip.
What did we see? We saw that library genius is local. Every library that we walked into was trying stuff out, pushing boundaries, serving people who might not appreciate it or even be ready for it. We saw kindness, curiosity, commitment—all very library worker tropes but all very valid on their own and in their own space. We saw staff who were proud to be part of library, a thing that is greater than any of us but which is always working to inviting to all of us. We saw the best of our communities in service to their communities and it was beautiful and inspiring every minute of the way.
