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Ditch Starbucks and work at the library

52tiger.net

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Re: Ditch Starbucks and work at the library

#61

Post by snippyhollow »

edw519 wrote: post #29

Maybe we're lucky in Pittsburgh, but we have the best of both worlds at the main branch of the Carnegie Library. You can take a tour of where I work 2 or 3 days per week: http://www.clpgh.org/locations/main/tours/virtualtour/ It's fantastic. It was built by Andrew Carnegie in 1895 and most of it is original. I get inspiration from the 20 foot ceilings and hand made ornamentation everywhere you look. They simply don't…

I used to work (a few years ago) at Sainte-Geneviève library (in Paris), and it was as you said: inspirational. You simply "had to" work once there. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblioth%C3%A8que_Sainte-Genevi...

Re: Ditch Starbucks and work at the library

#62

Post by tptacek »

jeromec wrote: post #38
tptacek wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. A bunch of people tried that over the last couple years in Chicago; all of them went bust. There are too many viable alternatives to "rental cubby" to charge enough. And coffee shops of all forms are almost sure-fire money losers.

And coffee shops of all forms are almost sure-fire money losers. I'd never heard that before. Is Starbucks an exception? Does their volume make the difference?

For any piece of real estate that is ideal as a coffee shop setting, one of Starbucks, Peets, Caribou, or Seattle's Best is bound to be the top bidder. The exceptions to this rule are dense metro areas where virtually every corner retail space is an ideal coffee shop location; the problem with this exception is that these spots are spectacularly expensive and serve markets already saturated with coffee shops.

Re: Ditch Starbucks and work at the library

#63

Post by mhb »

RickHull wrote: post #40
alexophile wrote: post #6

In my (biased, but well-founded) experience, it comes down to a question of whether I'd rather be distracted by a cute girl or an old man getting reprimanded for looking at dirty pictures. [bg: I really like libraries - worked at one in the suburbs in high school and have since moved to the city, which exaggerated the weird bits] One thing that's worth noting: if you're on a college campus, a great place to find some…

> In my (biased, but well-founded) experience, it comes down to a question of whether I'd rather be distracted by a cute girl or an old man getting reprimanded for looking at dirty pictures. Ha! Reminds me of my Brooklyn Public Library experience. The building looks fantastic on the outside, but on the inside it is a dreary, institutional wasteland. I had to pick my inspiration up off the floor when I walked in. http…

The cost and monthly fee for a cell modem is pretty negligible compared to the benefit of a rent-free workspace.

Re: Ditch Starbucks and work at the library

#65

Post by blackguardx »

mberning wrote: post #30
alexophile wrote: post #6

In my (biased, but well-founded) experience, it comes down to a question of whether I'd rather be distracted by a cute girl or an old man getting reprimanded for looking at dirty pictures. [bg: I really like libraries - worked at one in the suburbs in high school and have since moved to the city, which exaggerated the weird bits] One thing that's worth noting: if you're on a college campus, a great place to find some…

I came here to post this very thing. When I was working downtown I decided to go to the library during my lunch break. To my surprise there was almost nobody in the library actually reading. However, there were people on every single computer workstation. Glancing over the screens I could see a variety of pornographic images, facebook and myspace pages, and youtube. The library is a great resource, but I was complete…

Pissed that your tax dollars provide computer access to people without computers? You don't approve of the sites they visit, so would you also complain if the books they read didn't meet your approval?

Not everyone in the library should have to read Shakespeare, ya know.

Re: Ditch Starbucks and work at the library

#66

Post by bigwally »

psb wrote: post #18

My bank has a little lobby with a coffee machine where I and a couple others hang out and work. I like to stand up while I work and they have a couple taller tables that work nicely for me.

Sounds like Hetty Green. She made millions working from a bank counter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hetty_Green#Miser

Re: Ditch Starbucks and work at the library

#67

Post by [deleted] »

alexophile wrote: post #6

In my (biased, but well-founded) experience, it comes down to a question of whether I'd rather be distracted by a cute girl or an old man getting reprimanded for looking at dirty pictures. [bg: I really like libraries - worked at one in the suburbs in high school and have since moved to the city, which exaggerated the weird bits] One thing that's worth noting: if you're on a college campus, a great place to find some…

[deleted]

Re: Ditch Starbucks and work at the library

#69

Post by blackguardx »

dhyasama wrote: post #17

I work out the Columbia University libraries, although I'm not a student. For $500/year you can become a Friend of the Libraries and have access to all the libraries. It's a bargain if you consider how much you would spend at a coffee shop. Also, like the article says, fewer distractions and much more space.

I'm surprised they offer such a service. The Columbia U. library is notorious for being stingy with access. As a prospective grad student visiting the campus, they told me that I could have a once-time free pass and that if I ever wanted to get in again at some point during the rest of my life, I would have to become a student.

They even refused admittance to a friend of mine who was philosophy PhD student at U Penn. She was surprised because it is pretty normal to go to other campus libraries to do research for dissertations.

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