Library Crawl
As part of my Master’s program, I would like to visit every Chicago Public Library branch.
I love libraries, and I thought that this goal would…
- Get me out of the apartment
- Help me explore more of the city
- Set me up for academic success
There are 81 CPL branches, so this was going to be a bigger undertaking than I maybe initially had guessed.
One of the first libraries I visited, Blackstone was super cool. It was a pretty bike down the Lakefront Trail. However, it did end up being 2 hours of biking for about 2 hours of studying. While it was a productive 2 hours, I need to be able to do more each day. I’m gonna be sore after sitting for too long somewhere anyways. A double-edged sword of library studying is you generally don’t leave your computer and backpack if you’re alone. So if you want to get up to go to the bathroom or get water, you’re probably packing up your setup. On the one hand, this can lead to more focused and un-interrupted time for me. However, it is not something I can do for much more than 2 hours at a time.
It is also hard to have a big library day like that everyday. I still have chores or errands I need to run. There is a bit of time planning where all I have to go. With over 80 libraries to get to, the Blackstone visit threw some cold water on my plans.
I was talking with my Mom about this one day, and she suggested doing a “library crawl”. This actually turned out to be a great idea, I and gave it a try.
In one day, I visited…
It was an awesome day, and it made me feel way more confident about my ability to go to every library. It was about 2-3 hours of biking. Which I picked a day I did no other workouts, so that seems like a reasonable “workout and commute” period of time. At each library, I would stay for about 1.5 hours. So I got a really solid 6 hours of studying in. Moreover, the trips between libraries took place at a natural break point. I could grab some water, hit the bathroom, enjoy the bike, then feel fresh at the next location.
Each of these locations were at least 30 minutes away from my apartment, but they were all about 10-20 minutes away from each other. And each one after Rogers Park brought me closer to the apartment.
Another interesting thing is that the libraries have different hours. So if one is 10-6 and another is 12-8, you can “library” in one day from 10-8. I didn’t end up needing to do that, but it could be helpful if I really needed to get a ton done, but still wanted to get some library visits in.
The fact that I hit 1/20 library branches in a single day, while having a really good school day as well, makes me super excited for the rest of the visits.
Of course, things do not always go to plan. I tried to do another crawl starting with North Pulaski. However, it was really hot that day and supposed to thunderstorm in the afternoon, so I bailed.
I am sure I will get some friendly weather sometimes this Summer, so I am excited to get more crawls in.