Discovering The Libraries Of Stonington, Mystic And Pawcatuck

While most members of the workforce head off to an office each workday, I wake up and head down the hall to my home office, or to a coffeehouse, sometimes even my car.

The home office is appealing for its closeness, the coffeehouse for the caffeine and often the company of the other customers, the car—well there’s not really anything wonderful about that it’s just a reality. But on the days I don’t find myself working out of the car, after the cafe becomes too noisy and the caffeine makes me too jittery, when the home office is too solitary, my mobile office often becomes a library.

Libraries are in constant juxtaposition. They’re full of community events that bring people to them and quiet corners to steal away in, absorbed in a book or laptop. Books organized neatly on shelves meet the chaos of newspapers and magazines askew on tables. Dusty, worn research books versus electronic versions on sleek new computers.

And Stonington residents are lucky to have a number of libraries to choose from. Each library the Westerly Public Library, the , the and the Stonington Historical Society’s are unique, so unique that some days I find myself at two if not three.

With its odd shape design and artifact-filled interior, the R.W. Woolworth Library doesn’t exactly make a good office—it’s small and there aren’t a ton of seats—still the library’s worth a stop in because the staff can almost always answer even the most bizarre of questions about Stonington’s past.

The Westerly Library is is the opposite of the Woolworth Library. The . Big open windows throughout the library’s floors create a light, airy atmosphere ideal for gazing out of when the right words don’t easily come to the computer screen.

But when looking for a library to hide away in there is no better place than the Mystic & Noank Library. More than any of the other libraries, this library feels like stepping into an old friend’s house. And in a way the Mystic & Noank Library is an old friend—it was the library I walked to as a child—and the to when its necessary to really concentrate on that book or the work in front of the laptop.

Escaping back to the borough, the Stonington Free Library is closest to my present home, and as such, it is the library I stop in the most. Sometimes simply to pursue the latest event flyers or ask a question. The library is often a hub of activity, especially just after the schools let out. But the back corner of the main floor offers comfortable chairs to sit in, gaze out the window, work and be removed and yet part of the chaos all at once.

Each library is an integral part of my work week, offering quiet, comfort, history and answers.