This stairway leads down from the room just north of the Reference Desk at the east end of the Main Hall at Pasadena's Central Library.
At the bottom you arrive in a public area where there are 30 or so (or more) computers available for public use. Just beyond that room is the copy/fax room, also available to the public.
Between the two rooms, a door leads to more of the staff's working spaces.
Soon we came upon rooms of archives. Dan McLaughlin, librarian extraordinaire, author and my guide, knew I was interested in archives because of the novel I'm working on about an archivist who finds something that puts her life in danger.
Dan's an archivist. This is his office. This particular view is so useful to me and it was generous of Dan to show it off.
Lots more people work in that basement. The library has a huge staff.
Who knew? Right there in the library's basement, just about under the Main Hall, there's a shiny conference room that can also be used as a screening room.
I've lost my sense of direction already. Can it be possible that the basement is larger than the main floor's footprint? There is so much down there! We're heading into more archives.
This wowed me. Presidential papers. Really? Well, not originals. Dan told me many libraries have these books.
More and more, on and on. Not glamorous, just hidden and utilitarian and overwhelming. Thank goodness for the big staff, because one brain could not hold all the information about where everything is. Well, maybe a good librarian's brain could do that. Maybe that's part of what makes a good librarian.
See if the room above looks familiar in the following clip from the 1978 film, "Foul Play." I never would have known about this if Dan hadn't told me.
At the end, Goldie Hawn runs out through the Central Library's Main Hall. The Hall is dressed up for the shot with extra shelves to block Goldie's escape. The shot was taken from the same angle where I took a photo from above the Main Hall in my previous post.
