We’re talking about the brand-new Omaha Public Library Central Library that is weeks away from opening, April 19, 2026. We’ve gathered some incredible behind-the-scenes insights from the librarians, architects, and community leaders who are bringing the vision of Central Library to life.
Getting Ready to Move Into Central Library
Note: This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and readability while preserving the original intent of the conversation. It is provided to improve accessibility and may not be a strictly verbatim record of the audio.
Transcript
Amy:
Those lights are. Oh, yeah. I feel like I'm underneath them. I literally feel like that. I just stepped into, like, this fairy magical land. There. Yeah, that beautiful and amazing.
Maggie:
I've been saying they were going to cure my seasonal depression.
[Musical Transition]
Maggie
Hello, and welcome to the Book Drop on my public library's podcast about books, our community, and the joy of reading. I'm Maggie Peterson, I'm the outreach manager for Omaha Public Library, and I'm joined, as always, by
Amy:
Amy Mather, the partnerships manager for Omaha Public Library.
[Musical Transition]
Maggie:
All right, Amy, I'm sure we've talked about this before. Are you a football fan? The silence just there spoke volumes. Listeners, Amy just stared at me with the blankest expression I've ever seen.
Amy:
I think I know who played.
Maggie:
Who do you think played?
Amy:
The Super Bowl is always around my birthday, so I tend to ignore it.
Maggie:
Tell me who you think played.
Amy:
The Seahawks and the Patriots.
Maggie:
Yes. I don't know why I'm saying that as if I'm like, some kind of authority, I just knew at least that much.
Amy:
And what I love about the Super Bowl, which I have not seen yet, are commercials and it's halftime.
Maggie: That's the whole reason I watch.
Amy:
I mean, that's it, and I always watch it, after which I have not done yet.
Maggie:
So you have not seen the halftime show?
Amy:
No, but I've, I've heard lots of amazingness and, hearts and loves from all over the social media. So I can't wait to see it.
Maggie:
This was a big deal. So here, let me tell you this, I, I went on a deep dive about halftime shows. Yeah. In relation to this one, there has been some controversy out there. There were some people who did not want this particular halftime show. Because, you know what made this especially special as a halftime show?
Amy:
All in Spanish.
Maggie:
All in Spanish. I think incredible.I was doing a little deep dive research on just halftime shows in general. And part of this came from my friend Tom who was telling me about, or Tom or Mark. Well, they listen to the podcast and if I don't say which one said it correctly, they'll be like, it was me. I told you that fact. So one of you men told me about this. This sent me off into, like, a deep dive on halftime shows in general. So the halftime shows before like 1992 or 1993, what were much more in line with what we see at like a college game with like the marching band, which I actually love a marching band in a hip hop song, is like an existential experience.
They used to follow that, that mode, or they would be very family friendly with, like, cutesy little, little acting bits, I don't know, tableaus spread throughout, like an Indiana Jones themed. It's like, oh no, Indy's running from the rock. Okay, now he's going behind here. Oh, here's the marching band. He's playing. They're playing the music from Indiana Jones.
Like, cute. Whatever. But what ended up happening is that in Living Color, which is great, and ahead of its time, which was I mean, how would you describe it? Variety show. Totally free variety show, SNL-esqe. But more edgy. More like young hip like humor. Jim Carrey like, I mean countless names, but they people, J.L,. I know it was one of the, what did they call those girls? Fly girl. Yeah. J-Lo as a fly girl. Like, there's just a number of people who got their start In Living Color. It was at least one, I don't know if they did it for multiple Super Bowl shows. They are Super Bowl shows. Halftime shows. When halftime would start In Living Color would have like a cool thing going on a music act something and it would pulled away so many viewers from the Super Bowl because they're like, I don't want to watch this.
I'm gonna watch In Living Color during during halftime and then go back to watch the game. That the Super Bowl was like, okay, well, we got to step it up and do you know who? Then the next year, what the halftime act was? Michael Jackson in 1993, It was a Michael Jackson concert. Like, I probably
Amy:
Totally remember that.
Maggie:
So then that started the trend of like it's now like an act, like a big music act. And this, I thought also is interesting. I saw this, that Michael Jackson was the act the first year. The next year was I believe, George Strait. It was a country actor. It was the last country act to be the halftime show. Isn't that interesting?
Amy:
That is interesting.
Maggie:
That everything else was like these broad appeal, like pop-rock acts. So you can, like, follow like the trends, kind of like it's I think it's also interesting to go back and look and see like, oh, I remember that person did halftime show. And to see like what year it was, they did it.
There's sometimes just like speaks what was happening in history at the time. So Kendrick Lamar's halftime show last year does hold the record for the most viewed halftime show in history.
Amy:
I keep viewing it,
Maggie:
I do too. It is an incredible art piece and I think it did too.
Amy
I agree, you just you hit the nail on the head. It is an incredible art.
Maggie:
He is an artist. Oh he's won. What did he win? He won that. Well, he won the Pulitzer. He's won like a lot of like I mean, he's won awards, Grammys and things like that. He's also just won awards for like the writing, it's so good. And I think that what we saw last year was, was that in like a physical form that we could actually watch.
I saw the thread then into Bad Bunny doing this entire show in Spanish. It was a visual spectacle, like as somebody who speaks, to me, like I describe my Spanish as three year old Spanish.I think I've told about that, that I was at a park one time with my kid, and there was another little boy there who's going to play with us.
And I saw his mom. We were the only people there. And his mom was sitting on the park bench and she was very pregnant. But I gave her, like, enough of an indication of like, don't. It's okay. Like, we can all play together, like, don't get up and she was okay with that. And but I realized early on that this child only spoke Spanish, and I was a little nervous, but he and I did fine that whole time, but I. So I realized, I guess I used to say I speak bad Spanish. I don't speak bad Spanish, I just speak at a three year old level. Right. And that's motivating. So as somebody who speaks at a three year old level of Spanish. I for the songs, if I wasn't able to like, fully process all of them, I could tell what the song was about based on the beautiful visuals that were going on.
It was a spectacle. Have you seen anything of it, any of, like, any still shots?
Amy:
Lady Gaga?
Maggie:
Oh, Lady Gaga, it had so many cameos. Yeah, it was great cameos. Ricky Martin. Is he a vampire, by the way? He looks exactly like he did in the 90s. He looks so good. So good. Ricky, what are you doing?
Amy: Cute little kid.
Maggie:
So cute. Okay. Oh, yes. No, that was such a beautiful moment. He at one point gives his Grammy, like, to a small child. Like, runs over to this little boy and, like, gives it all that was this idea of, like, dream big buddy. Like it supposed to be like him. He's giving his like. Then there was other little things I've been watching, like little, little breakdowns of it, from like, cultural experience.
So there's at one point that when the Lady Gaga is singing and that she does her whole, whole song. Oh, did you see that somebody got married? It was real.So what happened was that you're listening to Super Bowl halftime show talk, by the way, on The Book Drop. So that couple, invited him to their wedding.
This is a thing. So when I got married, I sent my wedding invitation to, like, a whole bunch of people. I sent it to the white House, to the Obamas. Like, this is like a thing people do now, because then you get like. Like a card back. Usually that's just like, oh, from from, you know, congratulations from the Obamas.
Like, and it's on white House stationery. So you've got like these cool like little keepsakes. And so people will do that. They'll just send invites out now to like their favorite celebrities, because then they get like a they usually get like a cute little thing back of like, oh, congrats, you got married. So this couple invited Bad Bunny to their wedding and he said, I can't come, but would you come get married while I do the Super Bowl?
That was the real wedding. That was their real family that was there. I can't wait to see it. So that played into then, like the visual spectacle that was going on. It's like it's the wedding. And so then Lady Gaga's bit is almost like the reception, the after party. So everybody's dancing. And at one point there's a little boy, like, laid out over three chairs, and he comes over and he gets him up, and it's supposed to be like this, like little touch point in the culture where it's like, no, these parties in these weddings go really late.
It's like the one night the kids don't get bedtimes. Everybody's going to dance and have fun together, and the kids sleep on chairs, and then they wake up and they like, dance again. And like, I just loved. I love the whole thing. The other thing I was going to say is like, if you hadn't seen the visuals of all of the plants that they had, they had so many just like green, leafy, like grass plants.
And they just want you to know before you look at that, each one of those is a person. It is a person inside. So when the Super Bowl halftime stuff started, like like they were like leading into it. So they're showing like shots from the field and it's like, oh look, they're moving all these like grass things and then we were watching.
We're like, oh it's there's like people in there. Oh okay. There's going to be like a moment where like the grass dances, the grass never danced. There's just people inside the grass the whole time.. I want you to go in with that vibe of everything you're looking at, there’s a person inside that grass.
The chatter on Reddit made it make more sense that they were like, yeah. Do you have any idea how long it would take for somebody to pick up a potted thing of grass, take it out onto a football field, go back, pick it up, take it back out. Yeah, it would take way less time. Just hire a bunch of people to wear these big grass costumes and just stand there, like.
And then. Okay, she's done. Walk off. You get everything on and off. I loved it. So if you are like me and you would also like to brush up on your Spanish, this is also a good time to plug that. We have access to Mango Languages. at the library. Have you used mango at all?
Amy:
I have used it a little bit. I probably will use it for my upcoming trip.
Maggie:
Oh, that's right, because you are going on a little trip to Spain. I have brushed up a little bit of my Spanish on mango.
I have actually used it more right now to. I'm trying to learn Karen. Because one of my kids, one of his best friends, her family speaks it. So I'm trying to write. I'm trying to get in good with her mom. Right. So we can do playdates and stuff. It's really accessible. It's actually, I was intimidated about trying to learn it because at least with the Spanish, I'm like, well, I got some background.
I know what I'm doing. Like, that feels easier to to kind of start like truly diving into more than something that I don't feel like I have anything behind. And the, the platform itself, I feel like is so user friendly. It is motivating. It's been really, really nice to try, it's friendly
Amy:
And we have a sister podcast.
Maggie:
We do Libroteca with the beautiful Angela and Adrian. So if you're looking to if you're also going to use the Super Bowl as your, your jumping off point to start achieving some of your goals. We got lots of stuff here to help you.
I started my day at the new library this morning. I was giving my new employee a little tour of the digs because she's not been able to see it yet. So I was able to see where you and I are sitting over at the new Central Library.
Amy:
Yeah, I'm in the corner, they put me in the corner.
Maggie:
We did. We had to. Oh, it was for the good of everyone. So Amy sits in the corner. But the desk, the desks are beautiful, the space, the light, all of it is gorgeous. We have windows. I'm so excited not to be caught off guard when it's a blizzard.
Amy:
Our boss has been over there for probably the past few weeks.
Maggie:
Our boss has been over there so much that when we see her here at our office space now, we go ‘Oh, you're not supposed to be here.’
Amy:
I was kind of shocked. I didn't understand, and I was like, how are you doing? Just like it's so dim in here.
Maggie:
Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Mrs. Queen, going to be in the nice, beautiful, natural sunlight.
Amy:
We'll be over there soon.
Maggie: It does have that new car smell inside the building. It's really pleasant.
Amy:
What are we talking about today?
Maggie:
I feel like we're on point. We are talking about the beautiful new Central library.
Editor:
And now a message from the Book Drops editor. OPL has gathered some incredible behind the scenes stories from the librarians, architects and community leaders who are bringing the vision of Central Library to life from the family friendly areas and the new floor for genealogy and local history, to how this space was designed specifically for you, the Omaha community. Here is a closer look at all that is the new Central Library.
A Place for Community
“This building is going to make a difference for so many people that we're never going to meet, whether it's life-changing, whether it's just a bright spot in their day. But really having a sense of this building isn't for, for us. It's not for me as a staff person. It's for the community. And it's going to make such a difference to people,” said Elizabeth Johnson, OPL’s senior manager of operations. “It's exciting to see it all come together because we've been working on this, by the time it opens, for five years.”
“So Central, I think, is so fun in that it was really designed, in my mind, as a mission enhancement, meaning that it has all the pieces that all of our branches have, but a little bit more,” said Stacy Lickteig, senior manager of community engagement for OPL.
“A Central Library is…The heart. I would say, some people might say the brain, but I would say it's the heart of a system,” said Rachel Steiner, assistant director of OPL. “But with this build in particular, we get to ‘yes, and’ that with great new innovative services that OPL has offered. But we're going to amplify offerings, right?”
“On the first floor, we have a playscape area for our little ones, but we also have a cafe where, you know, maybe I want to sit down and get some coffee with my book club,” said Lickteig.
“And so having Zen there is just kind of playing off of our mission of bringing the community together in an area where, you know, we can provide the fuel for their futures and whatever they are starting for themselves,” said Abby McLeay, owner of Zen Coffee Company. “For me, the library, you know, is a community space. It is somewhere where anybody can go and, you know, meet, learn, read, you know, get access to so many different opportunities just within a local space.”
“I think what I'm most excited about for the new Central Library is the variety of gathering spaces. We have so many that will be, you know, out on the floors, just in the regular public, you know, with Zen coffee and like, the children's area and plenty of places to mix and mingle,” said Maggie Petersen, outreach manager for OPL. “But a wide variety of meeting rooms for so many different needs, I'm hoping that it allows different community members to come use that space, maybe for something more practical of like, ‘oh yeah, we're just going to come have a meeting here’, but then that gets them in the door and then they can see all the other cool things that we have to offer.”
“The commons is in the middle of the first floor with this soaring ceiling, with these beautiful windows that look out to the city garden and that welcomes anyone in to come in and sit down,” said Lickteig. “We have a large community room.”
“We've got technology. We've got all kinds of stuff. As I go up to the second floor, clearly, there's a whole section that's kids. But I also have our Do Space hub that has all kinds of stuff from my little ones and the littles lab all the way up to, gosh, I hope we're getting some of our, you know, older generations coming in and telling us their oral histories, that we're going to do in the memory lab,” she added.
“So we've always offered technology since technology was on the horizon. But with this Central Library, we get a whole technology wing, essentially. And that means we get to experiment with new technologies,” said Steiner. “We get to figure out how those will work for our community, and then we get to figure out how we can bring them out into the branches for all the community to experience, even if they can't come to the Central Library.”
“Particularly. I like the third floor because that's our genealogy and local history,” shared Lickteig. “And this is where really we start to see Omaha come together and show its history, its future, what it is, and all the benefits of really digging in and saying what was and what could be, will happen in that space.”
“I think my biggest takeaway in working on previous libraries was understanding how vast the ultimate user group is,” said Ryan Fisher, with Alley Poyner Macchietto Architecture. “You know, there's the library group, there's all the community members, you know, there's just so many pieces and parts and people involved that it's sort of, you know, the previous work made me realize how much of a civic project it truly, truly is.”
“This was so special to us because it was our own community. And rarely do you get to do a library in your own backyard,” said Nancy Novak, with Alley Poyner Macchietto Architecture.
“Well, this Central Library will literally be in the center of the city. And it's a place that's built specifically for them,” said Nancy Novotny, program manager for OPL. “We've looked at the planning through all different kinds of eyes. How can this be welcoming and engaging to everybody in our community?”
“The people of Omaha value reading, value access to materials, but also value a sense of community,” said Laura Marlane, executive director of Omaha Public Library. “And a library is a place that anybody is welcome and can go to spend time, to spend the day and to connect with ideas and resources, but also connect with people. And Central is designed around the idea of being a space for people.”
“It's really a 21st-century building, and it encourages that kind of connection,” added Marlane.
“Our libraries today are vibrant places, and libraries are not places where librarians are shushing young people,” explained Jeff McWhorter, OPL’s senior manager of branches. “Our libraries are places where there are families engaged in activities. They are doing escape rooms. They're participating in storytimes, music and movement. There are people on computers doing research that they need to do. There are people getting their first library card.”
“I am excited for people to walk through those doors, to really just drop into that space in whatever way they want,” said Amy Mather, partnership manager for OPL. “They can drop in to reflect, to be by themselves, to be in community, to be connected to resources, to get inspired, to get motivated for the next quest in life, so many things.”
“We don't really worry about why you're here. We just hope we have what you're looking for when you get here. And also that everybody is welcome,” said Steiner.
“The point is, you should walk into that space and feel welcome everywhere that you're at. You should feel something that says you belong here. This is for you,” said Lickteig.
A Place for Families
“You know, there's going to be something for everyone in this building, that's the incredible thing of Central,” said Stacy Lickteig, senior manager of community engagement for OPL. “Everyone wants to feel like they're part of something, and a public library allows you to come in and be a part of a bazillion different things, right?
“A huge part of what we, as the library, believe is we want to support early literacy because we know fundamentally supporting those early readers and that development of those early literacy skills will only help our community grow and amplify the greater knowledge, and hopefully, you know, bring them back to the library users in the end,” said Rachel Steiner, assistant director of OPL.
“So our library's collection supports literacy by its, you know, right there in the collection. We have the books and materials for kids to explore, whether they're reading a print book or listening to an audiobook. It's all helping advance their literacy skills and, you know, ability to learn more things,” explained Melanie Feyerherm Schultz, Collection Development Librarian.
“We're also going to have an outstanding children's collection there. We know children's books, children's books in particular, are a huge, continue to be hugely popular across our locations. So we're going to have a really stellar children's collection for families and kids to enjoy when they come to see us,” said Elizabeth Johnson, OPL’s senior manager of operations. “We'll have face-forward shelving, which means it'll be really easy for kiddos to go browse board books, picture books, and find their, find the titles they want to take home.”
“It goes from kind of our earliest readers, our toddlers, our board books into our picture books, into our, you know, just getting into the chapter books into our, you know, now I'm into my intermediate, right, my third and fourth graders, and then I'm moving into young adult,” Licktieg described. “So I love that it shows kind of this growth and it allows this growth. But it also allows you to play and to look and say, ‘oh, maybe that's for me or that's for me.’”
“When you're a kid, there's just so much to explore about the world. And I think being able to have our collection sort of mimic that and include any subject that somebody is interested in is really what, what we're striving for,” said Feyerherm Schultz. “Our collection is really the core of what we do to be able to allow that access of information to anyone that wants it.
“I'm excited at Central to see the indoor playscape when that comes in and how it will open out to an outdoor playscape for kiddos and I think it's great that it's going to be right next to the cafe,” she added.
“So we have an outdoor playscape, and then we've got the indoor that Rodo did. You know, we really thought about nature. We thought about our community. So, inside, it's based on the, our state tree, the Cottonwood,” said Licktieg. “On the outside, the playscape mimics the curve of the river. And so that's kind of interesting.”
“And it's a play area for, you know, for your little ones to engage with. And, you know, that adjacency to the Zen Coffee place where you have the cafe where, you know, mom and a friend can, or mom or dad, they can grab a coffee at the cafe and be able to to watch them in a pretty secure area and still let them just kind of go go crazy,” explained Tom Trenolone, with HDR.
“The ability for this, adaptive or creative play that they've, you know, and I think for most of the folks out there or parents at least, like good energy-burning zone, to let them get it out before you get them, you know, by the time you get them home from the library, they should be ready for a nap,” he added.
“I think it's going to create just a really fun vibe in that building. To be able to sit, read, chat, drink your coffee, watch the kiddos play around, I think that'll be really cute,” said Feyerherm Schultz.
“So as we get into the children's area, I think intuitively people are just going to understand that's clearly the children's department. It gets a lot more, I will say, kind of playful,” said Nancy Novak, with Alley Poyner Macchietto Architecture. “So as you enter their space, they have a really unique, 100-seat story time, kind of tiered, upholstered, bench area. One of the neat, unique features that I think all ages are going to enjoy on that. As you step up, it's kind of the precipice of that 72nd and Dodge intersection. And as those windows kind of wrap around that corner, you can really get up and looking out to almost the highest window down onto that cityscape there, which is pretty dynamic, even though we've got a lot of traffic there. I think the kids are going to find it really interesting to look at from up above.”
“I always love it if I'm at a branch after storytime and you see that kind of immediate connection with, between caregivers and kiddos both before and after. And so, again, really, in designing this space, we're really trying to facilitate that,” said Johnson. “So there's that engagement with literacy. There's engagement with community and neighbors, which is also such a huge part of development, at that age.And I think it's really going to be flexible and welcoming and have all those different kinds of experiences. So you'll find one that kind of resonates with you that day, or maybe more than one.”
“We have great seating for all ages, including seating that accommodates a child and a parent that might want to, you know, kind of cuddle up and read. And then, kind of flanking the end of that towards the south, we have the little labs area,” said Novak.” So activity room, great area for lots of different activities, including the floor, robotics with the mats, arts and crafts activities. And then again, who knows what's coming in the future.”
“No carpeting so we can get messy if we need to. And we can hold fun workshops in there that are STEA- related so we can learn more about science. We can learn about math, all kinds of fun things in there,” said Nancy Novotny, program manager for OPL.
“This is going to be pretty awesome for them to have their own specified space where they can take ownership and know that space is really for them to be themselves and creators, in our community,” said Steiner.
“I talked to one of the artists today who will have artwork in the children's area, and she talked a lot about how as a child, you get inspired by imagery and pictures,” said Amy Mather, partnership manager for OPL. “And I can imagine, like being a small kid walking through that space and just your mind is just opening up to all this imagination and very excited to, like, hear stories and, and, learn and have fun.”
“These are the components of early childhood literacy. And we're going to give them to you in this physical library space. I think most parents are looking for that. And what I love about being at the library, it's free,” said Maggie Petersen, outreach manager for OPL. “You don't have to check in with anybody again. You don't have to be a member. You can just come and offer this really enriching, wonderful experience for your children at no cost.”
“This new building is really huge for us. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to build a branch like this. And this wouldn't have happened without the partnerships that we have. And the investment that the city has made and the consideration that this isn't just a luxury that's provided for the community. It's something that the city really takes seriously,” said Laura Marlane, executive director of Omaha Public Library. “This is an essential in our community. And Central Library will be a go-to-place. It'll be a place where communities welcomed and encouraged to be.”
“We're waiting for you and we're ready for you. Come on in and see what we have. We've got books. We've got computers. We've got fun tech to play with. We've got toys for the kids. We've got an outside space. We've got an inside space. We've got coffee in the cafe. So come and see and stay a while. We want you to stay. We want you to plop down, get comfortable and hang out with us,” said Novotny.
A Place For Finding Your Roots
“That idea that anyone can come to the Central Library, and then find your roots and how your story comes about, I think that's one of the wonderful things,” said Tom Trenolone, with HDR. “We have all these wonderful people that are, maybe have come from either Indigenous people, or they were here, or they're wonderful immigrant stories of so many of us.
“The narrative of the citizens of their community becomes kind of a binding element,” Trenolone added.
“Genealogy and local history, and that third floor is really about giving our community a chance to tell its own story, its own stories,” said Matt Couch, future branch manager for Central Library. “And giving individuals the chance to investigate and learn about their families and tell their family stories.”
“That's what genealogy and local history is exploring,” explained Martha Grenzeback, genealogy and local history librarian. “We're going to have new resources, new spaces, new ways to present things, new displays. And so there's going to be a lot to explore.”
“I think a lot of people are going to come just out of curiosity, they've been hearing about this place, and they're going to want to see it at least once. And our job will be to make sure that it's not just once, but they come and they think, wow, this is wonderful and keep coming.”
“We wanted to create space that, again, still has that visual connectivity to the lower floors. But as you kind of make your way up to the third floor, we also wanted to feel unique in and of itself,” said Nancy Novak, with Alley Poyner Macchietto Architecture.
“But the wood ceiling really gives you this sense of warmth and coziness that we don't... We have that on other floors, but it's handled in different ways.”
“We have a lot of work tables up there, and those that are specific to genealogy and historic research. So a couple of big feature tables where people can spill out and really, like, move materials around and gather together.”
“But the piece for me that's kind of exciting is, we have a huge table coming in. One of those giant tables that's going to sit in the middle of the space. Because what I have noticed about our genealogy and local history folks that come in,” said Stacy Lickteig, senior manager of community engagement for OPL. “It isn’t me in my own little world looking up. It's really people connecting together and saying, ‘hey, I found this’ or ‘I'm really struggling with this, could you help me?’ ‘I saw you did this.’ And people start to have conversations and build a community that they never did before, because everybody is connecting on this, curiosity on this. How do I figure this out? And once you get into that moment, it's such a community effort. And I love that piece of that.”
“We try our best to work together and just collaborate,” said Jess Vermeulen, genealogy and local history librarian. “And I mean, each person's story is different, and each records set's different. I mean, it's just a lot of digging and a lot of researching. And most of the time, even after people leave the room, we're still working on it. Just because that's the kind of interest we have is like, it's a puzzle that we want to solve.”
“The questions are so across the board that one thing I love about working here is you never know what you're going to get when somebody walks in, and you never know where their story is going to come from,” Vermeulen added.
“Our job here is to help people find the things they're looking for. We have a lot of people who are researching their family history,” explained Grenzeback. “Sometimes the history of their homes. They're all looking for something a little bit different. But we have the resources, and I think the knowledge to help them find just the resource they need.”
“We've got a lot of materials in our genealogy reference collection that is going to highlight different ways to access records that might be limited or might not exist,” said Vermeulen. “The same for each group of people. We've got Native American genealogy handbooks. We've got African American genealogy handbooks. We've got reference guides for all these different countries and heritages.”
“I always try to remind people that it's not a one-stop shop. It takes time. It takes digging and it takes a lot of teaching yourself where things exist. But if they exist, we will gladly help you find them,” she added.
“One of the things that you're going to notice when you walk into that building on the first and the second, I guess the mezzanine, too, you can see into this ASRS, right? And you're going to see these bins and think, ‘well, what in the world is in them?’” said Lickteig. “Well, there are books in there. But you know what? A lot of it is going to house our genealogy and local history collection. This is how we actually are able to hold on and safeguard a lot of the memories of our community.”
“The ASRS, which stands for Automatic Storage and Retrieval System, which will be the first one in the United States to be associated with a public library,” explained Trenolone. “But it's one where the ability to kind of, that's kind of where it gives Central its power, because that's where the efficiency of being able to store will be almost double the size of the of being able to double the size of the collection without the need to actually build any more buildings.”
“Think about the memories that we're preserving. Think about the access that is providing for our community,” added Lickteig. “It's a game changer in that it is a climate-controlled area.”
“That history actually belongs to you, not to us. We just get to safeguard it for you. So we are thrilled that not only are we going to have a whole floor that is dedicated to genealogy and local history. We actually have a storage retrieval system that takes up four floors, that can hold up to 700,000 items. Think about the history.”
“I'm really excited about the third-floor genealogy and local history room. It's just going to have a beautiful view. I think it's going to be just a, really a place of calm in the middle of the city where you can come learn about, the origins of your family, the origins of this community,” said Jeff McWhorter, OPL’s senior manager of branches.
“Most of us know what 72nd feels like from street level because we drive it, you know, frequently. Most of us don't know what 72nd is like from these elevated viewpoints, because they're just, those buildings don't really exist at that intersection today. So, you know, as one comes in and works up, you know, the views kind of quiet down,” said Ryan Fisher, with Alley Poyner Macchietto Architecture.
“And Central will be a place where people will be able to dream bigger. There are more possibilities. There's more engagement. There's more technology. There are new collections. There's genealogy. There is so much here for people. And I just want to know that this is the library that they really want to have in their community.” said Laura Marlane, executive director of Omaha Public Library.
“I think sometimes people have a sort of a hangover from bad experiences in school, book reports, stuff like that. My own daughter said ‘I love the stories, but all that paperwork you do looks like homework to me.’ So, I just want to try and convince people that it is about the stories that we're trying to find their stories,” said Grenzeback. “And that is what the library does. Stories. We preserve them, we tell them, and we try to extract them from people.”
“Like once you get started, I don't think you ever finish. You just learn more and more about your family and your community, and that's fun. And then you can really be around other folks who are doing the same thing, and you can learn from each other,” said Amy Mather, partnership manager for OPL. “That's one of the delights I have seen over the years, is people helping people on their quest to find out more about their families.”
Getting Ready to Move to Central Library
Amy:
What are you excited about?
Maggie:
Well, so for me, this whole time, I think the things that I've been like, I'm excited to get out through the magic.
Amy:
I mean, the movers are coming. We are about to open. The time is now. I cannot believe it.
Maggie:
What’s bizarre for me is that when we first moved, when we moved out of the downtown library, when it was going to come down, I was very, very early and just expecting my daughter. And it was weird for me as we were leaving that building and thinking like, God, she's going to be, what, like almost three? She could be like three and a half.
And this building opens. That is an eternity. And yet here we are. She turns three in April. She turns three just before we open the doors. That's bonkers. To me. That time has gone by very quickly. So fast. And it's a beautiful, beautiful building,
Amy:
I love it. I hear so many compliments from folks in the community. They just think it's a beautiful building. They cannot wait to come inside. Yeah, and we can't wait for you all to come inside. I think that's that really exciting part. And I just there's so many aspects of that building that will touch everyone and connect with everyone that I, I can't wait to give folks tours. I can't wait to talk to them more about it.
I can't wait till they get in the door. But for you, what are you the most like? What do you see as like your touch points for central?
Maggie:
So for me, as like from a patron standpoint, I've got lots of stuff I'm excited about as somebody who works there. But as a patron, when somebody lives here, it is a lot of like those family bits.
Like I talked about with my youngest that's going to be able to go, there was so much beautiful, intentional thought put into these spaces for, for families specifically. So we have our, our coffee partner downstairs, Zen Coffee. My kids are growing up in a family where they're not, they're not a stranger to a little treat.
If we're going out, we can get a little scone. Who wants to stop and get a little scone and a little kid's juice in a fun little cup, like, oh, yeah, my children are whimsical. They are whimsical children, so.
Amy:
And Zen Coffee is whimsical. Those lights are. I feel like when I'm underneath them, I literally feel like that I just stepped into, like, this fairy magical land there.
Maggie:
I've been saying they were going to cure my seasonal depression. I don't know if it works that way, but when standing underneath, I'm like, I just feel good, feel great. So we have downstairs at the Zen Coffee, it's, you know, we'll we have cafe seating and there's these beautiful lights. I want to get specific, Amy, because fairy lights just refer to a very specific form of light.
And that's not what is down there. Fairy lights are much more closely aligned with Christmas tree lights. I don’t want the listeners to get their hopes up I also have back to my house. These are like, these. Beautiful, like drop pendant lights.
Amy:
but they also have sound absorption.
Maggie:
I know we're talking a lot about this light fixture, but once people get inside see it you're going to get it like it's so good. We have downstairs at Zen Coffee there's, there's, cafe seating, there's places to sit.
But right next to the cafe seating is this cool little, like, play structure for kids. And then just outside there, you can see through the windows and accessible through a door that's right there, an outdoor play structure with like, music toys inspired by the river or the beautiful Missouri River. That is not necessarily walking distance to our library.
But very important to, where we are, in the country. It's so cool. I, I and that's and that's all even the kids area, the kids area is upstairs. There's even more cool, wonderful things up there. So many cool programs are gonna be happening. We're living in an era where people are getting out more and more with their kids.
Like play. Cafes are a huge thing. I'm taking my kids to play cafes all the time, but a lot of times those play cafes, you have to, you pay like you pay to go play in the pay play area and then you pay. Obviously if you want stuff like from the cafe and this feels more like this is a place where you can actually go do that, you don't have to be paying.
You can come and just be able to explore and play and learn and do all those wonderful things that are going to build up the the synapses in their brains and let them become the geniuses that are going to be.
Amy:
To me, Central Library represents, when you hear people talk about their first library experience for a very formidable library experience where it's just absolutely magic and just it seeps into their soul. This is what Central Library will do, is.
Maggie:
Yeah, I absolutely agree that, like, all the formative. Yeah, like little all the budding librarians that will come in the future. Can't wait. I love it. How about you. What is the thing like you're most it's.
Amy:
Oh my gosh there's so much I'm so excited about other central art that's going to be there. I am so excited about all the meeting rooms and the partnerships room, the community room, all these great spaces for our community use. Just thrilled about it. I'm most excited about our genealogy and local history space on the top floor. It is quite beautiful and magic. And, I always think about genealogy like, yes, it's a lot of people might view that as like a solitary experience.
Like they come in, they do their research, but we have been building it out in such beautiful ways where it has become a community, like we have a great book club that talks about some kind of family history, in the fiction or nonfiction. And that book club has just grown and grown and grown and started here at our temporary location.
And then we'll move over to Central. I also, what I have been delighted and found so much joy and is how people connect with each other through the storytelling of making something. So we've had like collage workshops where you really think about how you can take ephemera or pieces or anything like it could be like an old recipe, a postcard or something like that.
And you make a beautiful collage. You make a beautiful piece of art for yourself that represents you and your family. And I have seen incredible things created at our time here at our temporary location. And we will continue that at Central. And I'm so excited about it.
Maggie:
I've loved those pieces that people have made around that, because I think, and I definitely fall into this trap too, that it's like we have this beautiful, precious and we can't we gotta keep it in a box and we can't.
Well, now no one's looking at it or it's like, it's like you don't have enough room. You don't know what frame to put in it. You don't know how to put in a wall, but it's like, what is it doing if it's just sitting in a drawer? How is that honoring it? And this is another way there's like, you're not destroying it.
You're turning it into something else. That might have more space and, and acknowledgment in your home.
Amy:
And then you can pass that down to your kids or whoever, you know, it would be great, I love it. Yeah. I am so excited to be there.
Maggie:
I had a flash of a thought of like oh you and I should just go through our stuff that we're purging and be like, I found this budget from 2014. I am going to repurpose it now for my own genealogical purposes. It is. Let's make an art piece out of this.
Amy:
It is so interesting. Like what we are finding in our old files. Oh my God was so upset because we moved over here. We didn't have a whole lot of time to purge. Or yeah, we just moved mostly everything over. So this time we did. So it's been really interesting to go through our old files. I love it.
Maggie:
Yeah, that has been interesting. We had a different, facilities manager when we first moved over, and I remember, like, as soon as we got in the building, her being like, do not get used to all of this space.
I know we're in an old shop-ko. Do not think you can fill all of the space with stuff. It's because we're a little bit like coral, and we're going to expand to fit the space that you give us, and we we kind of did. We did an okay job. We didn't go crazy.
I could see the fear in her eyes. And maybe that's why she retired and she didn't. I know she's like, I gotta get out of here. I got you over, I am leaving. Goodbye.
Amy:
But we did actually get the message at the end, and we, will we will downsize and pack appropriately and move over.
Maggie:
I can't wait, I know I am going to have to figure out my knickknacks situation. I'm a knickknack girl.
Amy:
I am too, but I have gotten rid of some. I really have because I'm like, okay, I'm done with this. So I'm going to pass it on to people who I think will. Yeah, they will find delight in it. Yeah.
Maggie:
I will say, we were in a meeting yesterday when we were talking about how, you know, we went from like this size of meeting spaces to this, and then now we're getting even closer.
Like, that is in theory, smaller. And when I was out there today. So I went in with this like, oh my God, we're going to be on top of each other. Like, I know, I know, it'll be a beautiful space, but like, oh my gosh, I was, oh no. But it probably great to set that expectation. And then you walk in, you're like, oh we're great.
We're fine. We're fine. We got space. I just need to be more selective.
Amy:
I will always be happy in a cubicle. I know that's weird to say
Maggie:
I think I probably just need to go down to one duck wearing a top hat. One little tiny rubber ducky wearing a top hat instead of the eight of them that I did have.
So I'm that figure just going to get those are the rubber ducks. Maybe that'll be like a listener special. I know who wants to win a rubber duck for a magazine or office. Yeah, it's got dust on it.
Amy:
So, as part of this episode, we thought we would dive into book selection.
Maggie:
So this was an unusual episode because it was like, how do we what are we going to pick from the books for this one?
Because we're talking about moving to the new Central Library. So we we leaned into the idea of, obviously libraries, but also Omaha and community. Exactly. So I, I'm going to be honest, I kind of struggled with this a little bit. Sure. Because when we were talking about this episode, I feel like we've we've done kind of a library centric episode before, and I kind of already put all my faves in.
So I went back through and so I took a maybe a little bit of a different approach. But we talked about putting in books about library, you know, me, I'm a loose goose. The goose is loose in the building most days. Hop on my back, I will fly you around.
So I started because it is February. We are very close to Valentine's Day when we record this episode. I did have to put in another one of my favorite Emily Henry's.
Amy:
Well, I just finished the one that you book lovers and I love that we love the book lovers. It was so good. Thank you for lending it to me
Maggie:
Yes. Oh my gosh. And now it's been passed around to another coworker because everyone needs to read. Everyone needs to read it. Well, okay, if you liked that one, another one that I would recommend is, Funny Story by Emily Henry does take place in another quaint town, which is what Emily Henry is so good at doing. I got a very kind of feels very Schitt's Creek adjacent.
I feel like a lot of her locations feel very similar. So in Funny Story, the main character is Daphne. She is a youth librarian at, a library in this very small town, who has recently broken up with her fiancé. And through a comedy of errors, she ends up becoming roommates with her fiance's new girlfriend's ex-boyfriend.
I can't remember if they were engaged too. Sure. Essentially, this girl that her fiance is now with is, like, the longtime girl best friend. The girl he always told her, don't worry about. Well, now they're together and like, they're dating and she's perfect. Like, she's like, everything, through, I can't even remember the specifics of why they end up having.
But it's, again, one of my favorite tropes of like, oh, we have to live together. Oh, no. There's only one bed in the hotel room. These are all my favorite tropes, so I'm here for it. They slowly start to kind of befriend each other and find ways to kind of support each other through this breakup. They also start doing it, they also start leaning into the idea of making their exes think that they are now dating.
As a way to get them to be a little bit jealous. Does it work? Wouldn't you like to know? You should read it to find out. It's really good. Very romantic, when I look at the chatter online about Emily Henry books. Yeah, a lot of people say Book Lovers is their favorite. Yeah, I frequently see Funny Story as, like, their second.
Okay, so I can't wait to. That's my that's my plug for it. So if you're looking for another good time, if you've not read that one and you're a fan of like the Emily Henry rom-com, definitely do that one. The rest of these went off on quite a tangent. I stopped trying to adhere so closely to, actual like books that take place in a library and more things we have in the library about Omaha.
One of them I want to do want to bring up to you that Randy might have more of a connection. You should mention these to Randy. I will. So there was a bit, you because you were a transplant. You weren't here when this was becoming, like, a huge thing. So Omaha World Herald published these books called Omaha Times Remembered.
And this was it was definitely the 90s, I believe they were initially available through like, purchase, like through the, the newspaper like that. You could like say, okay, you know, you call in and you write a check and like, whatever. But then they also sold them at, like the, Barnes and Noble and Bookworm and like, all of these places, each one is really just coffee table-esque in that it's it's pictures.
It's mostly just photographs. But it is just historical photos of Omaha, like some professional, but some of just like, yeah, this is this person's grandma took this photo in their house in 1918 or, you know, like, whatever that is, it's such a document of history in Omaha. I remember being obsessed with these books as a kid, because there would also just be like, this took place at this, like this intersection.
And it was in my neighborhood. And I'm like trying to picture like, oh, okay. So like, kids were walking down this street like back then, like kids lived out here, like it's such an interesting look. I don't know, it sounds really simple. They were so meaningful and impactful to it. I love them. We have volumes one, two and three in our collection.
So I would say if you remember, if you grew up with these books, we have them come read them. I think my parents still somehow have these in their house still, but they're so great. Randy might remember them. They were pretty pretty significant in Omaha in the 90s. They were like everywhere. The last thing I have, it's not really a book.
I just looked at, I just searched Omaha and our catalog, and then I decided for my last thing, and what I wanted to do for my last pick is just what I've titled a smattering of historical documents I found while searching for Omaha titles in our catalog. Are you ready? Some of them just made me laugh.
Okay, from 1970. Question mark. It didn't have the exact year. They just it was 70s, Omaha and Administrative Center. 1939 Omaha A guide to the city and the environs.
Amy:
I feel like I actually want to have this framed and put on a wall.
Maggie:
I think we're going to go dig through these. So this is another thing, as I was like doing my little search, some of these indicate they're available, and some of them said that they were not available. And I think it's because they are now packed for the move. So they've been suppressed now
Amy:
Maggie, I, I really do feel like we need to we need to we need to gamify this.
Maggie:
I think we need too. There's there's potentially let me give you a couple other ones. Okay. Oh. Here's a good one. No year listed just called recipes. Try mine. Recipes, Try mine. I want that one was from the Mount View Presbyterian Church in indicates it is a spiral bound book. I think you'll agree with me. Some of the best recipes come from specifically church community cookbooks, and we have them in our collection and they are absolutely without title though.
Just really got to make recipes. Recipes, try mine.No, you try mine. Okay, second to last. And I need you to understand that these are the. These next few phrases are said both with exclamation points. Omaha exclamation point. Chuckwagon of America, exclamation point by William Gibson. Wow. I want to know more about that.
This is my favorite one. 1918 why does Omaha, a city of 200,000 population, rank 12th in bank clearings?
Amy: Oh, I want to know.
Maggie:
I am gonna find out that one was not not suppressed or not indicated that it was unavailable. Which makes me think it's not packed in a box yet. I will be finding that after this.
Amy:
Do you know what I'm surprised you didn't put on there. Something about the blizzard. Oh, the children,
Maggie:
Amy, the children supposed to have it in Omaha. It happened in rural Nebraska.
Amy:
I know, but it's still Nebraska.
Maggie:
I feel these were more light hearted, as opposed to the decimation of a bunch of children. About the blizzard, I think, you know, just so you know, somebody on Reddit recently posted something I got me. Was it the Omaha subreddit? It was definitely Reddit on camera, where I was, what where I was about it. No, it must have been.
It's okay. This is neither here nor there. But somebody had posted something and I had replied back, something about, oh, you know, blah blah blah. And the reply I got back was something about like, oh, that's that reminded me. Did you know about the children's blizzard and blah blah blah? And I had to hold myself back from being like, do not.
I was there when the scripture was written, which don't tell me what is in the old scrolls. No. But like in a friendly way of like, oh, you want to talk about the Children’s blizzard? Oh my God, do you want to talk about the weirdest ways people die in the children's blizzard? We'll talk about that of mine because they're pretty horrific and they were real people. I'm not excited about it, just facts that live in my brain at all times. And I they don't get to come out a lot. What did you pick for books?
Amy:
Well, let me tell you, I love I mean, you know, first of all, Maggie, there's like a million books about libraries, which are and I haven't read a lot of them so when I was flicking through what I have read and what are the books that I haven't read, I thought, I need to get on it.
Maggie:
Isn't that the story of our life every day?
Amy:
It's true. But I thought one of the most one of the books that I thought was like going to be the strongest for me to talk about was really called The Library Book by Susan Orlean.
Maggie:
I mean, that was a huge book, though, when it came out,
Amy:
so huge, and it's such an incredible book you all like. And she was here a few years ago for our foundation with Molly Shannon, super cool. And I listen to the book. It's one I highly recommend listening to it because it's fascinating. It's long, but it is fascinating. And I'll just say the publisher opens up with, kind of a like really sets the book up well, because it's you're like, oh, this is a mystery.
So this is on the morning of April 28th, 1986, a fire alarm sounded in Los Angeles Public Library. The fire was disastrous. It reached 2,000 degrees and burned for more than seven hours. And by the way, they called this something. Remember we talked about this a blue, or invisible flame.
It is something of like, so unusual and unusual. Nobody's ever actually witnessed it. And they did. And I thought, oh my gosh, that I mean that's just wild. So and by the time it was extinguished it consumed more than 400,000 books and damage several hundred thousand more.
So that's of course, investigators are there there. And they try to figure out like what happened. And if somebody set fire to the place and who because they did figure out was arson. So it is a true crime. Very much dropped into this book, but it's also, she really, Susan Orlean loves libraries, and it's her sort of like, homage loves back to libraries.
And so beyond investigating the fire, she really talks about the broader role of libraries in society, from their origins to their adaptation to the digital age. And talking about the different library departments, which I was like, it was so funny. And I was like, oh, okay. So they were talking about budgets and facilities and broken things 100 years ago, and we still talk about those things or sort of the same theme, like the struggles that, you know, we, or the challenges and also the opportunities that we face all the time has been consistent a through line throughout library history.
And I just thought that was like, oh, that's so I loved it. And she did an excellent job of really collecting all this information together and providing that story. So if you are interested and understanding how and what a library, how how it operates on the inside, this is an, it's like a great book. It is the book I have been on have never read anything so exacting as this is how libraries run.
Maggie:
This is like the nonfiction that gets me fired up. It's like it's this narrative style. It it reads like fiction, butt it's nonfiction. It's it's I don't it's a crowd pleaser. I feel like any anybody I have recommended this book to has told me they loved it. It is one of those that it's like, if it has been in your TBR list for a long time, move it up. Read it. It's worth it.
Amy:
So my next pick, which I read last year and I'm pretty sure I talked about this on the podcast, probably I'm a maybe. Maybe not. Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams. Even though it's sort of it's library adjacent because it's about a dictionary. It's about words.
And I actually love books about words or about dictionaries. It's for reference. Oh my gosh, I have read like 2 or 3 books about the Oxford English Dictionary. Mostly nonfiction. I know, it's true. I love books about books,
Maggie:
We need to get off track with this.
Amy:
I just think it's interesting. Okay. But, you know, when I went to library school, I thought I wanted to dedicate my life in to. I mean, this is sort of your, like, library passion. And then you realize, oh, yeah, that doesn't work. To. I love book history. And I thought, well, I want to, like, pursue that avenue, but then I like another master's degree. It's like knowing history, which I'm not really great at. I'm great a lot of things.
Maggie:
But you're good at bar trivia history.
Amy:
I like the the idea of it. I don't like the, activity of it. It's not for me, but I love it for everybody else. But, so this is this. This fills my soul. And this was fiction. So it's a historical novel inspired by the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary, and it follows the story of, a small girl growing up in the scriptorium, which is where they collect all these words and try to find the original, like the cool thing about OED, if you didn't know this…
Maggie:
Oh, you guys are old friends. OED Oxford English Dictionary, my good friend OED
Amy:
They try to find the first time that the word was used. Yeah. And I'm pretty sure of course, this is why I'm not in this, like, bookish history sort of like career.
It's because I'm like, do they show that first or last because it's either, in order of. Yeah, or what's the word, what I'm trying to think. Chronological or reverse chronological, I can't yes. Thank you. And so she is just a her dad works at the scriptorium. It's very male oriented, but she's, like, under the table as a little girl, and she's lost her mom.
And so what do you do back in the day? You take your kid to work and she's just collecting, you know, they're looking at scraps, a piece of paper. Everybody has to write it on this. Very. It's almost like an index card. Like if you want to submit a word to the OED project, it has to be on a three by five card.
I can't remember if that's exact size is, but something like that. So she just collects all these interesting words and then, as she, grows up to be, more attuned to what is happening. It's on the heels of the women's suffrage movement and more World War one, and she starts collecting words that they have dismissed it in the OED.
So like, think about like the, the women at the market who may not have, like it's slang or whatever, you know, she's including like how women all the all the words that women use and I think that's such a cool thing. So I just love it. It was super interesting. And I if you want to just get, you know, dabble into the making of the OED, I think this was a great way to do it.
And then my third one, so the first one was about the book. The second one is about words. And my third one is about Omaha. And I feel like I could not, not talk about My Omaha obsession. Searching for the City by Miss Cassette.
And if you don't know anything about Miss Cassette. So she started, she has a blog, and, she goes out and tries to find the history. It's like she is like Nancy Drew for houses or places, and she's out there trying to figure out the mystery.. She was so great.
But like, this is so adjacent to thinking about our, you know, our local history and our genealogy. And is this genealogy a place? So she focuses on neighborhoods, buildings, architecture and people, which I love. And she investigates and inquires and tries to uncover whatever unique stories the properties have. And she uses land deeds, insurance maps, tax records and old articles.
And she also collaborates with local history enthusiasts. But what I love about this somebody, I think I was somewhere I can remember their like, oh, did you know you can find out so much from a person from their obit? And I'm like, yes, the obits are the best of like, really? I mean, yeah, obits are fascinating. So she is such, she is an Omaha enthusiast, I love it.
And if you want to read more about quirky history and understanding all of that and like how she does it, My Omaha Obsession is the book for you. And also come and like learn about your family or your house. I love house history. We have the Omaha World Herald has archive from like 19 oh my gosh 1888 or something to the present day. So just punch in your like address and make sure you use like I always, you know, wherever I live Avenue you do A-V or A-V-E or spell it out. But it's so fun. So with our house that we live in, I, you know, I live in the house that my husband grew up in, and, so I know what he sold in hi garage salel when he was like a teenager, which was a BMX bike.
And I was like, do you miss the BMX bike? He does, he does. He still wishes he has it.
Maggie:
Actually. If you're out there and you want Randy's BMX bike and what was it by body something 1980 something, please give it back to Randy. Thank you. So we can bring it to the Central Library. Our boss will not have a problem with that.
Amy:
It's true. So, we're excited for you to come to visit the genealogy and Central Library. Like, there's so many stories, in our community. And there's more stories to be created. We are so excited to see you on April 19th. And it's a Sunday.
Maggie:
What are you doing? You're doing nothing. We will have a lot of really fun stuff going on, and it's going to be here before you know it, folks.
Amy:
We got lots of stuff happening on the 19th,
Maggie:
And then we've got tons of stuff happening the rest of that month, like just come in and see us, come see the building, ask your questions, come see the robot.
We can't wait. Yeah, I did see the robot today and she was coming in hot. It's hypnotic. Guys, if you've not come seen the robot, which at this point you haven't, because it's,
Amy:
I think it's a kids love it,
Maggie:
We had we had our, donor preview when, to, see the building when people were in and I. That was one of the places I was posted up, was to be answering questions about the answers. And there was just so many beautiful, lovely people just staring into space, know, watching it. And I was like, too many questions. And there's like, no, I'm just like they were. It's about, okay, it's great, come see us. It's gonna be wonderful.
One last thing to plug. We do have a query of the month. If you are still catching up, we are instead of doing a query the week, we do a query month. Now, we ask the same question every week. And then the last episode that airs that month, we will answer those questions. So for this query, we this month we are asking tell us your favorite local content creators and influencers.
I'm getting tons of people to add to the people that I follow. This has been a really good we've had lots of good responses so far. So good to be good It's been amazing. Amy. I can't wait to get out of this building with you. I'll see you there. Thanks, everybody.
Every book, resource or thing that we mention that we can link to on the internet can be found in list form in our episode description, so if you miss something we talked about, check out that list.
The Book Drop is produced by Omaha Public Library. Our theme music is Trapped in Amber courtesy of the band Lucid Fugue.
Don’t forget to subscribe to The Book Drop on your favorite podcast app and like and follow Omaha Public Library on social media.
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The Book Drop | OPL’s Podcast
Thank you for reading this transcript of The Book Drop. You can listen to the full audio of this and other episodes on all major streaming platforms. OPL invites you to explore these book recommendations, which are available for checkout through the Omaha Public Library.
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