Posts Tagged ‘Denver’

Downtown Denver Public Library

The Denver Public Library Downtown Branch is located on the Southeast edge of the main downtown Denver area next to the Denver Art Museum and Civic Center Park with both the Colorado State Capitol Building, and the Denver City and County Buildings near by. Branch libraries are located through out the city.

The library building itself is something of an interesting architectural piece. On one hand, the building is composed of perfectly normal building shapes and colors, just like you would draw in a picture, and that is its genius. Of course, real buildings typically don’t look like the ones drawn on paper, but this one does. It is pastel colored with each segment of the building forming a perfectly drawn shape, cylinders, rectangles, and squares.

Inside, the Denver Public Library book collection sprawls across four floors. The library Children’s section is on the first floor, as is the Reference Section, and the popular fiction and multimedia section. The top three floors contain the bulk of the library’s books and are categories in the traditional Dewey Decimal System manner.

The library has numerous computer workstations with public Internet access. This can make finding a free one can be difficult despite time limits placed on consecutive usage, as many people camp out for as long as they are allowed online. For that reason, it is advisable to search the library’s card catalog online prior to visiting if you are looking for something specific. Otherwise, a handful of computers scattered throughout the library are marked as being either Card Catalog Only, or No Internet Access. These stations are generally not occupied.

Residents of Denver can use the online catalog to not only search for materials, but also to place books, DVDs, and CDs on hold. The great thing about the system is that in addition to reserving the materials, the user may also choose where to pick up the materials, meaning that there is no need to drive all over town to a specific library to get the book you want. Simply place a hold on the book and select your nearest Denver Library Branch to pick it up.

Denver Public Library Hours

The main downtown branch of the library is open every day, although only for a half a day on Sundays.

However, all local branch library locations are closed on Sunday. Additionally, falling tax revenues have caused Denver and the library system to endure major budget cuts. Unfortunately one money saving method being used is closing branches for additional days. The 2010 Library Schedule of hours has most branches closed on Sundays and two other days each week, so check the Denver Library Hours prior to venturing out.

Denver International Airport

Denver International Airport, or DIA, as it is known serves Denver and the surrounding areas.

The most important thing to know about the airport, is that it is nowhere near Denver. Many locals joke that that airport is actually in Kansas. That is an exaggeration, of course, but it is not without merit.

DIA is technically in Denver, but only thanks to the kind of boundary gerrymandering that is unconstitutional if used for anything other than artificially including airports inside of city limits.

To find DIA on Google Maps, type in Denver, CO. Then, zoom out. Zoom out again. Zoom out again. Now scroll to the right.  Look for a big gray area to the Northeast of Denver.  That is Denver International Airport. You can’t even see the Rocky Mountains from there.

The airport is 40 minutes from downtown in good traffic, but can take significantly longer to reach during rush hour. If you are not going toward downtown, Denver’s only toll road E-470 can get you to the northernmost or southernmost ends of the Denver metro area much faster.

Don’t bother with it for anything close to the center of the metro region. E-470 is a “loop” that doesn’t connect up on the West side that runs around the OUTER edge of the metro area. They say, that in Denver, the only thing further East than E-470 is DIA.

The good news is that parking is relatively easy at DIA compared to other airports at all times except the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. It is also cheaper than a lot of other metropolitan airports with close-in garage parking going for $18 a day and further out, but still walkable parking lots costing $10 for parking.

Unless you are going downtown and staying downtown the whole duration of your trip, rent a car. With the exception of a 15 block area downtown, this is not a walking city.

Every downtown Denver motel and hotel has parking of some sort, and while the locals will complain loudly about the rates, they are much lower than in other major cities. Valet parking at most hotels is about $30 a day with self-park costing $15 to $20 depending upon the hotel.

Taxis are not common except at hotels and a couple of other spots. Otherwise, you’ll have to make a phone call and then wait for one to show up. Cab fare from the airport will typically pay for a full-day of car rental, with a round trip costing you at least what a 2-day rental would cost.

Plan ahead and get a discount car reservation and you might be able to rent a car for the whole week for the same price as a rountrip taxi cab ride to the airport.

If you have ever driven in another metropolitan size city, you can handle driving in Denver.