bookingaroundthetwincities:

Whooo’s at this library?
Owl sentinels line the East Reading Room of the University of Minnesota’s Walter Library. Count them and you’ll discover all 225 owls are blind except for one—a sculptor’s wry commentary on the value of formal education, perhaps. A careful renovation completed in 2002 has preserved the library’s elegant marble columns, gold gilt ceilings and rich wood trim, but hidden behind the walls and floorboards are hundreds of thousands of feet of modern computer cable. Built in 1922, Walter Library was once the central hub of the University’s library system. Today Wilson Library has taken on that role. Although Wilson Library offers a bounty of resources, its drab reading rooms can’t compare with Walter Library’s warm arts-and-crafts ambiance.