Jan Kaminis Platt Regional Library

There’s yoga that is quiet, relaxing, peaceful and meditative and then there is toddler yoga (chills run down spine). Toddler yoga is the polar opposite of peaceful. Its loud, rambunctious and out of control. Let me do my best Bob Ross impression and paint you a picture. Imagine a group of mommies and daddies sitting in a circle doing the yoga poses that the instructor is modeling. At the same time you’ve got these toddlers who may be doing downward dog or cat pose or cow pose. Basically, they just do whatever the heck they want. And these people are okay with it? What is the yoga world coming to?
Let me back up because this is, after all, a review of a library. The Jan Kaminis Platt Regional Library is located on South Manhattan Avenue in Tampa. The building itself has a drive thru which leads me to believe it used to be some type of pharmacy or grocery store. I absolutely love that they took an old building and made it new again. If I had oodles of money, this would be the type of thing I’d want to do. What else do I love about this library? The lighting. It is super bright in here and easy to see. The stained glass windows located at the back are super unique and look great when the sun shines through them. The seating right below them, green booths that look like they should be in a restaurant, are really cool too. But what originally got me to visit the Jan Kaminis Platt Library wasn’t the building or the cool windows, it was one of the programs they offer for free. Each Friday, at least during the summer, the library holds toddler yoga. As far as I can tell, none of the other branches do that. That’s why I’ve gone out of my way to visit this library twice in the last few weeks.
As I mentioned above this yoga isn’t like any other yoga I’ve experienced. The instructor informs you upfront that she would like the adults to do the poses to model for the kids. However she understands that these are toddlers and they may not be into doing what she is doing. As long as the kids are not barfing, bleeding or wailing, she is totally cool with them doing whatever. After some poses, the kids are led through a bit of counting and marching. Then the instructor breaks out… ready for this… puppets. Yoga puppets?! She’s got jungle animal puppets which she uses to try and get the kids to do a couple of other poses. After that, out comes a parachute and the kids do some rhyming and movement activities with that. Finally, she sits them down and reads a story.
I’ve spent a lot of time this summer trying out the programs that different branches of the Hillsborough Public Library Collective offer. One of the most unique is the toddler yoga at Jan Kaminis Platt Regional Library. That’s why I make the thirty mile drive to participate.
My motto for this branch of the HCPLC: Come for the yoga, stay for the stained glass windows.

Not really sure how I didn’t notice that the rather large gray building I pass on my left almost every morning is a library, and a nice one at that, but now I will never forget! Learning the ukulele has been on my to do list for over a year now so when I heard that the Tampa Bay Ukulele Society partnered with the Hillsborough library system to start a lending program and provides FREE beginners workshops I almost peed my pants!
I as per usual was awkwardly early but it gave me time to read a chapter of my book on one of the cushy coaches and people watch. This library has a nice size parking lot, large drive thru book drop off area, and is very well maintained. The staff was very friendly and approachable. What almost caught me off guard was how excited the staff is for their library. We all know that they have thousands of books to borrow and some DVDs from 1992 that you can rent out but they are really looking to get more involved with the community by offering more interesting resources such as the ukulele lending program.
After such a great experience learning about this library and picking up some chords on my uke I for one will be checking in regularly to see what they have to offer next!

Nice little library. Has lots of light and a big children’s area. We visit frequently to pick up books for the kids. It doesn’t have the biggest selection but we are always able to find a stack of books we want to read. The self-​checkout works very well.

Quick Summary: A modern library with a good location, and lots of parking.
I haven’t been to a library since my undergrad days… when we called them stacks… and if you got lost you could be missing for a few days. I was pleasantly surprised walking into this library, lots of open space, plenty of natural light, plenty of computers available, and very friendly staff.
The number of shelves tells me that they don’t have a lot in-​house (compared to the stacks I remember) but once you have a library card you can request a book from anywhere in the Hillsborough County Library system. Here’s the cool part, you can schedule that request! So if you know when you want to start some new books, you can schedule out a request and have them come to you when you’re ready.
And who knew that you could also borrow digital books from the library?! This whole experience has been very cool, and I suspect I will be enjoying more of my tax dollars at work soon!
Oh, if you haven’t signed up for a card download your library card application and fill it out before you come, save some time! The staff were very quick in getting me into the system and 5 min later, off I went searching for the next great novel!

This library is always well staffed and clean. The materials are always well organized and the selection is vast. My only issue with this location is that it is ALWAYS loud. No one enforced the noise or cares about keeping the library suitable for reading and studying.

The Jan Platt Library has an excellent media selection and it is FREE! Books, DVDs, cds, e-​books are all available with your library card. If this location does not have the book/​cd/​dvd that you are looking for they will find it another Hillsborough location and deliver it to the library for you to pick up.
Reserve the latest new books or dvds on their website
It takes ten minutes to apply for a card. Do it! Do it now!!!

Too noisey!

I was here doing my duty as an american by voting thats all nuthin major…

Pretty busy place — far more so than I expected.
Lots of computers — but sadly no scanners. Hard to believe a place with this many stations wouldn’t have scanners for use. Guess I’ll have to drag mine out of storage.
Considering this building was once a grocery store, its a nice upgrade for the neighborhood for sure.