Library book.

Library Shaped Like an Open Book

Liberal, Kansas

The metaphor of entering a library through a giant, open book will probably lose meaning when we all have Cloud data retrieval chips embedded in our forebrains. But for decades the Liberal Memorial Library carried a powerful visual punch. The big concrete book was added to the existing building in 1955, with the entrance door carved through the book's lower facing pages and spine. At the time it was the largest open book library entrance in the U.S., and it remained that way until 1988, when the library cemented over the door and moved the entrance to one side. Now you have to sidestep the book to get into the library, which could also be viewed as a metaphor.