Your library-loving lady here!
Here's the tower of the 1926 LA Central Library. Gorgeous and visible from my hotel. Entirely dwarfed by the skyscrapers around it but beautiful.
As we walked down 5th street to dinner one night, we passed the north entry, with carvings by one Lee Lawrie and an inscription on the facade (which, the Web tells me, is taken from Richard de Bury's aspostrophe to books in the Philobiblion):
Books alone are liberal and free; they give to all who ask; they emancipate all who serve them faithfully.
We did not see the West entry, which bears another grand inscription:
In the world of affairs we live in our own age; in books we live in all ages.
I adore that I can observe things like this and then go back and review them...get the quotes...via the Web. Oh, and tell YOU about them!