“Cool chairs” at BHC Library

BHC LIBRARY PURCHASES UNIQUELY-SHAPED CHAIRS FOR TOP FLOOR

BY ANDREW TURCK, BIG HORN COUNTY NEWS

Residents walking to the top floor of the Big Horn County Library recently may have noticed a new set of 10 chairs in the shape of no-armed, loopy stick people – or for the more literary, the sketches of hapless banker Joseph K. found at the top of chapters in Franz Kafka’s “The Trial.”

Occupying the brick red and lime green chairs respectively Tuesday afternoon were Little Big Horn College students Zak Ait Ahmoudali typing on his laptop while wearing a backwards baseball cap and Danijel Tasic checking his phone while donning a blue vest.

Ahmoudali, for his part, seemed happy with the accommodations.

“I wish I could take these home with me,” he said.

According to Donelle Boyer, acting director for the library, the chairs were purchased through the combination of aid from the Montana State Library and a $2,500 grant from the Homer A. & Mildred S. Scott Foundation. The chairs were purchased through Arconas, a privately-owned public seating company located just outside Toronto, Canada.

“We were looking up ‘cool chairs for teens’ and these came up,” she said. “We thought we just needed to have them.”

So far, Boyer said, the chairs seemed to have worked well for their general teenage demographic. One teenager who saw them finish placing the chairs seemed initially skeptical, so the staff told him to try them out.

“That was right after school at 3:30, quarter to 4,” Boyer said. “At 7 o’clock, we had to tell him it was time to leave. He said they were very comfortable.”

When the staff brought them in, they all tried the seats as well. Like the teenager, Boyer said she also found them comfortable.

“Some people have to roll out of it, because we can’t get the motion to go straight up,” she said. “It’s interesting getting out of them.”

Boyer said the library is currently trying to revamp the area into a teen-tween for those who are too old for the kids’ room, but might not fit well into the adults’ room quite yet.

“We have a lot of kids that sit outside the building on their phones and iPads and whatever devices,” she said. “This would give them a place inside the building that’s theirs.”

Click here to learn more about bouloum. Bouloum is also available for purchase online.