It is being billed as the “city’s living room.”  Its rooftop patio offers stunning views of Halifax harbour.  There is a 300-seat theatre, two cafes, gaming stations, two music studios, dedicated space for adult literacy, a First Nations reading circle and boardrooms for local entrepreneurs.   Halifax’s new $57.6-million gleaming glass library of the future is to open fall of 2014 – a 129,000-square-foot building in the city’s downtown with a unique cantilevered rectangular glass box on the top, suggesting a stack of books.  Environmentally sustainable and architecturally stunning, with elegant angles and lines, it is the first piece of modern architecture to be built in Halifax in decades, and the first major central library to be built in Canada in several years.  Libraries are competing with Google, the Internet and even Chapters and Starbucks, but they are holding their own.  In Canada, library use has increased slightly year after year, according to statistics from the Canadian Urban Libraries Council.  From 2008 to 2013, the CULC tracked an 18-per-cent increase in library use, which includes the population served, attendance at programs and number of programs offered.  In the United States, Sari Feldman, president-elect of the American Library Association, says in the future libraries “will be less about what we have for people and more about what we do for people.”  For Danish architect Morten Schmidt, whose firm Schmidt Hammer Lassen designed the Halifax library with its Nova Scotia partners, Fowler, Bauld & Mitchell, modern libraries are “much more places for social gathering.”  His firm, which has designed large libraries in Europe, including the extension of the Royal Library in Copenhagen, is now designing the New Central Library in Christchurch, N.Z.  The 2011 earthquake destroyed the library.  New Zealand officials toured the new Halifax library recently, and Mr. Schmidt says elements of it are being incorporated into the Christchurch design.  Jane Taber  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/halifax-looks-forward-to-the-opening-of-its-very-own-library-of-the-future/article20090514/

Nonagon  (9-gon) (also Enneagon)  From Latin:  nonus - "ninth" is a polygon with 9 sides.  A regular polygon has all sides equal and all interior angles equal.  An irregular polygon has sides not all the same length or whose interior angles do not all have the same measure.  http://www.mathopenref.com/nonagon.htmll  NOTE that I live in an "apartment of angles."  The walls in the master bedroom form an irregular nonagon.

From a muse reader  Have you ever thought about the use of "if not"?   To me "if" is ambiguous.  Sometimes it amplifies what precedes it.  Sometimes it further defines in a negative sense.  He is overweight, if not obese.  What does this mean?  Think about substituting "but not."  I notice it in speech all the time and I have to think, "what are they trying to say?" 

From the muser:  I think that "He is overweight, if not obese" means overweight and perhaps obese as well.  I think that "He is overweight, but not obese" means exactly what it says.

"if not" 

Meaning 1:  definitely  Nothing if not acts as an intensifier and means “definitely” or “certainly.”

Meaning 2:  and possibly  Similar phrases, such as most, if not all can be very confusing.  You should avoid this phrase unless you are discussing a truly uncertain situation

Meaning 3:  although not  Often, if not phrases are used to connect strong and weak descriptors.

Alex’s welcome was pleasant, if not enthusiastic.  Because enthusiastic is a stronger word than pleasant, we understand this sentence to mean that the welcome was not unpleasant but not very enthusiastic, either.  Here, the phrase if not means “although not.”

Meaning 4:  or even  In a similar sentence, if not may mean “or even”:  You will receive an answer in a matter of hours, if not minutes.  Here, the emphasis is on a rapid response: your answer will arrive in hours, or even minutes.   https://www.noslangues-ourlanguages.gc.ca/bien-well/fra-eng/typographie-typography/nothingifnot-eng.html

"but not"  So far, I've found no definition for "but not" even though it's used frequently (for instance, but not heard, but not limited, but not others, but not too much).  But may be used as a conjunction, a prepostition, an adverb, a pronoun, or a noun.  Some definitions include:  1.  a  except for the fact; b  that —used after a negative; c without the concomitant that  but it pours>; d  if not  unless ; e than  but it stopped.

2.  a  on the contrary , on the other hand  notwithstanding—used to connect coordinate elements  but he did not answer>  but a sword>; b  yet  but proud>; c  with the exception of —used before a word often taken to be the subject of a clause  but the brave deserves the fair — John Dryden>.  Find more information at http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/but

Harold Stirling Vanderbilt (1884-1970) of Newport RI, was a bridge authority whose revisions of auction bridge scoring principles created modern contract bridge, also a system-maker and a champion player.  He was born at Oakdale NY into the richest and most famous American family of that time.  His father, William Kissam Vanderbilt, died in 1920 leaving an estate of some $54.5 million.  Vanderbilt graduated from Harvard Law School in 1910, then entered his family's railroad business, New York Central, founded by his great-grandfather, Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt.  For many years he was a successful business executive.  His greatest fame in competitive fields is as a yachtsman.  His revision of right-of-way rules are still known as the Vanderbilt Rules.  Nevertheless, his lasting fame is more likely to come from his contributions to bridge.  Vanderbilt took up bridge seriously in 1906, and his partnership with J. B. Elwell was considered the strongest in the U.S. from 1910 to 1920.  During that period the contract bridge principle — counting only bid tricks toward game — was often proposed and rejected.  Experimenting with the proposed new game while on a cruise late in 1925, Vanderbilt originated the factors of vulnerability and inflated slam bonuses.  He produced a scoring table so balanced as to make nearly every aggressive or sacrifice bid an approximately even bet, allowing just enough differential to permit the exercise of nice judgment.  Vanderbilt's technical contribution was even greater.  He devised the first unified system of bidding, and was solely responsible for the artificial 1 bid to show a strong hand, the negative 1 response, the strong (16- to 18-point) notrump on balanced hands only, and the weak two-bid opening.  http://www.vanderbilt.edu/bridge/hsvanderbilt.htm

Jackrabbits are hares, leoprids belonging to the genus Lepus.  They are larger than rabbits and were named for their ears which caused people to call them "jackass rabbits," but the name was shortened over time.  Cottontail rabbits are leoprids of the species Lepus sylvaticus.  Their name comes from their fluffy white tail which resembles a ball of cotton.  Hares and rabbits, due to their powerful hind legs, are speedsters.  The hare can reach speeds up to 40 miles an hour while the smaller rabbit can attain speeds up to 20 miles per hour.  http://www.ehow.com/facts_5923054_jack-rabbit-vs_-cotton-tail.html  Find differences between hares and rabbits at http://www.diffen.com/difference/Hare_vs_Rabbit

Paraphrases from Gilead by Marilynne Robinson, winner of the 2004 National Book Critics Circle Award, and winner of the 2005 Pulitizer Prize  

Nursing a grudge--many people are tender of their resentments, as of the thing nearest their hearts. 

Oh, the strange riches of summer:  these slab-sided pumpkins and preposterous zucchinis.  

I've led a seemly life so long, I'm almost beginning to like it.

NOTE:  The town of Gilead is based on the real town of Tabor, Iowa in the southwest corner of the state.

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1183  August 27, 2014  On this date in 1776, Battle of Long Island:  in what is now Brooklyn, New York, British forces under General William Howe defeated Americans under General George Washington.  On this date in 1859, Petroleum was  discovered in Titusville, Pennsylvania leading to the world's first commercially successful oil well.