Discover worlds both small and large at the Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall

For most of my life, I’ve been interested in matters of scale — the extremes, from the unknowable vastness of our universe to the microscopic worlds of atoms and subatomic particles.

There’s nothing any more or less “real” about these perspectives than the human scale where I live my life — they’re just out of sight most of the time.

At the Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall, we spend a lot of our time directly engaged with the smaller scale: the immediacy of the here-and-now. We’re helping the patron who is standing in front of us, checking out a book or looking for a particularly elusive piece of information.

But once a year, I have a chance to focus on the big picture view, when I gather all of our accumulated data from the past year and prepare our annual report for the state.

Each face-to-face interaction is so rewarding on its own that it can be a suprise to realize the scale of just how many people we help in a year. The statistics we gather are impactful because we know just how important each interaction is to the person standing at the desk.

April’s special programs also represent a contrast of scales, from micro to macro. The month opens with a special two-day visit from our friends at the South Hills Model Railroad Club, whose extensive and incredibly detailed model railroad track display will be on view in our Lincoln Gallery from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on April 4 and 5.

Folks of all ages can get lost exploring the intricacies of this miniature world, which includes not only houses, businesses and diverse landscapes, but even incorporates unique features, such as a functional carnival and a working volcano.

There’s no need to register — drop in any time to see the display and chat with members of the Club about the ins and outs of this timeless hobby.

By the end of the month, we’ll have moved from the smaller scale to the larger, as we shift our focus to a topic as big as our planet itself.

For the fifth consecutive year, we are proud to join the community in celebrating Earth Day. Our event this year will be from noon to 3 p.m. on April 26. Weather permitting, most of our events will be set up outside — but even if nature doesn’t cooperate, we’ll move everything inside (one advantage of our 35,000-square-foot building).

As in the past, attendees can expect a festive, all-ages event featuring food, live music, games, crafts, face painting and all kinds of environmental education, from live animal encounters to gardening to houseplant care.

Join your neighbors as we consider the complexity and vulnerability of the Earth and its ecosystems, and help us celebrate the beauty of this planet-sized, life-support system we call home.

Between the small and the large, you’ll find an eclectic range of adult library programs throughout April. There’s truly something for everyone.

• The Pittsburgh Classic Movie Club offers two suspense classics in April, “Niagara” (1953) and “Our Man in Havana” (1959).

• Our partner organization, JFCS, hosts a job fair, as well as a special workshop to help job seekers prepare for it.

• The AARP presents a program on adult caregiving.

• We’re also hosting programs on fiber crafts, recycling, true crime, kitchen knife sharpening and an LGBTQIA-friendly class for first-time home buyers.

You can find details on all of our events at CarnegieCarnegie.org/events.

Whether you’re focused on the big picture or the immediate moment at hand, we hope that you’ll bring your perspective to the library soon.