Dan Rodricks: The venerable Pratt library, next to Hopkins, the busiest, brainiest place in Baltimore

Everything Johns Hopkins — the university, the hospital system, the schools of engineering, public health, nursing and business; the music conservatory, and stuff I’m leaving out — constitutes the busiest, brainiest institution in Baltimore. Add the applied physics lab, and it’s probably the busiest, brainiest place in Maryland. Add the Hopkins programs in Washington and overseas, and it might be the busiest, brainiest institution on the planet.

But running fiercely second, at least in Baltimore, is the Enoch Pratt Free Library. 

Attention must be paid, especially if you have not done so for a while, or if you only think of the city’s great library system nostalgically: The Pratt has such a lineup of public offerings, this summer and year-round, that it’s almost overwhelming. Libraries and librarians tend to operate in quiet ways, and the Information Age tends to overload our brains. So you might not have appreciated the totality of the library’s services. 

The Pratt deserves a shout.

After pouring over the long, long list of things to do at Pratt branches, it strikes me that the institution, founded in the 19th Century, fully understands the community it serves in the 21st Century. Far beyond lending books, the Pratt has established programming that both responds to need and inspires lifelong learning. In all its listings, you hear the voice of a librarian beckoning, “Come and try this.” Try making a film without a camera. Take a class in flower arrangements. Learn how to turn a discarded book into a gift, or how to make your own paint from plants, or how to fix a bicycle. Take a stab at paper quilling, even if you don’t know what that is.

The activities I just mentioned are but a few of those listed for adults in the July/August edition of Compass, the library’s bimonthly print publication. But Pratt events for children and teens are even more numerous, and spread throughout the summer and at the library’s many branches: Make ice cream in a bag at the Light Street branch; write some flash fiction at Edmondson Avenue; try 3D printing at Walbrook, or compete in the Super Smash Bros video game tournament at the Hampden, Light Street and Patterson Park branches. There are several events for kids interested in anime, zines and comic books.

I could go on, so I will.

The Pratt offers music: The Corner Pocket Jazz Band performs at the Light Street branch on July 19; former Pratt librarian Bob Burke brings his guitar to the same branch for a set on Aug. 16. The Home Cookin’ jazz quarter performs at the Roland Park branch on Aug. 18, and the Maryland Opera performs for kids at the same branch on July 21.

The library has author events all year. On the afternoon of July 12, finalists in the Little Patuxent Review’s poetry contest read their works at Pratt central. (It’s a virtual event, so you can catch it online.) Also at the central library, on the evening of July 24, fans of Crack The Sky can meet Tyson Koska, the author of a book about the progressive rock band that was adopted as a favorite of Baltimoreans in the 1970s.

In August, the Baltimore-based National Edgar Alan Poe Theatre performs “The Spectacles,” a radio adaptation of a Poe short story that’s surprisingly funny. The performances are at 11 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. at the central library. You have to register at prattlibrary.org to attend.

There are painting and mosaic classes, a book swap at the Edmondson branch, a class in herbal gardening at the branch in Brooklyn, and the branch in Waverly provides all the material you’ll need to make bookends. 

The Walbrook branch has an appealing event in August: “Snacks Around The World.” (Fried grasshopper, anyone?) Also in August, the Cherry Hill branch will host children and families for a back-to-school apple tasting.

You can get free counseling from a social worker or peer navigator at the Pratt. Renters can get advice on dealing with landlords and avoiding eviction. Immigrants, or those trying to help them, can get legal advice in English and Spanish. The central library will offer a class in starting a home daycare business. 

And if you’ve been meaning to join a book club, the Pratt lists 20 of them — for adults, teens and kids — and provides room for their meetings at most branches. The Tome Raiders at the Hamilton branch are reading, “The Orphan Master’s Son” by Adam Johnson, in August. The same month, the Southeast Anchor Library hosts the Passion & Peril Book Club’s discussion of “Rock Paper Scissors” by Alice Feeny. And there’s a banned book club for teens at Walbrook, with the frequently-banned “Identical” by Ellen Hopkins up for discussion this summer.

I could go on, but I can’t.

If you want to dig into this, go to prattlibrary.org.

Enoch Pratt, the Massachusetts-born maker of mule shoes who built a fortune from commerce and banking in Baltimore, founded the library with a gift to the city in 1882. The Pratt opened four years later with 32,000 volumes, four branches and a $1 million endowment. Were he roaming the city today, Mr. Pratt would be shocked at the growth in his library system, then — just a guess — he’d probably sign up for Tuesday morning chair yoga at the Hampden branch.

Dan Rodricks’ column appears weekly in Fishbowl. He can be reached at djrodricks@gmail.com or via danrodricks.com.