Maybe we’re lucky in Pittsburgh, but we have the best of both worlds at the main branch of the Carnegie Library. You can take a tour of where I work 2 or 3 days per week:
http://www.clpgh.org/locations/main/tours/virtualtour/
It’s fantastic. It was built by Andrew Carnegie in 1895 and most of it is original. I get inspiration from the 20 foot ceilings and hand made ornamentation everywhere you look. They simply don’t build things like this any more. There are quiet reading rooms, large tables, plenty of light, and oh yeah, a Crazy Mocha coffee shop in the building. I use a cell phone dongle on my laptop and most people know that email is my preferred communication method.
If I need a break, I can look at priceless artifacts in the Carnegie museum through the windows in the open stacks. Or just get the world’s most disgusting hot dog at the “O” a block away. If I need inspiration, that’ll either make me or break me.
One of these days, I’d like to make the claim that some incredible technology of the 21st century was conceived in an edifice borne out of the some of the best technology of the 19th century.
“My aspirations take a higher flight. Mine be it to have contributed to the enlightenment and the joys of the mind, to the things of the spirit, to all that tends to bring into the lives of the toilers of Pittsburgh sweetness and light. I hold this the noblest possible use of wealth.” - Andrew Carnegie at the Dedication of Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, November 5, 1895.