After our conversations yesterday, I changed the heading for today’s post. Bookmobiles are libraries, and some of you might want to talk about school libraries, so I just made it libraries, rather than public libraries.
This is the Huron Public Library, my hometown library, although it looked nothing like this when I was a child or the Library Director. The library was renovated and expanded in 2000, years after I moved away. But, I still visit when I’m in town. It’s still beautiful inside and out. My mother lives just a street away, and we can cut through yards and easily walk there.
The library was founded in 1933, and moved to its present location in 1943. It was in a building that had been a school. That’s the library I remember. I got my first library card there when I was in the first grade, and I still have it. I loved that library. I’ve said before that my ambition was to read every book in the library until I realized there were new books added all the time. I don’t remember how old I was when my parents moved us into a house a block north of the library for a week during the summer so they could housesit and take care of three boys who were the sons of the owners. What a glorious week! I walked to the library every day, checked out a stack of books, and returned to the house to lie in the hammock on the screened in porch and read.
I was sixteen when I was hired as a page at the library, to shelve books. I loved that job, and spent two years and subsequent summers working with some of the best library staff I ever knew. I learned so much from them. The Director allowed me to do a little of everything to get a taste before library school. I had a second ambition at this point, to return home as Director of my hometown library.
My first job out of grad school was at the Upper Arlington Public Library, outside Columbus. But, don’t worry. This isn’t a resume. I was lucky enough a year later to return home as Library Director. I met my late husband at the library, and even married him there. The staff tied used paperbacks to the back of my car.
Over the years, I worked at public libraries in Florida, Arizona and Indiana. I could tell you amazing stories about my two years at the Captiva Public Library on Captiva Island. The best part of all those years in libraries, along with the books, was always the library staff I worked with. With a few exceptions, people who work in libraries are wonderful, fun, intelligent, and dedicated to serving people and sharing books.
I’ve worked at libraries I loved, and I like the one I use right now as a customer, The Canal Winchester Branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Library. But, when I look back at a long love affair with public libraries, it’s still the Huron Public Library that has my heart.
Now, what memories do you want to share about libraries or bookmobiles? I love those stories.
It’s 12:30 PM ET, and I just now was able to get into my blog. I’m sorry, everyone. I’ve been here all day, but couldn’t open my blog to comment. What a lousy day for this to happen. I’m sorry.
One of my best memories as a child was the bookmobile. And during junior college I had a job at my local library shelving books. I must admit I was slow at that job because I was so curious about every book on the cart!
Believe it or not, Karen, I slowed down in the children’s department because I loved to read picture books about mice!
Great jobs, weren’t they?
When our youngest daughter was small, her favourite books were the Angelina Ballerina books, about Angelina the dancing mouse. She remembers them to this day.
Oh yes Lindy! We had those too, and my elder daughter, who took ballet and tap classes for some years, absolutely adored them.
Lesa, my absolute favourite part of your post about libraries is what you shared about your late husband and the wedding. So funny about the paperbacks. No wonder you love libraries so much. They gave you not only a career, but some beautiful personal memories to treasure. Lovely.
For myself I have three times in my life that libraries were of particular importance. The first was when our local public library in Calgary, where my family lived at the time, became a lifeline for me and a refuge from a dysfunctional home life when I was in my early teens. I spent many hours and days there soaking up the quiet and the books. Saved me, I think.
The second was when David and I had our three children. SO many trips to the library and so many fabulous books for our children to grow up with. We would never have been able to afford to buy even the tiniest fraction of the number of books the three of them had such fun choosing and reading. I’m sure that library is why they still love reading now.
And the third time a library entered my life in a big way I’ve written about before; but in case some of you haven’t read it, for about ten years I worked in a high school library. The library itself started out as part public library (and where I took our children when they were very small) and part school library, but by the time I began working there it was a dedicated school library, because a brand new public library had opened a mile or so up the road a few years prior.
I loved my time there even though my job was mostly clerical, with added lunchtime crowd control duties for 100+ adolescents on any given day. I had been looking forward to ‘working with books’ but of course there was a lot of mundane work to do – creating book displays, processing newly arrived books to get them ready to go on the shelves; typing up cards and entering the exactingly correct cataloguing info and then filing said cards in the physical drawers of the card catalogue (seems so dated and labour-intensive now!); cutting plastic sheeting to size and covering hardcover books; stamping each book as the property of the library on three specific set pages; etc.
And of course I’ll never forget my first day on the job, when at lunchtime, the Grade 12 grad class prank was to release hundreds upon hundreds of live crickets in the library. They were everywhere! I was finding crickets (dead by then) behind and under shelves for years afterwards. Still, I do look back on those ten years with great fondness.
What great memories Lindy.
Libraries also saved me. The peace and quiet was such a contrast to my home life, and to this day that’s one of the things I love most about libraries, though I’m always happy to see them full of children, and glad the rule of silence no longer exists.
So I suppose what I really mean is a kind of personal peace and quiet; the knowledge that this is a space, full of books and kind people, in which I can just ‘be’.
I agree with Lindy and Rosemary. Libraries were a sanctuary for me too. In high school, with a class I couldn’t stand, I’d spend the hour in the library instead. It’s very relaxing to just walk up and down the aisles of a big library, checking the shelves.
It is relaxing, Jeff. I’m sorry most of you will never have the experience of walking those aisles when there’s no one in the building yet. That’s true peace.
I agree, Rosemary. It was a personal safe place for you.
Lindy, What gentle memories, except for the crickets!
I worked in a high school library before going to grad school. The seniors planned a prank of telling everyone to return their books at the end of the year all in one day. Fortunately, a teacher overheard it, told me, and, after talking to the principal, we ruined their prank by calling the seniors’ books back early. Nothing as bad as crickets! It worked for us, but we could have been overwhelmed.
I’m glad the library was a safety net for you.
Glen has good memories of the Main Library in Dayton, Ohio, where he grew up. The first building used for the library was built in 1888 and occupied a portion of a city block. The rest of the block was a park. Photos of the original building are very impressive. In 1960, work began on a new building on the same block and that was the building Glen used. That building had several renovations and additions after Glen moved out of Ohio and is still actively used today.
Interestingly enough, both of my favorite memories also have to do the main branch of the Birmingham (Alabama) Main Library. My father worked in downtown Birmingham all of his life. He was a shipping clerk for a small department store chain there. As far as I remember, he always took the bus to get to and from work. Every two or three weeks, he would walk from his workplace to the Main Library on his lunch hour and choose 5-8 books to check out, usually art books or history books about World War II, all nonfiction. He would bring them home, on the bus, and read or look through them and then return them on the next visit and replace them with new books. I don’t think I ever saw my father read a fiction book, but he was a good role model for using the library as a resource.
When I was in the last two years of elementary school, my teacher would assign research topics for each student in the class. We may have gone as a group to the main library first, to learn the process; I don’t remember. I only remember that I often worked by myself at the Main Library where I used the card catalogs to look for articles in the Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature. I loved that; I was a born researcher. I was very lucky to have that teacher; I learned to do research papers with a bibliography, properly formatted references, and footnotes at around 12 or 13 years of age, a skill that I used later in college.
Tracy, I loved using those skills of the card catalog and the Reader’s Guide. Like you, I enjoyed the research process, and felt a great deal of pride in doing that, and then properly formatting a paper. Good memories! I know that sounds strange, but they are.
Dayton and Birmingham. Main libraries are so impressive, even today. I’ve been in awe, but once I find my place there, I’m content.
‘Life isn’t hard when you’ve got a library card’ (Lisa Simpson)
‘When I got my library card, that was when my life began’ (Rita Mae Brown)
‘Books sent Matilda a very powerful message. The message was ‘You are not alone.’ (Roald Dahl, Matilda)
I can’t imagine what my life would have been like without libraries.
For me, libraries have always featured more prominently than bookshops, although there are a few of the latter I remember very well.
We had no spare cash in my childhood, so most books came from our weekly visits to Bromley Central Library – as I’ve said before, my first memories of this are sitting on the tiny wooden chairs in the very young children’s section, reading books from the boxes as the sun shone in and the dust motes floated in the air.
It was here I first encountered Mrs H Cradock’s JOSEPHINE books, Gwyneth Rae’s series about MARY PLAIN (the small bear from the Bear Pits at Berne), Patrick Matthews’ TEDDY EDWARD stories and Joan G Robinson’s TEDDY ROBINSON books.
From there I progressed to the Junior Library, but I remember far less about that. The one thing that has stuck in my mind is the date stamp page inside every book, warning us that if that book had been exposed to any infectious diseases, we must inform the librarian when we returned it. This to me seemed so exciting – when I had chickenpox I could not wait to impart this information to the lady at the counter. What did they do with those books? I have no idea.
Eventually I was old enough to go to the library by myself, and it was then that an awful incident occurred. I borrowed a big art book and took it home, stopping on the way to get my mother’s order from the butcher.
The order was liver, and by the time I got to the house the contents of the liver bag had leaked all over the book… I knew I would have to own up, and was quaking in my shoes when I went back to the library. The assistant was very understanding, though I still had to pay for the book – which was fair enough.
Later on we moved to Petts Wood, a nearby suburb with a branch library. My mother worked in central London, so in school holidays I was left alone. I was very happy about this, and used to take myself off to the library, browse all the shelves, build a big pile of books, both fiction and non-fiction, and sit there all morning reading them. (Isn’t one of the joys of libraries the chance it gives you to go down every rabbit hole and explore subjects you didn’t even know existed?)
On the way home I would go to Stanley Wood’s bakery and buy myself a Cornish pasty for lunch, and often a Florentine cake as well (I didn’t worry about calories in those halcyon days..) To me that was a perfect day out; to most other 16 year olds it probably sounded like hell on earth.
At university, my college library was very old and beautiful, but it never seemed to have any book that I wanted. I frequented the University Library, and ugly building with the scariest lifts I’ve ever encountered – they moved constantly and you just stepped on or off, they never stopped. Nobody knew what happened when they got to the top; no one was brave enough to find out. But the very best thing about the UL was its large and noisy tea room – I still remember those fabulous scones, warm from the ovens every morning and afternoon. It made the long walk there and back worthwhile.
As you may have perhaps noticed, I was not cut out to be an academic…
Cambridge Public Library was my next stop; there was nothing particularly remarkable about this one, but I will always remember it as the place I first discovered Barbara Pym. I borrowed EXCELLENT WOMEN, took it back to my flat and lay on the bed for the rest of the day reading it. Oh the joy! Over the next few weeks I went back and borrowed every one of her novels, and of course I’ve been reading them ever since.
I moved back to London for my husband’s job. I was working in the Inns of Court (and loathing it) so I was thrilled to find a nearby library; to that I would scuttle every lunchtime, desperate to escape my horrible colleagues. I think most people (in those days) spent their breaks in one of the many wine bars and pubs; Fleet Street was notorious for hard drinking journalists and their liquid lunches. I was far happier hiding in the peace and quiet that only a library can provide.
We’ve lived in Scotland now for well over 30 years, and I’m a member of libraries in both Aberdeen and Edinburgh. I always took my own children to the library – in the countryside these are often part of the local school, in the cities they are usually separate buildings. I love my own local branch library; the staff are so friendly and the atmosphere so welcoming. We have talks, discussions, book groups, knitting groups, , magazine and jigsaw swaps, and lots of holiday activities for children.
Libraries have played (and continue to play) such a big part in my life; they are places where I always feel welcome, relaxed and happy. I remember going into the Morningside Library in Edinburgh one December, just a few days before Christmas. Outside there was pandemonium; inside was an oasis of calm, and I just sat there and soaked up the peace.
By contrast, I went into the children’s department of the Aberdeen Central Library last Saturday, and it was alive with children – reading, using the computers, doing quizzes, drawing pictures, chatting to the very cheerful library assistants. I’d say 90% of these children were from immigrant families; it was really good to see them all making use of the many things the library has to offer and enjoying themselves.
Bookshops – the first time I remember buying a book of my own would have been in the children’s section of WH Smith in Bromley. It was upstairs, and the tables were stacked with the works of Enid Blyton, Malcolm Saville and probably lots of more subversive authors; needless to say I went for the safe and predictable, so I imagine my first purchase would have been from the FAMOUS FIVE or LONE PINE series.
Armada was a big publisher of those books, as was Penguin’s Puffin imprint (there was even a Puffin Club you could join to be sent updates on all the books), and of course Ladybird was a prolific publisher too (some of those books are now collectors’ items.)
I can remember standing by the table, gazing at whichever book I wanted and working out how much pocket money I’d need to save up to buy it (I got 2 shillings and 6 old pence a week, but the two shillings had to be invested in National Savings stamps, which always had a picture of Prince Charles on them.)
When I was older I used to frequent Foyles on Charing Cross Road. In those days it was pretty chaotic; the books were often muddled up, some sections looked as though they hadn’t been tidied for several decades – and the payment methods were very strange, involving handwritten orders and little tubes to put the money into. Back then the shop was still run personally by Miss Christina Foyle, who used to host literary lunches – though how anyone got themselves invited to those was a closely guarded secret.
Fast forward to Cambridge and to Heffers bookshops (I think at that time they had at least three in the city.) I loved Heffers – not the boring academic areas, but the shelves full of detective fiction, cook books and romance. I still have a copy of Delia Smith’s ONE IS FUN that I picked up in one of their sales – though I remember the late punk and TV presenter Paula Yates saying that, despite what Saint Delia said, (Delia Smith was then riding the peak of her media popularity as a TV cook) ‘One is most definitely NOT fun.’
In the narrow passageways opposite King’s College, wedged in between the Arts Cinema and one of Cambridge’s first vegetarian cafes, was David’s Bookshop. It was compact to say the least, but I whiled away many an hour that should’ve been spent studying browsing their overcrowded shelves of secondhand books.
Back to London, and back to Foyles, though eventually the late lamented Dillons and Ottakars bookshops opened and I liked them both. All that remains of those optimistically launched chains now is Waterstones.
We moved to Scotland. We lived 35 miles outside the city; there were no bookshops on Deeside and home internet was, along with my first baby, in its infancy. I discovered a mail order catalogue called The Book People; it sold remaindered books, and both Freddie and I were well supplied with everything from Mary Stewart to Thomas the Tank Engine.
Years later I moved to Edinburgh; by then charity shops were everywhere, and Scotland’s capital has some excellent ones. Oxfam, Shelter and Amnesty International all have their own bookshops, and of course many bargains can also be found on the shelves of the humblest general charity shop. Cancer Research in Leith sells all its books for 50p each; you don’t have to worry too much about whether or not you already have something at that price. I have conflicting views about how charity shops display their books; if I am having a wander and in no great hurry, I enjoy those who simply pile them onto the shelves in no order whatsoever – who knows what you’ll find? But if I’m in a rush and looking for something specific, all that chaos can be annoying and I prefer a well ordered offering.
In recent times, one of my absolute favourite shops was Bog Myrtle on Skye. It was in the middle of nowhere and housed in an old hall with no saving graces – but the books! There was absolutely NO order whatsoever, you could find ‘modern pig farming’ right next to a thriller, ‘commercial refrigeration’ side by side with a steamy romance. There was also a small café; it didn’t seem to sell much other than chocolate cake, but that was fine with us.
Shortly after our trip the shop was sold. The new owners persuaded a TV makeover programme to come in and ‘transform’ it. From what I could see, what they actually did was ruin it – now it’s just like any other shop, its uniquely eccentric character gone. I suppose many people will prefer it, but I retain a soft spot for that jumble of books – and for the book I bought there, THE ALICE B TOKLAS COOK BOOK, a wonderful record of Alice and Gertrude’s life together, their Left Bank soirees, their tours of the USA, their war work in rural France, and all the exotic, surreal recipes that Alice created to please visiting artists and writers – but always, most especially, Gertrude Stein.
Recently Aberdeen has been blessed with a new bookshop. I did wonder if it would have a hope of surviving – it’s not even in the city centre. I’m glad to say, however, that Somerville books appears to be flourishing; the owner is doing lots of great work with local schools and community groups, and the ambience is such that I want to buy books there, even though I know I could get them cheaper online. So hoorah for independent bookshops, libraries large and small, and the dedicated staff who toil away in all of them.
Love this, Rosemary. Great stuff. We started going to London in 1971 – went to Foyle’s and Hatchards (in Piccadilly) and the book sections of Harrods and Selfridges, and of course 84, Charing Cross Road (which was a different shop from the one in the play by then) and other nearby stores. I totally agree about the insanity of the Foyles system (so called). I was looking for mystery paperbacks, mostly. Instead an one alphabetized section, Foyles had paperbacks separated by PUBLISHER! So you had to know who was published by Penguin or Fontana or New English Library or whatever. Then you’d take the book to the counter, where they would hold the book while they sent you to a second counter across the store to pay, after which you came back to pick up your book.
Crazy. I never forgot that. And I remember Miss Foyle too.
I’d forgotten about Hatchards Jeff. We rarely went there – probably because it was considered ‘too posh.’
I do recall that they had a separate shop just for maps, atlases and travel books.
There was, and perhaps still is, an independent bookshop in Hampstead that people liked, though I’m not sure I ever went there.
Or the quote I like, Rosemary. It’s attributed to Albert Einstein. “The only thing that you absolutely have to know is the location of the library.”
So many wonderful books and quotes about libraries. Those of us who are book fanatics love to dive into libraries and bookstores. My sister, Linda, and I enjoy a trip to a new bookstore. There’s a new one opening in July that we want to visit. When my best friend, Donna, comes in a couple weeks, she said she wants to go to a bookstore or two.
I love to read your memories of libraries and bookstores. And, of course, since you’re in Scotland, all the little cafes and food. (sigh) Thank you for sharing those important places in your life.
Last week I got my second book-related T-shirt. (The first was a quote from Thomas Jefferson: “I cannot live without books…”). The new one says, “A Day Without Reading is like… Just Kidding – I Have No Idea.”
We also have two refrigerator magnets. One is the Jefferson Quote, which we got at Monticello. The other is:
“A room without books is like a body without a soul”
— Cicero
Rosemary, I still love digging through used bookstores. The one I grew up going to is long gone but we recently discovered a charity book barn about 40 minutes from our house in NJ. It’s an old barn loaded with books, all donated, run by volunteers, and everything they earn is donated to charity.
Oh that sounds fantastic Sandy – great place for a rummage!
Sandy, are you aware of The Book Thing of Baltimore? ALL books are absolutely FREE. They are now open one day a month, I believe. Our friend from Baltimore took several of us there during the last Baltimore Bouchercon. Everything you can haul away is yours.
Jeff, I’m not but I don’t get down to Baltimore much anymore.
Rosemary, I remember reading the Teddy Robinson books to my children! We all loved those. I’m glad you made me think of them again.
Oh I’m so delighted to find someone else who’s heard of beloved Teddy Robinson!
My own teddy was called Fred – I still have him. I’ve only just this minute realised that we gave our son that same name! Must’ve been something in my subconscious there!
Rosemary, your son should feel honoured with the name you gave him!
When our youngest was very small she had a teddy bear that she named ‘Green’. When we pointed out that it was actually blue in colour, she changed the name – to ‘Green Blue’. That much loved bear was henceforth always known by that name. She still has it, but has to be careful that their dog Addie doesn’t get hold of it and add it to her twenty or so other stuffed animals of her own. Poor Green Blue would not survive much beyond its current 42 years if Addie got it.
Rosemary, I remember reading the Teddy Robinson books to our children! We all loved them.
I’m glad you made me think of them again.
I love the wedding story!
I’ve always loved libraries, though sadly, I rarely go there these days.
My first was indeed a bookmobile. When I was about 4 or 5 we moved to a new apartment building (we were among the first tenants to live there) on Hoover Avenue (you could look it up), near Queens Boulevard and Union Turnpike in Kew Gardens, Queens, behind what is now the courthouse and Borough Hall and up the hill. It was a long mile across major streets to school. I don’t know where the nearest library is, but we had a bookmobile that parked up the block from us regularly, where we could check out and return books. I know I’m far from the only person who has ever thought they could read all the books in there. I loved that little thing.
We moved to Brooklyn when I was 9 – my father was commuting daily to Bay Ridge (where we live now!) and my mother was pregnant with my sister – and discovered, happily, that we were only two blocks from what seemed like the huge Kings Highway Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library. The shelves seemed to go back forever, they were full of books, and there was a complete second floor Children’s Section (though, to be honest, I didn’t spent much time up there). I could spend hours there just wandering the fiction shelves, looking for things that seemed interesting to me. I liked fat books, which is how I discovered THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO, a book that meant a lot to me. But I must have also looked at the non-fiction, because one of the most memorable things I found and read and loved was I MARRIED ADVENTURE: THE LIFE OF MARTIN & OSA JOHNSON (by the latter). They were American adventurers, pure and simple. They got married when Osa was 16 and he was 10 years older, and traveled the world, exploring and making documentary films. I think they are pretty much forgotten today, but the library taught me about them.
Another thing I discovered in the library was reference books you could read and use there but that couldn’t be taken out. I have always been a sucker for lists, and give me a huge book with, for instance, lists of movies with the full cast and crew, and I can be happy for hours. I first found that in my (smallish) high school library, where I went to skip an English class I disliked, but mostly in college.
I went to Hunter College (part of the City University of New York), and got a great education for, basically, nothing. I think we paid $68 a term registration fee and that was it. My main hangout was the library. I took a bunch of theater courses (mostly with the same professor) and when I discovered the library had tons of plays, I’d borrow them ten at a time. I read every play of the very different, but equally prolific, Noel Coward and Eugene O’Neill. In addition, I took and lot of British history courses, and the library provided me the books to write a paper on the effects of the slave trade on Bristol. In English class, I did a paper on Virginia writer Ellen Glasgow, and the library had pretty much all of her novels and her autobiography, all of which I read for the paper. You’d fill out little 3 x 5 inch slips with the book you wanted and the call numbers and hand it in at the desk. Then you’d wait for your number to come up. I was so constant a “customer” that the librarian thanked me for keeping their circulation figures up!
I should have known how important libraries were to all us us, Jeff. We’re all readers, and, as others said, we could afford the free books at the library. There wasn’t a bookstore around until I was a teen, so the library was where we saw new books and discovered authors. It’s still a place of discovery for me. And, the library staff at the branch I use is always friendly.
Thank you for writing about the bookmobile and then your discoveries at libraries. I appreciate your comment about the bookmobile. “I loved that little thing.”
Jeff, we used to have a copy of I Married Adventure from a garage sale and I read it several times. You’re the only person I’ve ever heard mention it.
jeff, I have just found that Osa Johnson book on Amazon! it looks fascinating.
I too am a sucker for lists, and love reference libraries (except I so often want to take the books home with me…)
Have you just decided not to visit libraries any more, or are there none nearby?
The thing is, now that you can reserve books online, and now that I can download e-books from the library, I find that I just don’t just walk around and browse the shelves the way I used to. Our closest library is pretty small, but the other (older) one is big enough to do it. I just don’t, much.
I’m going to let Jackie talk about her school library experience:
Hi there – In the 90’s, we transitioned to whole language in the elementary schools. I was the teacher director of the 12 classes grades 3-6 including special ed and gifted. The students read in groups of 6 . Sometimes silent reading, sometimes I read a chapter to the class and then they discussed it among themselves. We were training them to use critical thinking skills, drawing conclusions and ways to identify hard vocabulary words. I would interrupt my reading to model each skill aloud . No more textbooks, just good literature that we thought the kids would enjoy. As director I would order all the books. Additionally, We used literature to teach Social Studies and American history. It was a program developed by a brilliant teacher, Carmen Farina, who developed a program she called Making Connections. We would meet at the district office each month and have a book talk about the latest addition to the collection. I ordered class sets of titles for all my classes and we used them in the same way as the other books. Some of my favorites were THE DAY PETER STUYVESANT CAME TO TOWN, PHOEBE THE SPY, THE SECRET SOLDIER, several of the MAGIC TREEHOUSE series, etc. Forgive me it was a long time ago. As far as classroom libraries went we used plastic baskets and arranged them by genre for each group to choose or everybody could read their own title.
Our school library was hopelessly outdated. I spoke to the principal and got permission to weed it and rearrange the furniture. We didn’t tell the guy who was called Librarian with no real qualifications what we were doing. Jeff and a couple of my teachers came with me on a Saturday and we put all books that were obsolete like THE NEGRO IN AMERICA, down the chute which was prearranged with the custodian. We also looked at all the cards and eliminated books that no child had taken out for the last 5 years and we deemed outdated or just awful. When Monday rolled around, the librarian was hysterical. He went down to the basement and started retrieving books. He called me that night and threatened to destroy my house. In the end, we eliminated the position and an aide just kept the library open for teachers to bring their classes. When Carmen became the Superintendent of 3 Districts under Bloomberg, she asked me to be the Director of a federal American History grant and organize Making Connections libraries for all the elementary schools. I just ordered on a larger scale. When many teachers I knew were burning out at the end of their careers, I was having a ball. I even got to organized Saturdays at all the Museums in NYC and lead teacher classes for credit doing book talks about the various selections we had purchased. Sorry for going on so long.
Jackie
Oh, Jackie! I love your experience at your school library, and the whole idea of Making Connections. Although I had good teachers in elementary and high school, I wish we had been doing something like that. It sounds wonderful. That’s coming from the kid who would take my history book home at the beginning of the school year and read it.
I just want to shake that so-called librarian,
Jackie, that was so interesting.
The Making Connections programme is, in my opinion, EXACTLY what schools should be doing. When I was at school every subject was taught in isolation – never was ANY connection made, and it was only many years later that it dawned on me that, for example, while Jane Austen’s characters were taking the waters at Bath, a war was going on across the Channel. (And heaven only knows what was going on in places like China or Nigeria – we simply never touched on most of the rest of the world.)
One of the nerdy things I loved in Lucy Mangan’s BOOKISH was her suggestion that we don’t need to shelve all of our fiction books (she has over 10,000 books)) alphabetically, but can arrange them by subject, genre or anything else we please. The idea of keeping novels by (eg) Irish writers with books about Ireland had simply never occurred to me before, but it makes so much sense.
That school librarian sounds awful, but I suppose he was just terrified of losing control. ‘The Negro in America’ sounds very like the school history books we used to have – full of nonsense about how England (it was always just England) had brought civilisation to the clueless natives of just about everywhere outside Europe. Social Geography was just the same; our books were so outdated that I was really quite surprised to discover that people were generally NOT living in mud huts any more. Embarrassing.
I’m so glad you ended up with such a fantastic job – I’m also quite jealous!
Rosemary, besides The Negro in America, the one I remember was a book about Africa whose map showed French West Africa and other pre-independence colonial era designations. I remember laughing at how out of date they all were. One “current” book stemmed from the Eisenhower Presidency!
BULLETIN:
Just got this email from Lesa:
I can see that other people can reach my blog, but I can’t, and neither can my sister. My webmaster is working on it. If you see this, would you post on my blog that I can’t get it? I’d appreciate it. I’ll be there when I can.
Lesa
What wonderful stories everyone has about libraries! I especially loved Lesa’s wedding story–how perfect! And Lindys crickets! My parents taught me to read by the time I entered kindergarten at age 4, so books have always been in my life. My first memory of a library is the one at Lynnewood Elementary School in Havertown, PA (a suburb of Philadelphia), where I spent second through sixth grade. I can still remember what the librarian looked like, although I don’t remember her name. I was thrilled to learn that the library was open two days a week in the summer, and I was able to walk there from my home and carefully select just two books to read each week. That was torture because I was already a pretty fast reader, so I had to slow down my reading to make it to the next week’s visit.
I lived for many years as an adult in San Jose, CA, and I was a member of both the San Jose and the Santa Clara County libraries–an embarrassment of riches! One memory that stands out in my mind was the day that I gave the San Jose librarian my list of three desired books (the hold system was all manual in those days), and he had all three in the back, brand new as if they had just been waiting for me!
Those two libraries spoiled me by allowing me to put holds on books that wouldn’t be available for several months, when they were published. When I moved to my current home in El Dorado Hills in 2020, I found that the local library is lovely but much smaller, and that the county system doesn’t allow me to place a hold until they actually have the book in their possession. That’s what ultimately led me to become a NetGalley member. But I still get some of my books there. I attend some of their special events, and I love it that I can request books with the Link+ system when they aren’t available at the local branch.
Lindy’s crickets made me laugh, but I know it wasn’t funny at the time. I bet those seniors still talk about it when they get together.
I get it, Margie. I’ve been lucky to work at libraries that had good budgets when I was there, and I could always get the books I wanted. I worried when I retired and was no longer buying the books. But, Columbus has a wonderful collection and system for placing holds. So, I’m content. But, NetGalley is still invaluable!
Do you ever just visit libraries while you are traveling? I’ve seen several of the old Carnegie libraries, two still in use as libraries. And a couple University libraries that made me think “yes, this is what a library should look like”
MM, we often visit libraries when we travel. They are always a good place to sit for a bit and take a break. Plus the librarians are often a good source of local knowledge.
Sometimes, I do visit libraries, MM. Lake Wales, Florida, had the most charming library way back when we visited. I’m sure it’s changed. But, they had a fireplace and rocking chairs in the reading area, and a tent in the children’s department.
And, as Sandy said, we found invaluable information at the library when we went to Hartford, Connecticut. They pointed us to a cemetery we couldn’t find.
Oh yes, I always want to visit the library wherever I am.
And sometimes I must admit it’s not for strictly literary reasons – the other day I was in Arbroath, not the most salubrious of towns, and desperate for the bathroom before I boarded the bus to Edinburgh. There was not one single shop that was likely to have a toilet, and the ones in the only shopping centre had been closed.
I suddenly realised that the most likely place to provide would be the library – and it was. I also had a look around; it was a small library, but beautifully arranged and housed in a lovely old building. Even the most rundown town can surprise you.
Incidentally, when my children were little almost NONE of our libraries had toilets, it was a nightmare. I’m glad to say that times have changed, and now almost all of them do.
I grew up in a small town in New Jersey. My mom worked across the street from the library, and she used to take me to work with me. Not that I hung around her office but instead I would wander across the street to the library and spend hours there. I was there so much the library director would pay me ten cents a day to shelf books.
When I moved to Idaho, the library was an old Carnegie library and it was the coolest. I volunteered there a lot. When I went to college, I worked as a library page. I knew I wanted to be a librarian but Idaho didn’t have school of library science so instead I got a degree in IT. After doing that for 25 years and getting laid off several times, I decided to get my masters in library science. But my emphasis was in database research which I probably should have thought about more cause there a very few jobs in it here. Instead I ended up being a college librarian which was interesting and when they closed the college, I went to work in a public school district which is where I am now. School district unfortunately, consider school libraries a waste of money and I anticipate that they will be phrased out over time. I’m the only librarian in the district who has a masters in library science. A few years ago, my district eliminated the requirement of having library science degrees. It makes for an interesting environment that’s for sure.
Fascinating story, Bev. We have two local libraries – we’re almost halfway between them – and one is a Carnegie from 1898, though it’s a pretty dull building.
I didn’t really know your background, Bev, although I knew you worked in a school library now. I’m sorry your career hasn’t been quite what you wanted.
Evansville, IN, where I worked for ten years before retiring, had three Carnegie libraries. They still operate two of them, ones that opened in 1913. The third was a segregated branch that was demolished in 1970.
Like Bev, I also grew up in a small town in NJ but after moving away for a while wound up moving back there.
When I was a kid the library ran a summer reading challenge. They put up a big poster with everyone’s names on it and you got a round sticker for each book you read. I always ran out of room on the poster halfway through the summer. It wasn’t a very big children’s section so by 4th grade my mom would take out books from the adult section upstairs for me or my dad would drive me to the next town where there was a big used bookstore.
These days the library is part of the county system so you can have books sent over from anywhere in the county. Unfortunately each town is responsible for maintaining and furnishing their library so until recently we had green and orange padded wooden chairs and tables from the 1970s. Sanofi either closed or redecorated one of their buildings so now we have blue, orange, and lime green furniture but at least it’s comfortable.
Either someone doesn’t have a good eye for color, Sandy, or they took what they could get for furniture, and were grateful.
It’s sad when communities, and schools, don’t appreciate their libraries.
Libraries were my place of feeling safe and happy growing up. Two school libraries stand out in my mind and to the librarians who understood a child’s need for books.
In first grade in California, we were allowed to check out two books once a week. I am not sure how I thought to do this, but I would go to the library every morning before school to check out two books. I used variations of my name to eventually have a desk full of books checked out at the same time. We were rearranging desks one day, when the books came tumbling out of my desk. My teacher sent me to the librarian to confess my sins. Thankfully, that wonderful librarian, whose name I do not know, recognized a lonely child with a need for the companionship of books. I was allowed to come everyday and check out my stack of books.
We moved to NC and I somehow managed to perform the same feat, using my real name this time. The librarian approached me to let me know that the 62 books I had checked out well exceeded the limit. I remember these books being lined up along the wall of my bedroom! Perhaps that is where the piles of today come from, still a comfort and joy. The librarian wasn’t angry with me, but I was not allowed to check out more books until all 62 were read and returned. Thankfully, a week of being out of school with chicken pox allowed me to read thru the stacks! I am so grateful for the kindness of those two librarians.
After that, my family acquired a reliable car and every three weeks my mother would take us to the public library And the first place I drove after getting my license was the library!
I love it, Jennifer, that the first place you drove was the library. My parents got me. Used car because I was working at the library six days a week, and they had to drive me there every day.
I love a street-smart (library-smart?) kid who worked around the number restrictions. Yay for understanding librarians!
I’m getting here late today – I couldn’t get on earlier, but am happy to see that the issue has been resolved. I am loving all of the stories! When I was little (before kindergarten), I would ride along with my mother to the nearest town from our farm where she had an egg route. She delivered fresh eggs to various people’s houses, and then we would visit the five and dime’s candy counter (squeaky wood floors, the wonderful smell of roasted peanuts) and then we would stop at the Library (the wonderful smell of books). I invariably made a beeline to the section where I could peruse the horse books. I think that I borrowed the same books numerous times, but since we didn’t purchase books (except the occasional Scholastic paperbacks – how precious those were), this was my main form of access to reading.
Once I was in grade school, I pretty much blew through the section meant for children and wanted to take out books in the teen section. The librarian was having none of that, but did allow me to read the biographies in that section.
In high school, I worked one summer on a janitorial crew and was assigned to the library to dust the shelves. That didn’t work so well, as I spent too much time reading the books that I was moving around!
My career tests always came back with the same result – be a librarian! But I didn’t think that I could live on the pay, so I became an engineer. Fast-forward to my mid forties, I decided to go part time at work so that I could pursue my library degree. Luckily my company supported this and I was able to utilize my new skills designing Sharepoint sites and setting up a knowledge management database. It was heady stuff at the time.
Then my husband retired, we bought a home 4 hours away in Northern Michigan, and we decided that I should quit and move North to a quieter lifestyle. Within 3 months I had a job at the local library and have been there now for eleven years. It was a circuitous route to get where I belonged. Very happy doing what I do. I love seeing every one of all ages enjoying the books, the programs, and the camaraderie only found at local libraries!
Mary, I’m so happy you found your way to libraries, both as a reader and a librarian.
I’m also glad you could finally get into my blog. I was so frustrated this morning, knowing people were here talking libraries, and I couldn’t join in. I didn’t get in until about 12:30.
You took an unusual path to libraries, but, I think that life experience and other work experience helps us.
Mary, I love your library story. I know I should have been a librarian too.
I just wanted to add that there is a great little book called THE LIBRARY BOOK (2012) in which 23 authors ‘celebrate these places where minds open and the world expands.’
Contributors include Karin Slaughter, Lionel Shriver, Lucy Mangan, Kate Mosse, Susan Hill and Val McDermid.
The book was published by The Reading Agency and all profits went to its library programmes.
Second hand copies are available for very little on Amazon UK, so hopefully it is also available in the US.
Rosemary, thanks. I just checked and the library does have one (e-book) copy of THE LIBRARY BOOK, which I was able to put on hold.
Sorry I didn’t get here sooner but I absolutely loved all of the stories about Libraries. Books have always been in my life from a very early age. I’ll add one funny story – when I was in the 8th grade the librarian picked me to work in the library which was quite a big deal – the same afternoon I made the cheer leading squad – both meeting at the same time! Well, of course, I chose cheer leading (more popular) but then spoke to the librarian and she was kind enough to let me work there at other times too.
Well, really, Donna. And, which activity would get you further? Just kidding. I’m glad the librarian let you work there a different time.