Monday, September 8, 2008

Library Love

Spent yesterday afternoon at the public library. Does it get any better than this?
  • Shelves, shelves and shelves of fiction and nonfiction surrounding you
  • Brand-new magazines to read in comfy chairs
  • Quiet, no-stress atmosphere, punctuated by whispers and chairs sliding on carpet
  • Librarians who love research as much as you do
  • Untold information, contained or accessed within these walls
  • Study carrels like hidey-holes tucked into corners
  • Old newspapers on microfilm that bring history oh so close
  • Getting your hands, finally, on that special tome you've been wanting
  • Browsing books, thrilling to the treasures you find, gathering all you can carry
  • Using the cool self-checkout machine
  • Loading it all in the car, driving home with a smile, stocking your nightstand

How do you love your library? Please do count the ways! :)

10 comments:

PJ Hoover said...

I love the library but find trying to keep my kids quiet a bit on the stressful side. Maybe once they're a bit older...

Tabitha said...

I love my library! Walls and walls of books, fellow book lovers, nice librarians, and that wonderful quiet ambiance.

I love it even more when I bring my kids, because they love books as much as I do. It's a treat when we go to the library...which my oldest son and I will do this afternoon. He's as excited as I am. :)

Carrie Harris said...

I adore our library! I like going early so that my children don't bother other people, and they have plenty of things for the kids to do so that mommy can feed her book addiction!

Marcia said...

Thank you all for visiting. My Internet was down ALL DAY yesterday, and it feels so strange to be without it that long!

Anyway, sometimes it depends on whether a library has a sizable children's room. I think some are a little easier to manage than others, depending on the space they can allot to it and where it is in relation to the adult section.

I always loved bringing my kids to the library. It was such a great thing that we could do together. And if I wanted to get something outside the children's section -- not that frequent with me :) -- the puppets and other items often kept them occupied while I did that.

And an item I didn't mention in the post -- putting books on hold online! Oh, it is just TOO easy to do that! :)

Anne Spollen said...

I was one of those weird kids who would spend most of a Saturday afternoon in a library. I always felt enormously "safe" there. That sounds strange, but that was the feeling: it was just a very comforting place.

I still go once a week, and I still feel the same sense of safety there.

Marcia said...

I feel a sense of "all's right with the world" when I'm in the library. I guess that's a lot like safety.

Did you ever have fantasies about being locked in the library all night? I find that lots of library lovers have.

Anne Spollen said...

Well, maybe it's because I grew up in NY City that made me think of safety...but yes, that's it: all is right with the world when you're inside the library.

And yes,I would love to be locked in with all those books for a night. I guess we are incurable book nerds.

Marcia said...

Ah, NYC. I see. I grew up in a town of only 10,000. Big or small, I guess the library means the same thing to us book nerds. :)

Brenda said...

I worked in a library close to 20 years ago and things were so different...we had to keep everyone so quiet...now parent's don't have to be afraid to bring their children to the library...our library has the children's library on a different floor, so if you want a quiet spot, you can still have one...

I love the smell of a library...the smell of accomplishment, history, humor, etc.

Marcia said...

Hi Brenda! I worked in a library, too! I am aghast to realize it was 29-33 years ago -- 1975 till 1979, to be exact. We had the children's and adults on different floors until we got a new building, then the children's was a separate room on the same floor with adult nonfiction. I think most of the "Shhhh" has been gone for some time. When I was working there, a boy and his mom came in and the boy remarked that his brother was due to have surgery. My co-worker innocently inquired what was wrong. The boy proceeded to announce what part of his male sibling's anatomy was sore, at the top of his lungs!