The Library

[Warph]

I was about 11 years old when I first fell in love with a public library.  Up until then, I had certainly been aware that they existed, even apart from the small one at my school, but they had nothing to do with me.  At that tender age, however, I happened to read J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit," and that literally changed my life.

From that point on, I was never to see one of those little brick buildings without experiencing a sense of wonder and amazement.  Say what you will about the human race, any species that can come up with something as magnificent as "the library" isn't totally worthless.  There are very few things, and none that come readily to mind, that compare to them. 

Artichokes are pretty good, but they're a heck of a lot of work.  Sunsets are nice, but they're unreliable.  Puppies are cute, but they make a mess, my new one does, anyway.  But, where public libraries are concerned, there's simply no downside.

A library card combines all the best features of a passport and a genie's lamp.  For openers, librarians are unfailingly kind and helpful.  If they weren't, considering the pittance they're paid, they'd have gone into some other line of work, such as being meter maids or clerks at the DMV.

For another thing, libraries, themselves, are convenient and trouble-free.  It's not just that they're usually within walking distance of your home, either; if one branch doesn't have the book you want, they'll get it from a different branch and hold it for you.  If you don't think that's a big deal, I guess you've never tried returning a movie video to a different Blockbuster.

On top of everything else, it's all free.  The only time a library costs you a dime is when you neglect to return books or tapes on time.  And even then, the cost is so nominal that the obvious purpose of the fine is to remind us to do the considerate thing next time, not to punish us for having been thoughtless this time around.  Today, I try and read a book a week.

Andrew Carnegie, born into a poor Scottish family, is a special hero of mine, and not only because he was short.  He once wrote, "A man who dies rich, dies disgraced."  And so, in the final years of his life, he gave away a third of a billion dollars to good causes, with about 20% going to Britain and the rest to his adopted country, America.  A part of that generous legacy was the endowment of nearly 3,000 libraries across the entire country.  Talk about a gift that keeps giving.

If it were up to me, his would be the fifth head up there on Mt. Rushmore and his birthday, November 25th, would be a national holiday.

I regret that I can never hope to repay the debt of gratitude I owe the man.  I can only say, thank you, Mr. Carnegie.  For, owing to your beneficence, from the very first time I stepped foot in a public library, I knew I wouldn't have to die to get to heaven.



......Warph

[sixdogsmom]

Amen Warph, amen! Btw, new puppy? Tell all, just don't hint. Post a photo even hmmmm? 

[Catwoman]

I totally agree with your opinion on libraries, Warph.  I love the smell of a library, for one.  I love looking around, at all of the knowledge that is there...It is beyond me how the Romans could have burned the Library at Alexandria, which contained the knowledge of the ages.  I love books, in general...there is nothing like the crack of a brand-new book as it is opened for the first time.  I love getting to be the first one to dog-ear a page, knowing that I'll be able to return to that point, for that choice bit of information, whenever I want.  I love getting a used book, already highlighted...I get to skip most of the flurb and get right to the good stuff.  Heaven is all of the knowledge in the universe...And I look forward to having that knowledge someday...But not too soon...I still have too many libraries to explore! lol   

[Anmar]

My great grandmother lived in Cambridge, she was a librarian and got me hooked on reading.  I didn't know her well, she passed when i was young, but she left my brothers and i with a great gift, a love of reading and books.  Libraries and their use are a true measure of a society's culture.

[W. Gray]

Our local Arapahoe County Library has eight branches, plus a prison branch, and a mobile library.

It is not free, but costs us $150 per year in property tax. The City of Centennial (pop 106,000) has no library and probably never will because of the county coverage. Four of the county branches are in Centennial with two more on the way.

Yet it is worth the cost.

What I marvel at sometimes is that even in this day of computers and the internet, our local branch has a traffic jam on Fridays and the weekends. The main office, which is also in Centennial, has the same problem and for all I know the other branches have the same problem.

I was formally notified, just today, by the main branch that the Kansas State Historical Society advised them that KSHS "responded that it is no longer their policy to lend microfilm."

A review of the KSHS web site, though, says they will continue to lend only microfilm reels of newspapers and manuscripts to libraries outside the state. Kansas residents may continue to request any microfilm reel.

I had requested some Chautauqua County court cases on microfilm and if I want to look at them it looks like I will be taking a trip to that "big rock candy mountain" of a library, KSHS.

[Rudy Taylor]

I love hearing friends talk about learning.

[Buddyboy]

I first stepped into a library at Moline. I was needing a service project for Scouts. Esther put me to dusting books. That took me to a job and eventually her unofficial assistant. The world of books and the many types were opened to me. I had read before but now it was like a buffet line in front of me.

Working in the library also taught me many skills that I still use today even with a Masters in Library Science. Dealing with different people do not change. Knowing how to satisfy the customers is something I still use. You never get tired of the look they have when they find exactly what they are looking for. Instead of matching people up with their favorite author's favorite book, now it is the aha look that students get when we finally hit on a topic for their Comp II class or I "magically" am able to find material for them that they need.

Also Moline Public got me through the teen years. I always said that one of the classes that they needed to teach in Library School was counseling or bartending. Esther was not only a mentor and let me rant about my parents but gave me a different perspective. If I didn't have her and my Aunt Alice nearby, I probably wouldn't have turned out like I did. I find that now in my position at the college. Librarians are safe people, or so students seem to think. They can rant about their instructors, and even though we can't give them a Corona and lime, we can still listen and maybe even help them to see things differently.

Esther wasn't the only one. Mrs. Riggins taught me that a library doesn't have to be a tomb of dead people. It can be alive and as blasphemous as it sounds, you can even play music in the library!!  There was also the college librarians, some of them who were very scary, like Ms. Singleton from ICC. They taught me how not to be.

It's cool to read what is written here. It is good to see the support that is still there.

Scotty

[sixdogsmom]

Wow! What a testimonial that is Scott! If ever anyone thought that the small local library didn't account for anything, they only need to read just this one posting. I too thought that Esther was just about 'it'.   

[Rudy Taylor]

I want to take a nice picture of the construction but want to wait until it looks more like a library.  Then I'll put it in the Prairie Star. At that time, I may contact some of you to see if I can swipe some quotes from your wonderful posts.

[Warph]

Some great quotes on the Library by famous people:


"Libraries allow children to ask questions about the world and find the answers. And the wonderful thing is that once a child learns to use a library, the doors to learning are always open."
Laura Bush   (Better listen up, George)


"I don't know what your childhood was like, but we didn't have much money. We'd go to a movie on a Saturday night, then on Wednesday night my parents would walk us over to the library. It was such a big deal, to go in and get my own book."
Robert Redford


"I had plenty of pimples as a kid. One day I fell asleep in the library. When I woke up, a blind man was reading my face."
Rodney Dangerfield


"I must say I find television very educational. The minute somebody turns it on, I go to the library and read a good book."
Groucho Marx


"Perhaps no place in any community is so totally democratic as the town library. The only entrance requirement is interest."
Lady Bird Johnson


"I had no books at home. I started to frequent a public library in Lisbon. It was there, with no help except curiosity and the will to learn, that my taste for reading developed and was refined."
Jose Saramago


"Every library should try to be complete on something, if it were only the history of pinheads."
Oliver Wendell Holmes (Bill O'reilly would agree)


"An original idea. That can't be too hard. The library must be full of them."
Stephen Fry


"A man should keep his little brain attic stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he can get it if he wants it."
Arthur Conan Doyle


....and my favorite:

"I've been drunk for about a week now, and I thought it might sober me up to sit in a library."
F. Scott Fitzgerald