To the Children of Troy

For the 1971 opening of a children's library, a librarian wrote to various authors and asked them to write a letter to the children of the town about what libraries mean to them.

Here's a link to the letters, if you want to check it out:
Letters to the Children of Troy, 1971

I'd like to frame a copy of Dr. Seuss's letter to put in my future home library.

Happy National Bookmobile Day!

This week is National Library Week. And today is National Bookmobile Day.

Before moving to the middle of nowhere, I never thought twice about bookmobiles. But since the closest library is almost an hour away, I am so grateful for the bookmobile that stops in our tiny town every other week.

Our bookmobile librarian knows everyone who visits her little library on wheels. She drives a huge vehicle over small windy roads that make some people uncomfortable driving in small cars. Once when I asked if the library had a certain book, she researched it for me and when she couldn't find it, she sent me some alternatives that she thought would interest me with a personal note.

My almost two year old daughter loves visiting the bookmobile. The board books are in a little bin on the floor and she knows right where to find them. When we step into the bookmobile out of the cold, she pulls off her hat and coat and makes herself at home. She'd even take off her boots if I let her.

The bookmobile is also a place where we actually get to meet and see some of our neighbors during the freezing months when everyone is stuck inside all day.

Few people have the need for a bookmobile, but for those of us who need it, it is a huge blessing.

Libraries in the Digital Age

I don't think anyone has the answers yet, but here's another look at the controversy of e-books and libraries from NPR: The Future of Libraries in the Digital Age

Review: Library: The Drama Within

"My dream was to live in this heavenly building and know all its secrets...to be allowed to go behind the curving book-clad walls into the stacks and have keys to unlock the cabinets of bookish rarities." - Germaine Greer

It is simple. If you love libraries, you will love perusing this book filled with photographs of libraries by Diane Asseo Griliches. Whether you read the short histories behind the libraries, or just feast your eyes on the pictures, you will be reinspired to visit and support your library. As well as finding yourself wishing you could visit every one in here.

Oh, how I miss being near a library. But I did pick up this book while browsing in the bookmobile that comes to our tiny town every two weeks, weather permitting.



"To my thinking, a great librarian must have a clear head, a strong hand, and above all, a great heart...and I am inclined to think that most of the men who will achieve this greatness will be women." - Melvil Dewey

(This last quote is for my sister who spent many years working in a library.)

Bookmobile and TBR

I had two requests for moving to the middle of nowhere: 1) we had to have high speed Internet, and 2) we needed to be in a reasonable distance of a library.

Well, I got one out of two. The closest library is an hour away--on a long, windy road that is hazardous at any time, but especially dangerous in wintertime.

Since we live too far to go to the library, the library comes to us via the Fort Vancouver Regional Library Bookmobile! It comes every two weeks (except when weather or road conditions make it too risky). We also qualify for books by mail because of how remote we are. Which I'm sure I'll take advantage of when it's too cold to walk down to the Post Office (where the bookmobile parks) with my toddler.

When we got inside, Ivy walked right up to the bin of board books and picked some out. This made me happy to have the bookmobile. But I'll be honest, there really wasn't anything there that I would normally choose to read. I grabbed a couple of books anyway, because I didn't want to leave empty-handed. I can request books that I'm interested in, so hopefully I'll be getting some stuff I've been wanting to read soon. It's definitely nice to have a library card again.

With my limited library options, I've decided to attack my To Be Read list of books that I own but have never read. We have tons of space for my 800+ books, but I only have one bookcase, so I have to be choosy about what goes on it and what stays in boxes. I can never fit my lists of favorites or all the books that make me look smart on the one bookcase, so instead of agonizing over what to allow on my shelf, I am putting up all the books I've meant to read but have never gotten around to.

I'm excited about some of the books. (I have a confession--I've never read a Jane Austen book. But I own them, so I'm going to read them now.) Other books terrify me: Why exactly did I ever think I'd read Don Quixote? or The Poems of Virgil? Desperate times call for desperate reading.

Library Drop Off

This week I return all my library books, cancel all my holds, and ignore the fact that The Help is waiting on the hold shelf for me. We move this weekend to a town with no library. The closest library is over an hour away. The town does get a library bookmobile visit every two weeks--if the roads are clear enough. I'm about to enter a scary world where new books and libraries are not mere minutes away. I will have lots of time to start reading the books I own and have always meant to read, but something else always got in the way.

A New Library

Appropriately enough for National Library Week, I went to a new library today.

I have been so spoiled with the Garden Home Community Library being just a short walk from me for the past 3 1/2 years. Now I have to drive to the library--the Gresham Library is the closest library and it's a 15 minute drive. And there was no one there to greet us by name and exclaim over how big Ivy is getting.

But a library is still a place with books to read for free and storytime for children. Ivy loved the Book Babies today. She was one of the older ones there, though most people thought she was much younger because she is so small. Ivy was just excited to be around other little kids and to play with new toys. It's my adult brain that likes the familiar and missed Kendra and resisted the slight differences in how the songs were sung.

National Library Week

This is National Library Week. As previously gushed about, I love libraries. I moved last weekend and am looking forward to checking out my new closest library (though I'm terribly sad that I can no longer walk to a library). But because I moved this past weekend and am finishing up a job this week, I have no time to write a good posting about libraries and National Library Week.

Instead, I encourage you to click here to learn about why Neil Gaiman loves libraries. He has much more interesting things to say about them than I do anyway (and he says them with a cool accent).

I Love My Library

As a young girl we lived in a small town with a library no bigger than our living room. My mother raised six children, all of us avid readers. So she paid a yearly fee (no small sacrifice with our tight budget) to get a library card to a library in a city thirty minutes north of us. Every six weeks we travelled to the Orem Public Library where we were let loose to find enough books to last us till we could come again (a three week check out, plus one renewal). We stuffed our bags and staggered to the check out counter with our arms overflowing with treasures. At final count we would check out over one hundred books at a time.

In college I spent time studying in the college libraries, but they’re not exactly the kind of place where you want to browse and spend time looking at books. So I frequented the Provo City Library. When it moved to its new building, I wanted to live in it. I loved that library. My little sister used to work there and would check out and renew books for the family. (Thanks, Beccah!)

I moved to Portland with my husband on September 1, 2006. I came for grad school which didn’t start for three weeks. He took the car out every day to search for work. I knew no one, was too afraid of never making it back home if I took the bus by myself, and probably would have gotten terribly lost even if I’d had a car to go anywhere in. Every day I walked to two places: Blockbuster to check out the next disc of the latest season of Lost, and the Garden Home Community Library.

At the Garden Home Community Library, I used their Internet access, and checked out books, movies, and CDs. For a long time, it was my only connection to the outside world. I’ve lived within walking distance of it for three and a half years. It’s a small library, but part of the Washington County Cooperative Library System—which means I can check out any book from any of the larger libraries in Washington County, so I am not limited in my options. And it has the benefits of a small town library—the librarian knows our family and greets us all by name.

I love my library, as the only bumper sticker I’ve ever owned proudly proclaims. I hope you love and support your local library too.