Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

Do you have a favorite library, a childhood memory of a library, or a current involvement with a library?

I've happy memories of several libraries, and I've volunteered/worked in three, but my favourite the one I used after we bought our first house. It was a little one floor building eached by a little lane with blackthorn blossoms in the spring and next to an infant school. I found it exploring with baby daughter in the pram, and we had so much use from it. So many people went there after school to use the children's section.

Then we moved, and a few years later, the local council sold it off to raise money. One of the most short-sighted decisions they could have made...

My first memory of a library is the book mobile that stopped on our street in the ‘60s. After reading all of the age-appropriate books, we graduated to the main library - Lilly Library in Florence, MA. I had forgotten about it until my brother sent me a picture recently and I immediately recognized it - a 2 story stone-and-brick building built in 1890.

I love my local library branch in Albuquerque and the main library in Rio Rancho, NM. The Rio Rancho library has one wall with floor to ceiling windows and a beautiful view, a play area for kids, a room for concerts and events, traveling exhibits, and a rental program for all kind of items from ukeleles to bocce balls. Of course, I go for the books but I also love the different types of community events that both library systems offer! I take my grandson most weeks for the STEAM program and plan to take him to the next Read to the Dogs event.

When I was a young child in the 50s & early 60s our public library was located in two of the town’s elementary schools. In the one I attended through 5th grade it was in the basement. As a young teen I had a summer job in both of those school/public library locations which were open on different days.
The librarian happened to be a third cousin, twice removed [and don’t ask me to explain that as I’ve long forgotten the connections]. She remained the librarian for many years, even after the town built an actual public library. I continued my summer job in that library through high school. I still have vivid memories of where things were located in all three of those locations.

Those early experiences cemented my goal of becoming a librarian.
After getting my undergrad degree I immediately entered the graduate program in Library Science leading to a Masters degree. In my final year of grad school I happened into a job at a small public library in the next town. The elderly librarian had broken a hip and trustees were running the library. When I wrote asking if they had a job to give me some experience they asked if I’d be willing to be the Director!
Nervously, I agreed as long as they allowed me to commute to my final classes at Grad School. This was in 1970. I remained at that library through one major renovation (1992) and eventually an entire new building (2008) - we went from 6000 sq ft in the first old structure to almost 25,000 sq ft in the new building. I finally retired in 2015 after 44.5 years.

I do not miss policy making, budgets, personnel issue, “The Planning Process” workshops, annual reports, etc.. My favorite part was always collection development but the bigger we got the more management duties took over so less time for the fun bits. Now I’m happy to be just a library patron back in my own hometown library.

I have one other library experience to share which I almost forgot about. When I was a student at the University of KY, I worked in the math library. It was a great job! It was quiet and I could study or do homework the whole time. We didn’t get a lot of traffic and I never checked out a single book!

I grew up in a small town. It was so small that we barely warranted a dot on the map. We were lucky to have the township library located in the town.

It was a hub for the community. The skating rink was attached to the library. We would walk through the library to a heated changing area to put on our skates and then through another door onto the ice.

My first memory of the library was not a happy one. During grade 1, my class walked to the library, about a 5 minute walk. It was my first visit. It was scary to see the shelves of books towering so high over my head.

My mother became the head librarian there years later. My children and I had some great memories of that library. It now has a new building.

I am glad that I got over that first fear.

I recently "retired" from being a member of the Board of Trustees for my local library (had been on the board for 20 years, and Vice Pres of the board for the last 10 years). I still go to the library 3 or 4 times a week, but am no longer needed for meetings! I go just work on the community jigsaw puzzle, or to read quietly, or to pick-up/drop off books.

When I was a young child I used our school library because the one in our village was tiny, although I do remember being inside of it. My first memory of using a public library as a patron was when we moved to California for a couple of years when I was growing up. I useour local library and rate a bag (people who put holds on a lot of books get a large paper library bag to store the books they order. One woman rates a box! Not sure who she is.

We're blessed to have a regional online catalogue where we can borrow from libraries in other towns, cities and even schools & a fewuniversities and colleges as well as a state one for books we can't get this other way.

I grew up on a farm and the nearest town library was very small. There was no Inter library loan and the children’s collection was only a few bookcases. I could only take out 2 books at a time, and I read most everything they had. Then we moved to Philadelphia when I was 10. At the majestic main library, the children’s room alone was bigger than the whole library back in Sayre, PA. I thought I was in Heaven! And I could take out 5 books at a time.

To be fair, the Sayre library expanded a few years after we moved. We used to go back to the farm in summer, and another library opened in a mansion in Nichols,NY. This town was about halfway between where I lived and where Theresa lived on the NY side of the border. (Although we were maybe 10 miles apart as the crow flies, we were in different states, so we only met a few years ago on GR, and since in real life.) By that time, there was Inter library loan, so my brother could order the books his high school requested he read over the summer.

My local libraries now lend out everything from birdwatching kits to power tools. They have 3D printers and machines to digitize photos, cassette tapes, etc.and of course book groups and book sales!

I grew up in a house with very few books after the Dr Seuss years...just one of those undereducated families with no money who hate reading and considered me weird because I learned to read early and loved to read. i always wanted more than the few books in our house.

In kindergarten we took a field trip to several civic buildings..think police, fire...and the library.

I was excited when I got home to tell my parents about this magical place where I could get books FOR FREE...and livid when I found out they knew of this place and didn't tell me.

My mom started taking me there regularly, then when I was 9 we moved right down he street and it became my second home. (in the 70's a 9yo was allowed to walk 3 blocks alone).

I spent hours there especially in the summer, looking though reference books and magazines that couldn't be checked out, or just exploring the non fiction sections looking for interesting topics.

The first thing I do once I've moved to a new place is find the library and get a card. I also love visiting libraries when we travel.

I wasn't able to own a great deal of books as a child so the library was always one of my favorite places to go.

Jessica, I do the same thing. Somehow having that library card is part of me feeling at home in a new place.

When my husband and I moved to SC, we lived in a motel while househunting ~ for about six weeks. I was so happy to learn that I could get a library card before I even had a house...as long as I had a mailing address.

I belong to 2 libraries. The SC one is about 15 minutes from my home in one direction and the GA one is about 20 minutes in another.

The SC library is a regional library system and the one that was my first when I moved to my new home. The GA library is a state-wide library. I was delighted to find out that I could have a library card in another state so close by. Between the two, I seldom have to use inter-library loan anymore.

The furthest away book that I got through inter-library loan was Alaska!

@Jessica I do the same with library cards and visiting libraries. In older cities they can be such interesting places.

Saturday was double feature day at our Movie Theatre during my childhood and we would go every week. The Library was right next door and a mandatory stop was made for me to check out my 5 books for the week. I loved that more than going to the movies and getting popcorn!

Btw ... if you want to see the Milwaukee Public Library main library you can see images here:
https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf=A...

It's really a spectacular building, inside and out!

Where I grew up we got a new pretty library maybe when I was in middle school. I don't remember going to a library before that. I volunteered there a couple of times putting books away and rewinding video tapes (in the 80's).

Where I live now it's a small town and there are small libraries scattered throughout the county. My favorite one is by the old courthouse.

I'm a member of the adjoining county's library as well and I do tend to go there more often because they are quicker with their book transfers. But in my county you can usually get the most recent bestsellers. Our county is smaller and the hold list is not as long.

Growing up the local library was pretty small, but big enough for me. I always had lots of choices. My mom was the librarian there when I was a kid until I was a teen, so I hung out there a lot and she would bring home the new kids' books to read them to me and my brother. I often (involuntarily :) volunteered there for events while she was working.
I did my college work study at the school library. I also did my mandatory volunteer work (again, involuntarily?? lol) at the local public library.
When I was working, my office was a block away from the public library. That one is bigger than my childhood library and the public library from college combined. I used to go there almost every day on my lunch break or after work (or when I needed a mental health break!). It's my happy place. Now that I'm not working, I still go there even though I have a small town public library that is much closer. I just love the expanse of it and the unlimited possibilities contained on all the shelves (and it's honestly puny compared to something like the NYC public library, or Philly or something- I suspect I would pass out if I ever went into one of those!).

Since getting my kindle I don't visit the library as much, but when my kids where toddlers we used to go weekly to visit the toy library and get books. It was such a fun outing. The local library is only a very short drive from our house.
I still borrow library books but more likely to be on via libby now as I prefer kindle reading.

Whenever we have a free weekend day, my daughter (5) and I go to a library. We can spend the whole day there somehow.

I still remember getting my first library card. The librarian let it slip that the limit for books was actually 20, not the 2 my mother had always told me about! Another thing my Mom told me when I was little was there were certain books that were library only copies - I could read them at the library but I couldn't bring them home. Turns out, my Mom just hated them and didn't want to have to read them to me at home!

Libraries and reading played a very big part of my childhood. Reading in the library when I didn't have anyone to play with at lunchtime, devouring Mr Men and Little Miss books and befriending the librarian. Visiting the mobile library truck when it came to my town was one of the highlights of the month. Going to Uni, I pursued science and psychology and didn't even think of working in a library as a career until my kids started school and I volunteered in the school library. This sent me back to Uni to study information studies and now I am a children's librarian at a public library inspiring a love of books in the younger generations! I have the best job!

Libraries were so vital to me. I cleaned out all the school libraries and our little public library of anything that looked remotely interesting growing up. I am currently living in an area close to a couple of universities and colleges with a lot of community interest in reading widely (judging just by the length of some of our hold lists), and our library here is fantastic. And if they don't have something, there is a very vibrant interlibrary loan system, including those university libraries. There are very few books I can't get ahold of, and I love that. I wish everyone had such a joy of a library. (Even with all that, I am thinking of paying for a membership to the Brooklyn library for their ebook collection to have even more books I don't have time or spoons to read LOL.)

My earliest memory is the Bookmobile coming to our area on Thursdays. I would go immediately after school and take out my allowed 10 books. I was only 8 or 9 at the time, I'd then go home, read as many as a could, and try to get back to exchange them before the bookmobile left at 8pm.

I also have distinct memories of being at a Brownie Sleepover in the library of NOT my school and seeing a Nancy Drew book I hadn't read yet - the one with the bright pink cover and maybe a robot? - and reading that instead of sleeping

I lived in Winnipeg for my late HS- university years and got completely spoiled by their library system. Moving to Fredericton NB in 2000 was a shock. One library in town that was downtown and you had to ask the desk for the librarians to put books on hold for you.

Back to Winnipeg in 2009 and I currently have 11 books out, 50 (maximum) on hold and more than 100 on various Lists waiting to be put on hold. It's practically a full time job managing my books! :)

I've already read 125 books this year and I would be in financial ruin if I had to buy them all!

Libraries were my whole childhood, it feels like! One of my earliest memories is reading in the university library as a toddler while my mom was trying to study for the GRE (my parents immigrated here when I was a baby) and I was an early reader whose family couldn't afford books at all so libraries were my lifeline. We went at least once a week and multiple times in the summer weeks and I was allowed to read whatever I wanted, which meant I had no idea what was popular when I was a kid but I sure did read a lot of Laura Ingalls Wilder and Louisa May Alcott! I was obsessed with this historical fiction series and the librarian noticed and started holding new releases behind the desk for me which was the first time an adult really paid attention to me and it blew my mind. Librarians are the best!

Also I don't know if Massachusetts still has this program but when I was a kid they had museum day passes that families could check out and my mom would take my sister and me once a summer to the big fancy museums in Boston which we couldn't have afforded otherwise. I don't know if I would be the adult I am today without those visits - I saw an exhibit on Monet when I was 9 or 10? and it was the first time I experienced "art" in a way that triggered an emotional response. (Big shout-out to my mom's morning commute friend who happened to work as a security guard at BMFA and got me a free audio guide 😆)

Chrissie wrote: "My earliest memory is the Bookmobile coming to our area on Thursdays. I would go immediately after school and take out my allowed 10 books. I was only 8 or 9 at the time, I'd then go home, read as ..."

My mother had to go to Winnipeg in order to attend high school since there were none where she grew up (she was born there, but grew up on a farm up where the big lakes are--not all that far from Vogar), but she's 85. They had relatives there. After 2 years she went off to teach in a one room school somewhere in Manitoba. Their farm got flooded out so she ended up finishing in Hay River where her parents went to stay (they never moved back, but sold the farm).

There is a novel set on one of my forbears farm that is very loosely based on one of my mother's aunts. It's driving me crazy that I can't remember the title, but my aunt said it's not at all accurate so I can't bring myself to read it. She was extremely beautiful and disappeared--years later she was found living in BC with children.

No libraries on a farm, but she's Icelandic Canadian and they are a literary bunch as a general rule, or at least back then.

Libraries have always been an important part of my life.
My grandparents lived across the street from a library that we would visit frequently. The bookmobile came to our neighbourhood once a month. I took my daughters to the library weekly when they were younger.
I am a member of the book club at my local branch. The first meeting I attended was discussing a book where the main character had switched identities with her friend who had died in a bombing in WWII. When I got to the meeting, I was the youngest person there by at least 30 years (not including the librarian). I had basically decided that this was not the group for me when one of the women with a British accent said, "well I was in England during the war, and it wouldn't have been that easy."
I decided to see how this all played out. I have been attending that book club for about 10 years now, unfortunately that woman has gone blind and no longer attends. The group really gets me to read new things.

Karin wrote: "Chrissie wrote: "My earliest memory is the Bookmobile coming to our area on Thursdays. I would go immediately after school and take out my allowed 10 books. I was only 8 or 9 at the time, I'd then ..."

Karin, you have piqued my curiosity! I know you say you don’t want to read it, but now I want to know about this book! I’m a Winnipegger, a coworker of mine just moved back home to Hay River, and me and my husband are considering moving to Fredericton (there are apparently 3 library branches there, according to the website)

I did a quick google search and the link is a list of books about about/set in Gimli. Is the book in that list?

https://www.mappit.net/bookmap/places...

Edit: having scrolled farther down the list, it seems books set in Manitoba qualify to be on the list, whether or not they relate to Gimli. There are at least a few I’m adding to my tbr.

And per the thread: I am a library worker.