Libraries

I love libraries.

I could just stop there, but I won't.

I have used libraries for as long as I can remember.  The first library was the one on Fort Clayton in Panama.  I can remember going upstairs to the children's section and reading picture books.  And then, as I got older, I remember using the encyclopedia for a couple of school reports (one of which was on Sweden).  As time went on, they also started housing their videos up there, and we would go and check out VHS tapes.

Then I got really old and had to start typing up my reports, rather than just hand-writing them.  And that was a time when we might have had a computer, but it was an old Apple-type with green print on the screen; and then I don't think we had a printer.  Because I remember going to the library (again on Fort Clayton) and hunting and pecking my way through a paper on Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None for Mrs. McDade's 8th-grade English class.  (Fortunately I learned to type the following year in high school!)

I also remember checking out CDs from that library, and books on hermit crabs -- after we managed to kill several of them and not being able to figure out why...  Turns out we were trying to make pets out of the wrong kind -- the saltwater kind.  And they didn't take too well to the fresh water we offered them.  After reading up on things, we knew how to catch the fresh-water crabs -- at night, with coconut, along the Causeway.

Then we moved to Dothan.  And guess where my very first job was...  Yep, a library.  I was a children's room worker, and I had an awesome boss.  And that's when I realized libraries weren't just great fonts of information -- they were also awesomely fun.  For real.  And maybe part of that is the people with whom I worked...  But I still attribute it to libraries, because they clearly attract some of the coolest people ever.  Because every library I've worked in has had just such people -- and I've worked in several libraries.  And I planned to make that my career (if I didn't get my first choice of getting married and being a stay-at-home mom); so I got my degree to become a professional librarian.

And okay, so it never happened that way.  But I still love libraries.  I love that I can get any book I want to read (pretty much) and it's free (as long as I return it on time!).  I love that I can borrow movies of all kinds and TV shows -- and I've been doing that a lot lately (including today -- and the movie I'm currently watching -- The Day After Tomorrow -- has a library that saves people's lives.  I'm just sayin'.).  And it's free!  I love that, in the digital age, I have access to all sorts of information through the virtual library collection.  And I also love that I can download some songs I like -- for free -- and to keep!  All because of libraries.

And yeah, I know there are predictions out there that libraries will one day disappear.  But they've been saying that for decades (I learned that in library school).  And maybe I'll be proven wrong...  But I, for one, will always enjoy the feel of a book in my hand -- even if it is cool to have like a kajillion books on one electronic gadget.  There's just something timeless about turning pages of paper.  And, the technology of paper never becomes incompatible ;).

So yeah, I totally love libraries.  They rock.  Always.  And I'm grateful for libraries -- for the memories, the tools, the pleasures, the entertainment.  I plan to be a library patron for the rest of my life, and I hope that it's always an option!

What are you grateful for today?