At The Library – Then and Now

I love my library!  I always have liked libraries and learned at an early age how important they can be.  Our family did not own many books, although a few from my mother’s youth and some left over from my parents’ college years.  Of course as a little kid these were not at all interesting or useful to me.

As about a 6 or 7 year old child, in Lebanon Indiana, my mother started taking all of the children to the local library as soon as we were old enough to pick a book of our own.  I think my older sister and I were already old enough to get library cards of our own at that point.  Every week the family went to the library on Saturday (a day when my mother could use the car), and we all took out books.  It was wonderful when we graduated to being able to ride our bikes and go there on our own.

My sister and I, especially, were avid and voracious readers and soon read through everything in the children’s room and then in the adolescent’s room.  My mother figured this out, and was able to persuade the head librarian that we could be allowed to read from the adult section.  That was heaven!  We often shared books, first one reading and then the other, and sometimes trying to share as we both read at different times.  We each had our own preferences as well.  Sometimes we even read the same book our mother was reading.  This is how I started my lifelong love of British mysteries.  Also when I started reading science fiction.

Of course, I am also old enough that I remember needing to use the library to research some topic for a school paper or project.  We didn’t own an encyclopedia for many of those years, and so the library was the place to go for information.  It seems strange now, with the availability of so much online, but that wasn’t the case in the 1950s and 1960s especially.

Since I retired fully my local library has become even more important to me than before.  I have been able to volunteer in the Local History room, and started a genealogy meet up group.  I’ve learned a lot about the library, and local history as well.  I also felt I was contributing something useful to an institution, which like many, never has as many resources as could be used (both money and people).

In the past couple of years especially, with the pandemic restricting our ability to go places, my local library has been particularly important too.  The availability of electronic books when the library could not be open to the public was lifesaving.  And then, to be able to request actual books – I do greatly prefer the feel of a book in my hands to an e-reader – and go to pick them up at the library was such a wonderful change.  As you see here, my library put requested materials in paper bags and let you come into the room (carefully set up and choreographed to be one-way traffic) to pick up your goodies.  As an additional bonus you might even see one of the librarians when you went to pick up, and be able to exchange a brief conversation, as had happened this day!

[Closing note: I was inspired to remember and write this from the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks theme for last week.  Obviously I didn’t quite get it done for that week, but here it is.]