As the end of school draws near, our attention is drawn to the local summer reading program sponsored by our local county library system. Each year there is a different theme, and the activities and prizes seem centered around the theme. This year it happens to be super heros. My girls aren't as interested in super heros, but it seems like a great theme that unites gender and generations, alike.
The library gave a presentation at my Littles elementary school in hopes of engaging the minds of the children over the summer. They have a bookmark contest in which the winning design is published and distributed throughout the county library system. The "runners up" are put on display, and my children enjoy looking for their submissions. Upon signing up for the summer program, the children receive "game boards" with activities and coupons they can redeem for prizes. They also receive coupons for local establishments, such as snowballs, fast food meals, petting zoos and the like. Sometimes they give out free baseball tickets to minor and major league games.
This past weekend was the annual summer reading program kick off hosted by the Miller Library in Ellicott City. Normally, we visit the library near our house, which is within walking/biking distance and has a nice children's area. We spent a lot of time hanging out there when the Littles were small attending classes, perusing the books and videos and playing in the toy area. The Miller Library is much farther away and not convenient, so we haven't visited it before.
I'm glad we made the time to go to the kickoff celebration, although we missed some things, arriving in the last hour. Plus, it was really hot, so the Littles had no interest in being outside; nor were they interested in the super-hero theme and fire trucks. My youngest did take the time to visit the seed-planting station, and we came home with a pot with a green bean, white bean, and purple bean seed planted. Most of the library employees/volunteers were extraordinarly friendly and helpful, despite the heat and number of people they encountered throughout the day. It was especially fun seeing the dads and daughters (and sons) dressed in matching super hero t-shirts and costumes! This truly seemed like a theme that encompassed entire families, instead of just being the "kids" program. Like I said, my kids aren't really into super heros, but they enjoyed the Enchanted Garden on the side, the face-painting inside, and we spent well over an hour searching for books and a couple of movies.
It's a beautiful library; large with a lot of amenities. The enchanted garden was very sweet with rocks, little ponds, various types of plants and benches. There's also a window seat in the children's section of the library that overlooks the garden. There's a gigantic meeting room just inside. They had a game room for teens that afternoon, although, I am unsure whether that's a permanent fixture or a special set up. The children's section is very large and open with myriad materials and plenty of computers for looking up books, playing games and the like. There are plenty of places to sit down and relax or snuggle with your own little and read a story.
The young adult section seemed large also, at least compared to our local branch. I think the one drawback to looking for materials that day was that since so many people visited, my Littles' favorite books were all checked out. On the upside, we can reserve them on-line and pick them up at our local branch. I love this feature!!! Another feature I love is the automated check outs. Our local branch has these as well, but as of last summer, they were only for checking out books and materials. At the Miller Branch you can pay fines as well! Hot diggity dog, because who doesn't collect fines from time to time? Despite the paper receipts, personal alarms on my phone, and email reminders, I have yet to come up with a system in which I routinely return things before their due date! And since we always seem to check out bagfuls of things at a time, the fines can add up rather quickly.
The Miller Branch also has an upstairs; however, we did not have an opportunity to make it up there this past weekend. Even though it's not convenient, I envision myself visiting the Miller branch to sit and read or even take my knitting for some quiet mom time to myself.
Watching my girls run around exploring and experiencing the library, it reminded me of my first experiences with the library when I was young. We did not visit the public library, as I recall, but my elementary school had a GIANT (or what seemed giant) library. Walls and walls of books. Dewey Decimal System Card Catalog. A friendly librarian. And did I mention the walls of books? My very first favorite book that I can remember from this library was Harold and the Purple Crayon. I'm surprised they let us read those, given some children's penchants for writing on the walls! Sometime later, I fell in love with the Laura Ingalls series, but I did not get those from the library. I remember learning how to use the card catalog and perusing the large dictionary and encyclopedias at different libraries over the years doing research for school projects and papers.
But it was at this elementary school library where I fell in love with Amelia Earhart. That's the first long chapter book I remember reading, and it really made an impression on me. So much so, that 40-some odd years later, it's still one of the treasured memories of my childhood. I can still picture taking the book off the self and reading it, not even bothering to sit down but standing right there in the middle of the library. Many times my teacher actually had to come over and personally get my attention because I was so lost in a book that I didn't hear the cues to line up to return to class. I probably checked that book out a million times. So, today, when I was reading over the MSN news page, an article on Amelia Earheart caught my eye, and some of these memories flooded back. And I am reminded of how much my children enjoy the library. At this point, I don't know if they love reading as much as I did back then, and still do, but I didn't have the distractions of electronics that they do now.
As a teenager, I lived at the library. I probably checked out and read almost every young adult fiction book they had, as well as many adult books. I spent hours researching for school projects and reading at the Stanley Memorial Library in Laurel, since we lived nearby and I could walk there. When I was younger, my mom was kind enough to swing by from time to time. Sadly, it was just torn down to make room for a new, up-to-date library. I was sad to see another childhood icon fall, as so many others have as I've aged, but time marches on. I'm sure a new batch of kids will grow up with wonderful memories of their own local library.
To be sure, my kids have had their favorite books over the years. The Magic Treehouse, Rainbow Fairies, My Dumb Diary, Junie B. Jones, Bad Kitty, Baby Mouse, 39 Clues, etc. I wonder if they will look back when they are older and remember their trips to the library with such fondness and recall their most favorite books. What will they remember about their school library? Will they remember how "BIG" their library was? Will they remember pulling out a favorite book and reading it standing right in the stacks? Unfortunately, they don't have a kind and wonderful librarian as I did, but I'm glad that my kids and I can share our love for the library. I'm glad we live in an area where we have so many libraries to visit, we can reserve books, and attend classes to learn about new things or meet up with our peers for clubs and activities. And it's all free!
I think towards the future and wonder what is in store for a brick and mortar library? There are no more card catalogs, not as much need for microfiche research, spending hours reading through encylopedias, or looking up maps in the atlas. A lot of what we did at the library can be done at home now on our personal computers. You don't even need to visit the library to borrow books, as there's an App for that! I use it all the time for print material and audiobooks I can listen to in the car using my smartphone. However, there is no replacing the experience of visiting a library in person, and there's no replacing the memories that have been made and can be made in a library.
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