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By the lovely Grace Farris.
P.S. Romance novels and parenting methods I’ve tried.
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I’m starting a new job as a public librarian today and reading these comments is getting me all excited! I’ve been in an academic library for the last year and it’s a different kind of fun, but I miss working with all ages and getting to know a community.
Just wanted to add: a few years ago, I was feeling conflicted about what I wanted to do with my life. I posted a comment on CoJ about how I was feeling and was soon overwhelmed with so many lovely, encouraging, helpful comments from other readers. I took their advice to heart (and copied it into a Word doc for myself), and started my MLIS soon after. Now I’ve started working as a librarian and I’m so thankful to everyone who contributed to my getting to this point.
Libraries are TREASURES! Vacation w a toddler and need an activity? Library! Too hot to play outside? Library! It’s endless. We go 4 times a week! One time I ran into my sweet dad snoozing at the library haha. I didn’t even know he was there!
I moved jobs so I no longer frequent a neighborhood branch of the Boston Public Library, but I miss my librarians there so much. I was there almost every day rotating through books for my afterschool students and when I transitioned form school year to summer camp and didn’t show up for a few weeks, the librarians actually called my workplace to check in on me and make sure I was okay. When I eventually switched jobs, I brought them flowers and a note and they all came to give me hugs and say goodbye.
My first date with my husband of eleven years was at a library! The big downtown branch had just reopened after renovations and we decided to check it out together. He thought it was a date. I thought it was just a friendly outing. After admiring the architecture and books, we went back to my apartment and made lunch … then hung out with my roommates and some friends who were in town … then made dinner and watched a movie … FIFTEEN HOURS after we met at the library, he went home. My roommates had to gently explain to my naive self afterward that it was definitely a date!
Although I know it doesn’t work this way, I like to think of my taxes as going mostly to the library system, like how when you donate to an organization you can sometimes specify its use. Libraries, parks, national parks and my kids’ teachers please!
Municipal worker here. Don’t forget about flushing toilets and drinking water 😅 and and and….
But agreed- I so love that taxes fund libraries and schools and parks and rec. Not at all optional in my book!
I think like this too!!
If only… I haven’t seen the breakdown, but after the latest budget bill (“Big Ugly Bill”), it seems like most of our federal taxes will go to the Department of Homeland Security. ICE and CBP are on a hiring spree.
Libraries, schools, healthcare, seemingly everything else is getting drastically less funding. It makes me sick to think about paying my taxes now, but I agree with your sentiment. Taxes to fund libraries are a wonderful thing.
Love the library!! My son has two primary interests: hockey and reading. We spent a lot of time this summer chilling in the library near the rink and then going to practice. It’s just amazing to have a comfortable place to be and read all the books—for free!!
My son would like to apply for BFF-ship with your son. This summer he has devoured David Skuy books, which are probably too old for him, but they combine his 2 interests. Out of print but found them second hand and at the library.
I love to read, and I put lots of books on hold that come through our wonderful little branch library from other places in the county. One day I went in to pick up a hold, and there was a second book waiting under my name. I said to the librarian at the desk, Oh, i don’t think I reserved this one, and the librarian said, I know; we all just thought you’d like it. Friends, it was one of the greatest days of my life (also, they were right).
As a former library technician, this made my heart swell! I take for granted that everyone is welcome at the library, but to be *truly seen* by the staff is a special level of validation.
Holy shit, Annie. Now *this* is the kind of celebrity status I aspire to! You’ve peaked!
I am a librarian and I do this for my favourite customers too. I apologise, but I can’t help but push a good book onto a worthy reader. I was so happy when one day customer arrived shortly after I had left for the day so she took off after me, chasing down my car – she held up the book I had urged her to read, and gave me the thumbs up. That was my best day!
My mom took my sister and me to the library every Tuesday when we were kids, and we sometimes maxed out our library cards. (You were allowed to check out 50 books at a time.) Our favorite librarian, Dorothy, would occasionally set aside brand new books she thought we’d like, and when we were checking out, she’d pull the new book out from behind the counter and say “I thought you should have it first.” :)
This made MY day! Librarians and libraries are pure magic!!
Amazing, Annie! Likely the proudest moment of my life was when our little neighborhood branch saw me come in with another 4 bags of books and described our family as their “best customer!” I was like can I get that on a t-shirt?!
What!? That’s icon status!
We joked on last year’s Christmas card that I was named our library’s MVP (most valuable patron) and I’m secretly hoping it will come true one day.
This is one of the most heartwarming things I’ve read. How amazing to be seen!
I’ve gotta know, what was the book?!
How does a person become a librarian’s favorite? Asking for a friend.
Sooo many reasons to love the library:
– the monthly free art classes
– the crafts program for kids
– the free legal services
– the summer lunch program
– hosting a mobile petting zoo that we just lucked into a few weeks ago (a giant pig, lambs, an incredible llama, rabbits and turtles!)
– the beautiful flowers and benches set under the trees to sit and relax for a minute
– the seed library
– the tool library
– the Discover and Go program to get into all kinds of cultural entities
– the author events
– the LOVELY staff who are always so helpful and welcoming
– just the general community vibe – knowing its a safe space to come and escape the challenges of the world for a little while.
My local library just reopened after being closed for a couple years for extensive renovations and expansion. It is sooo beautiful and thoughtfully reimagined, I feel so lucky and grateful to have this in my neighborhood. Thank you, librarians and library staff for all you do to create welcoming, educational spaces. Libraries are PRECIOUS.
I adore all this library love! I’m an Adult Services Public Librarian who manages our Homebound Program for individuals who can’t get to the library because of age or illness or who live in assisted living facilities. Keeping people reading for as long as possible is so important for aging brains! Most of my sweet patrons have loving and fond memories of their own childhoods spent in libraries and they appreciate being able to still get books. Where would we be without these wonderful institutions? Thank you COJ community for all the library love!
ERIN – how fabulous!!! I’ve known about book mobiles but hadn’t thought about them in years. We have been trying to get my elderly mother to cease driving for quite some time. Going to multiple libraries where she visits with the librarians and picks up her stash of mysteries has been one of her sources of joy (and she instilled in me a love of reading). As her world is getting smaller, I hate to think about her not reading as much (even though aides can certainly take her to the library – her stubborn independence currently not allowing that). But getting library books mailed to her (which your post prompted me to look up in my mom’s city) – LOVE IT!!!
I love libraries!
Funny story – on a first date with my ex (we were together 6+ years and are still friends), he wanted to take me sailing. He docked his boat at a friend of his Mom’s on our local lake. When I got there, who would be there to let me in, but the librarian of the children’s section of our public library and her husband who was my 8th grade history teacher. Both of them gushed, embarrassingly, but Mrs. L loudly exclaimed “You were the one who read every book in my section!”
I was 25 and trying to be cool. Hard fail!
Luckily my ex thought it was all very cute.
This should be turned into a Christmas movie!
As a retired elementary school librarian, I can tell you there is no better feeling than when a student comes in raving about a book I recommended. 😊♥️
My library is giving out Shakespeare in the Park tickets tomorrow! I’m so excited to get a ticket to see The Twelfth Night!
Gosh I wish I loved our post-Covid library as much as I did before. Our county system took the pandemic-opportunity to systematically “let go” non-union librarians and any others who weren’t onboard with the transition to “libraries as public safe spaces” agenda. This means that they are intended to function more as warming/cooling spaces, bathrooms, tech centers, and otherwise indoor living rooms rather than spaces for learning, education, and exploration. Books were removed from circulation en masse to make room for computers and help centers.
Our small neighborhood branch is still pretty good, but the system let our children’s librarian go (a bilingual, Latina teacher). It was a mess. The library was fully funded and claimed that they had to let staff go because they didn’t have money to pay them.
We only go to pickup and drop off materials. The holds system is excellent. The classes and educational opportunities are minimal. We’re working on building a curated home library and an independent lending library in our area to provide the library experience to those who want it.
As the rest of our public infrastructure has been slowly eroded by republican-backed tax cuts, more pressure has been put on libraries. It sounds like your library is trying to provide the resources that your community needs— not sure that’s an “agenda,” though I’m sorry that the rollout has been difficult (and I imagine they wouldn’t have had to make difficult cuts if they were as well-funded as you say).
I’m so sorry to hear that your solution is to create a privatized version of an existing public service, as that falls into the republican playbook.
A lot goes into library services that may be invisible to a certain percentage of patrons, but which are essential to others. However, I find it interesting (and, I admit, frustrating) that your library seems to be providing the usual “library experience” that most people wish for–e.g., a safe place to go to warm up or cool off, use a computer freely, and check out materials. What’s your beef? And what are you fixing by offering a different option that will compete with the public library and possibly take away circulation numbers in such a way that it could become even *less* “fully funded” (this can mean ANYTHING, and I strongly suspect you don’t know how costs break down at your public library)?
The library experience is subjective, but as a public librarian, I can tell you that libraries cannot be everything to everyone, and this does sometimes get in the way of folks using them the way they’d like to be able to. And that is a shame. But the answer is not to offer a competing service. The answer is to get involved in your local government, pass referenda that levy taxes to pay for more/better library services (among others), and understand that usage = funding. You are not helping your community by building your own private library. But perhaps that was never your goal
That change in feeling and intention of a library is really hard.
In response to El, in no way would I consider a publicly available, free lending library a “Republican playbook” initiative. We have little free libraries all throughout the neighborhoods in my city and it’s the very definition of an accessible and creative mechanism to share learning and books. Also LOL at a home library being “privatized.”
I’d recommend connecting with the local/county Library Foundation or Friends of the Library groups—they fundraise to supplement the missing resources.
Thanks, anon, for your response. “Independent lending library” is a little different than a little free library, I think? Seconding all that Annie has explained, as she is in fact a public librarian. Eroding public institutions through competitive private programs is literally the strategy being put into practice in red states— see the current plan in Texas to weaken public schools through a voucher system as an example of this. Though I wonder if you’re just doing some right wing trolling?
Hi again El, nope I’m not a right wing troll. I’m actually a former lifelong Texan who now lives in a new city in another state. I’m regularly involved with my local political activist group (shoutout to Indivisible; recommend everyone see if there is a local chapter near you). I vehemently opposed the privatization trend I observed in Houston, especially the private schools and charter schools to which I stood with my public school teacher friends to be vocal about this. I am out there on the streets, every week, to fight the current right wing regime and dissolution into authoritarianism. I am also actively involved in my new city’s library system and participated in the open house design and input sessions for my local library’s renovation. We discussed the balance between need for increased public amenities (largely due to defunding of these resources) with the desire to preserve that traditional library feel (lots of books, lots of librarians, etc.)
I may have mistakenly equated independent lending library with a little free library, maybe Evening Free can clarify for us. I think you were quick to assess my intentions without exploring where I was coming from.
Anon, I’m glad you’re familiar with the problems of privatization! This surprised me, given your response to my initial comment, giving an “LOL” to me voicing my concerns about privatizing libraries. Frankly, your initial response read as pretty dismissive to me. Good luck with your political journey through indivisible!
Thanks all for your comments! You’re all free to have your opinions of what my circles are doing. My info comes from librarians who experience these changes from the inside. I’m not a Republican.
And I’m not against public support and services, I’m just one of many people in our county who see the shift in library spaces and I’m happy to use the library that my tax dollars pay for in the ways that I want to. Independent lending libraries aren’t Republican. It’s a small, but growing movement of concerned people who want to preserve materials and counter discrimination. Fortunately in Oregon, we have a bill moving forward that will prohibit book bans for libraries and schools. This benefits
everyone.
El and Annie, your comments come across as condescending in this medium, and because of that, I don’t accept them.
Evenings Free, if you’re still reading this thread, I apologize for my condescending tone. I think I’m just not sure why you’re unhappy with your public library, and concerned about your determination to fix that with what you term an ‘independent lending library,’ by which I don’t know what you mean.
We’re all trying to find ways to patch things together in this day and age (so much feels so insurmountable). Again, as a public librarian in a city library that’s open from 9am-9pm daily, I adore providing readers advisory and hearing patrons’ library stories and I love when I have a day that feels like a real library day. I also proudly (and sometimes sadly) work through days filled with incidents of all sorts (medical, behavioral, etc.) in which I help people who are homeless, unemployed, addicted, single parents, poverty-stricken, etc…! Libraries have certainly changed, and due to that note in your comment, I think I did project something onto it that may not have not been there. But the things you said in the original and the follow-up were so confusing, such as “I’m just one of many people in our county who see the shift in library spaces and I’m happy to use the library that my tax dollars pay for in the ways that I want to.” This sounds great! But… you just said you were trying to create an “independent lending library in our area to provide the library experience to those who want it.” What does this mean?! Would like to hear more if you’re still here.
I mean, all this and more? Love the multiple options for streaming films and shows, audio book platforms, all the activities for people of all ages, the trip up to Muir Woods my friend just took through our library, the book readings/signings, the community rooms we can reserve, the ‘ask a librarian’ feature on their website, and on and on!
I am a childrens’ librarian who has felt a bit out of sorts for a while, so seeing all this love really warms my heart ❤️
Thank you for all you do!!!
This summer the wonderful librarians at our local library have been so warm, helpful and encouraging to my boys. They have a fantastic summer reading program and it’s truly been a highlight for us.
I’m sure it can feel like a thankless job at times, but please know how appreciated and important you are :)
I still know the name and can picture the children’s librarian who helped me when I received my library card more than 60 years ago. You ARE making a difference, even if these are thankless times.
In my family, librarians are heros! We love all of our librarians, and my daughter (2.5) LOVES to go to the library, loves to see the librarians, and loves books and to read. It’s so important to us that we chose to be a house just a block away! Of course, that also means that every time we pass it my daughter wants to go : ) Keep your head up! You are essential and valued!
I love the staff recommendations shelf where our staff writes notes of why they esp love this or that book. I especially love seeing that so many are chosen.
There are SO many reasons to love libraries, what an excellent illustration today. I was in the cookbook section of my Berkeley library last weekend and ran into W. Kamau Bell, we had a lovely exchange and he checked out a cookbook I recommended! Even famous people use the library :)
Just popped into our Library this morning to drop off Aftertaste (unique ghost story) and picked up three Twist, All The Men I’ve Loved Again and These Summer Storms. I love the mother-daughter duo running our town library. I love the seed library our garden club supports. I love the bricks painted to look like book covers our town art club created. I love the historic bldg that houses the library since 1913!! I adore the pride of every Library.
Every Friday, I buy the Library staff breakfast. It’s the least I can do. New funding doesn’t arrive 🤞🤞 until December.
Librarian here, thanking everyone for continued library love and support! Keep on showing up and using this essential third space in our communities <3 Tell all your friends :D
Love library babies! Both of my kids (1 and 4) adore going to the library thanks to the fabulous kids section and children’s librarians. Their efforts have made it where my kids already love the library and I am so excited for all of the family library trips to come. Shout out to all of the patrons who are so kind about the inevitable kids noises– promise that my toddler mostly remembers that “we whisper in the library.”
The smell of an old book! Even if it’s been bound and rebound over the years, it can still have that old library smell in the pages. There’s just something about it. (Also love the quiet found within the stacks, when you feel like speaking above a whisper will break the magic. Alas, a quiet library space seems rare these days.)
Our library has a “Grab and Go” section where they deliberately offer copies of hot new books that have long waiting lists. It’s like a prize for entering the library and looking around – I love it! Scored a new Abby Jimenez.
Ours is called the Lucky Day section ! :)
genius!!
:’)
I finished my library tech diploma and started working at an academic library this year (so some of these public library things don’t apply) and seeing the library love makes me sooo happy, as does my new career!
Can’t begin to enumerate all that I love about public libraries (and their vital role in a democracy) so am going to share my recent discovery: with my local Berkeley library card I have access to the entire Oxford English Dictionary at http://www.oed.com website. I didn’t have to buy a subscription. I just clicked on “sign in with a library card.” This delights me!
Libraries are the golden retrievers of community. We don’t deserve them but they remain steadfast in their loyalty. A truly essential (and life saving in countless undocumented ways) service.
Ahhh… all of this (as well as library staff who are so often unfairly stereotyped) and the innumerable social services our library in St. Louis provides. I love, love, love our library and count it as a great blessing that I live within walking distance to our local branch.
The public library is one of our country’s most democratic institutions; please support yours, especially now.
Ah! Love all those things too!
Top left just happened to me AND I’m about to go on vacation so double jackpot!!!
You forgot the librarians! Some of the greatest humans on Earth!
They are! I was in the children’s section of a neighborhood library last week with my kiddo in SF and a child was looking for Paw Patrol books. The librarian showed her the section with those books and also while I was there kept producing more that she found. She was determined to find every Paw Patrol book in the library. It was so sweet. It made me feel a little guilty for pretending no Paw Patrol (or Daniel Tiger… or Peppa Pig) books are available sometimes when my kid asks and I can’t handle any more in my house hahahah.
Hear hear! I love seeing a librarian friend at the public library near my office. She’s always reading something interesting, has great recommendations, and is such a fantastic human being. Libraries have always been a haven for me and I’m so grateful my state still thinks they’re important.
Library babies!!! I’m a children’s librarian at a public library and I run a baby storytime. When the parents and babies come in to the branch, all of the staff refers to it as the “baby parade.” It’s the absolute best. Also, many of us often walk into the workroom stating, “there is a baby in a cute tutu!” or “there is a baby in a sweater vest!” and we all rush out onto the floor to oooh and ahhh at the cuteness.
Sarah, we do the same thing at our library! Baby Parades are the best :)
Sarah, it’s such a good gig, and the work you’re doing is so important! I’m a director now, but I started out as a children’s librarian, and I’ve loved leading baby storytimes too. Every week my eyes would fill with tears when all of the babies got lifted into the air at the same time for a lap bounce song. The sensation was akin to crying during big group dance numbers at a musical performance, which I also love to do! *eyes welling up while smiling emoji*
When we used to go to baby story time at the library, all the moms agreed that we “saved” the babies’ best outfits for the library, because (esp in winter when I was on mat leave) where else would they be properly appreciated. It was a wonderful, inclusive group: the moms I assure you were not dressing up!
PS. our branch of the library is amazingly dynamic, and ALWAYS busy.
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