Local Library Love - What's Waiting For You?

"When a library is open, no matter its size or shape,
democracy is open too."
            ​- Bill Moyers

Listen, if you’re here, you know how I feel about words.

Oh. You don’t?

I LOVE WORDS. I love the way they rise and fall in a sentence like a breath, or a heartbeat. I love how they inform, inspire giggles and tears, and make people feel safe. I love how they give me solace, as I let them fall from my finger tips and hit a page, documenting everything I want to remember always.

But most of all, what I love about words: access. Access to stories, to education, the encouragement to just keep trying to be better than we are.

One obvious and delightful place to access words – your local library.

Duh, right? I grew up riding my purple Schwinn ten blocks to the municipal library (a block away from the house L. Frank Baum lived in while in Aberdeen – fun little piece of knowledge), and after I called my parents from the pay phone in the lobby, I entered Alexander Mitchell Library, and could finally breathe. I want my kid to know the same feeling (minus the pay phone, because it’s the 2020s now). We take him to the library a couple times a month, and I’ve been wondering if its time for him to get his own library card. Here’s what he – and you! – have to look forward to at our local libraries:

Outreach from Birth: I’ve been shocked by what our local library provides as outreach to get kids and their parents in the doors from birth on. We used to take our kid to Baby Story Time. All these new parents sitting in a circle, babies in laps, singing Itsy Bitsy Spider and wiggling tiny ankles in beat to the delightful librarian’s acoustic guitar. Babies see new faces, and so do Mom and Dad. We weren’t alone. It was a good reminder. Now we do Toddler Story Time, and admittedly, a lot of that time is spent chasing the offspring back into the reading room for a book and crayon time, but the premise remains the same: kids’ butts in library is a good habit started early.

Free Wifi: My office gets old. Sometimes, I need a change of scenery, or away from a coworker or five, and the library down the road is my go-to (after a requisite stop at Starbucks). There’s free wi-fi, there’s quiet, and even if I’m working on my day job, being surrounded by books gets my blood flowing a little faster. Plus, it feels like I’m playing hooky, and that’s fun.

Librarians Know Things: Like, all the things. Need to know Jane Eyre’s middle name? A reliable free place to do your taxes online? The one person, who wrote that one book, that was referenced on that one TV show on NBC in 1995 that wasn’t Friends? They already know it – or even more importantly, they will help you find it. Sometimes, we all need a resource. Your local librarians are there for you.

This is obvious, but Library Books Are Free. Let me say that again: Library. Books. Are. Free. Did you just get through with Kondo-ing your house? Do you just not have a lot of storage space? On a tight budget? Just like to browse the stacks? Hit the library!

Community Connections: People use the library as meeting spaces all the time. Book clubs and writing groups. Community service planning meetings. Speakers leading workshops and brown bags. All of these take place in library meeting rooms. People pulled together to make the world better, in a library. Love it.

I Like It Quiet: The world is a loud place. Phones dinging, traffic roaring, people talking, doors slamming. You can still hear all that in a library, but it’s muted, somehow. I don’t know if it’s a magical bubble of peace and clouds that separate you from the outside world, but it’s a perfect respite from the noise.

Seriously, access to education is crucial, especially right now. Invest in yourself and see what your local library has to offer.