Libraries

I love libraries!

When I was a kid the small town where we lived had a branch of the county library in what had previously been a bar. My father took me there to get my first library card when I was in First Grade.

After he died my mother had to get a job. Since I had severe asthma I couldn't climb the hill to our house, so every day after school I'd hang out at the library until my mother picked me up on her way home from work.

The librarian taught me the Dewey Decimal System and let me help her by shelving books. In return I always got to be the first kid to read the newest books for kids.

A few years ago the county where I now live considered selling the libraries to a private company. The entire community came out in protest, so they kept the free, public libraries.

Now the libraries use computers instead of cards to check books out, and file card catalogs are obsolete. Some people come to the library to use computers with internet access, and the main county library even has a 3D printer and classes in technology.

Things have changed a lot since I was a kid!

But little kids can still come to Story Time, and people are constantly coming in to check out or return the old fashioned, hard copy books they enjoy reading.

I hope libraries never go away.