National Library Week

Here in the states, April 8 is the beginning of National Library Week. Please stop by your local library, check out a book or two, support its programs such as children's reading programs or Books on Wheels that delivers and retrieves books from nursing homes and hospitals, and if your library has a support group like Friends of the Library, join.
As is said, "use it or lose it" and losing a library is a terrible thing.
(disclaimer--I am a retired children's librarian and considered it the best job in the world!)

 

I go into the reference section. I am not the least bit interested in fiction. I worked in a library. Good job.

 

MG, I actually have been thinking of joining the local Friends of the Library where I live. I love our library. It is a great place to hang out! Lots of books & you can get anything by inter-library loan. The building itself is gorgeous. I'll see if I can post a photo later.

I also really like the e-book feature now. I even reserve them for my brother.
My brother is a great reader & he has given me his library id. When I find a book I really like, I go into his account & put a hold on the e-book for him! He loves it. We then have an interesting text discussion about the book.

 

I'm with you, Jane. I find Bib's so important, but I can see that this is a different world than when I was a kid.
I shall always have a warm space in my heart for bibs because a bibliotheek is where I had my first "real" job. It was the bib on the campus of where my father taught. The matron who ran the show there came across as a tyrant. Very strict. Not the sort of person that would give me job security simply because my father was part of the staff.

It was good for me to work there because I learned preciseness and the importance of preciseness. It was an "old fashioned" place that still used the "Dewey Decimal Systeem". That meant that it all began in the catalogue trays--all the cards had to be correctly filed in alphabetical title order as a cross reference to the Dewey numbers. Then there was the demand that each hook had a specific place on the shelves in "the stacks". There was the retrieving books for students as well as re-turning them to their correct place. I had to ask for and take the money for late return fines.

When I had nothing to do, then there was always the checking of the catalogue cards and checking book order in the stacks and there was this list of "missing books" that were shone to be in the bib but were not in their place.

I think that I won the matron over the day that one of the teachers (a friend of my father's) returned two books, wheeled-around and was leaving when I called out to him that the books were late and that there were fines. Of course in those days it was mouse-still in the bib so all the students heard me and looked up.
He returned to the counter and whispered that I could just forget the fines since it was only a few cents. ( I believe that the rate then was 5 cents/ day). I was 12 or 13 years old at the time, and I can remember how he tried to intimidate me with scowls and wrinkled brow with harsh words and references to friendship with my father. He found me impertinent and my father would hear about my lack of manners, etc.

Well, I stood fast and insisted on the fines being paid for the books. It is easy for a child---right and wrong. It's so black and white at that age. I also feared the matron a bit, I can tell you. The scene was almost comical looking back...there I stood with a face as red as a fire engine and speaking in a calm, correct normal tone, and there was the teacher whispering and snarling like Gollum or something. He wanted to not be noticed and I wanted the students to hear.

He paid in the end, reminding me that my father would hear about this. When he had passed through the front door, I sort of Whew-ed and stepped back from the oak counter against which I had been leaning. There was palm perspiration visible, and as i began wiping it away with my shirt cuff, I felt a tap on my shoulder and it was the matron. She referred to me as "Mister and my last name". She told me to follow her to her office. Well, I saw my little job there disappearing into thin air with punishments to follow at home.

I was feeling a bit low and deflated after the encounter. I shall nit take up any more room here with the conversation that followed, but I did not have to leave. The matron had heard and seen the whole show. She did not congratulate me--it wasn't her style...but she did say that I had handled it correctly without being sassy or back-talky, or whatever the correct word is. To further my own intuitions--she said that no matter who returns over-due books a fine must be charged...be it professors or their families. --It was a lesson in life for me, I realized that later on.

So yeah--I strongly support your position, Jane and hope that folks will not let their bibs fall by the wayside in this age of digitalization.

Give Marlin a gold star for this posting.

 

Great post SJ. What an insufferable bully that teacher was!

Is the Dewey Decimal system is still in use? MG will know. If not, maybe an updated version. There is obviously a point to it: being able to find a specific book amongst the thousands upon thousands in a library is important.

Your story of working in the library as a boy reminded me of my own library experience. My family moved to a different town when I was 10. Not yet having any friends, I was a bit lonely. Fortunately, we lived next door to the local library. I went over there several times a week, to read, check out books, etc. It was a great space. The librarian was so nice. It was there that I discovered I loved to read.

Presently in our town, the library is next door to the high school, jr high and elementary schools. After school, kids flock over there to read, study & of course, to hang out with their friends. The library staff has been good about this flood of kids & the town has funded a support staff person to keep the antics in check.

 

Many many years ago the day after my 12th birthday I walked into our city's main library. The cavernous room of the Italianate-style building rose to the second floor ceiling. I had never been in a building of that size with an atrium. The open space afforded a view of the second floor with aisles of hundreds of books. I filled out the necessary information on the application sheet and I was handed my new card, I no longer needed my 'children's card'. New card in hand I sought out the librarian seated at the desk marked 'Help Desk'. She explained the reference room we stood in and the floors of unseen stacks in the much larger adjoining building. I was also introduced to Mr. Dewey and his decimal numbering system and the card files. As more patrons needed her help, a inviting wave of the hand and a friendly "enjoy" sent me to "the stacks". What seemed hours later I emerged with books in hand to check out my first books.

Wherever I go the library is one of the first places to visit and procure the cherished card that again opens a world of knowledge and adventure. Gone are the card files but with my computer I have access to 47 libraries and countless unseen books, cd/dvd's and information. I can put a hold on a book 30 miles away and an e-mail reminder tells me it is on the hold shelf at my local library. While I frequent my library often, for me every week is library week.

Jerry

 

The Dewey Decimal System will never die! Too many libraries would descend into chaos without it, not to mention all the people who wouldn't be able to locate books on the shelves.
Jerry, computers and access to the internet have expanded library services, and that is a good thing. But, libraries need to remember they serve many people with different needs and abilities, so a card catalog is comforting to some, and a computer is what others prefer.
I admire your statement "for me every week is library week." Keep putting books on hold, keep reading, and enjoy your library and the books, cds and dvds it supplies. I just love readers!
I miss the good old catalog with its little drawers of cards. When our local library went to using computers and wanted to dispose of the catalog, I pointed out that one person could use the computer to find a book, but several people could use the catalog at one time. The librarian told me that filing the cards was "too time consuming." She didn't seem to be overly busy . . . .

 

When I was a kid our library was so tiny. About 3 aisles wide floor to ceiling (regular height) but wow those books were used and read. Then to increase readership a book van was purchased with custom shelves to bring the books out into the country. For years it stopped at the bottom of our driveway. We could order books through them and have them delivered almost to our door. Was in seventh heaven.

Now I rarely go to the library but I read daily getting most of my books now online. I have a Kindle and I think have something like 500 books loaded onto it. Am not at all above purchasing a book I want (reference type) but I do find with the availability of info on the internet my library usage has dropped substantially.

 

I have always used libraries where ever we lived. We volunteered at several of them. At one of them I was the children's librarian. I kept track, shelved and checked out children's books. I did a story hour twice a week for preschool children and once a week in the summer for older children. After reading to the children we had juice and cookies and talked about the books. I worked in libraries in Wisconsin, Arizona and Texas and really enjoyed it. There isn't a library close to us now but we can take a bus downtown and walked three or four blocks to a library and we do have library cards. dooley

 

Cayuga--The decimal system is all but gone here in our local library. There is a battery of computers now for people to look up the books they want, and the bib is so small they are easy to find. Books here are filed under their general subject, childrens' books and reference books. Some of the older books still have Dewey codes on their backs.
I feel like Jane--that there ought to always be a place for this system...it's just so darn easy if all is where it is supposed to be.