I think I was taught how to use the library about a dozen or so times throughout my life. And I think three of those instances happened while in college.
I know it goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway. The library sure has changed over the years. Remember the Dewey Decimal System? (Is that system still in use?) Now, everything’s on a server somewhere and I can only imagine how it sent librarians into a tizzy around the late 90s.
Now that I’m no longer in school, I hardly visit the library. But I was given the opportunity to visit a library in Stowe, Ohio a couple of weeks ago with our friends Kristen, Scott and their four kids. It was a double-promo day. Not only was it “Free Comic Book Saturday” it was also “Walk Around the Parking Lot to Look and Touch a Bunch of Different Vehicles Day.” It was cool to see the kids playing around the parked UPS truck, fire truck, police car and book mobile.
After the kids finished playing with the vehicles, we took them into the library and to the children’s section upstairs to see a bunch of books on display featuring cars, trucks and vehicles that had faces, eyes and human challenges. It was well done!
I think we spent a couple hours in that section piecing together puzzles, playing with the kids and discovering a whole other world. It was a lot of fun – at least for me. It reminded me of the days I used to spend downstairs in the Carnegie Library in Beechview. Those were some of the best times of my life. It was Christmas with every visit.
But after that afternoon with the kids in Stowe, I realized the library is more than just a place to borrow books and do research. It’s a community center. It’s a family center.
The trucks and cars were long gone by the time we left, but we left with a new appreciation for the library and its services. I’m going to make it a point to promote the library more often. And I know a few Pittsburgh neighborhood libraries have been struggling lately, but we as individuals must do what we can to support the library and its programs because a town without a library is… well, it’s not really a town at all.
