The county commissioners of Hall county Georgia, are considering ways to juggle money in this economic slump. One of their options is to close from 2 to 4 public libraries. This has caused an outcry from the users of the libraries. I have two library cards, one from my own county and one for this adjoining county. For as long as I can remember, in my long life, I have been privileged to have a library card.
My first contact with a library was at the school I attended, from third grade through twelfth grade. Our library there doubled as a detention hall for some students. In some cases it was where we could go if we had free time. At that time, long before computers, typewriters were available for us to use there, but not to check out. When I went off to college, the library there became a source of information for me, as well as a place to study when a quiet place was needed. After graduation and on my first job, I continued to be a consistent patron of the town library where I lived. I used it to get books for my first grade class. Because I was a teacher I was allowed to check out twenty books at one time. I went every other week to find colorful books for my first grade class. In my classroom I had a library table where the children could go to select a book, after finishing their assigned work. I was introducing my class to their first library, as there was none in our school building or in this small community where I taught and they lived. Each day I chose a child to select one of the books for me to read to the entire class.
I continued this pattern for four years, while living and teaching in this southeastern area of Kentucky. Then my husband and I moved many miles away to the eastern shore of Maryland. One of the first things we did, after finding an apartment, was to sign up for a library card. For a number of years I was a homemaker and had the time to indulge my love of reading. My favorite books were non fiction, and especially biographies and autobiographies. My husband was a teacher, and he was a daily reader also.
When my children came along, I introduced books to them early on. I have a picture of my daughter when she was only one, walking with a book in her hands, and "reading" it. When my children were old enough, I took them to the public library and we checked out books for them and for me also. When they were small, libraries had not established the custom of "children's hour". During this time I did not have a car of my own so we boarded a local bus to get to the library.
I discovered more new elements of the library in Decatur Georgia. They had oil paintings which could be checked out for a period of time. This was a new way in which the public library enriched my life, as we could all enjoy the art of creative people.
When my children began school, I went back into the classroom myself, again, as a first grade teacher. I discovered another lending element had been added for the use of patrons, in slide films. I was able to enrich the experiences of my young students outside of the printed books, with slide shows on many different subjects. At the current time in our history, librarians need multiple skills to meet the needs of modern patrons. Their title has changed to Media Specialists, and the information highway is linked to the once humble library via the personal computer. Our public libraries are meeting the changing times and morphing into an even more vital part of our communities.
When I look back, I see so many ways and times that my life has been made better because of public libraries. At this time in the history of our country, many people are struggling financially. Those of us who can afford to give a lending hand to our lending libraries need to find a way to do just that. Shutting out the source of knowledge to our citizens is not the way for our elected officials to meet their budget. I am proposing that we put a big tin cup on the counter where visitors may put in what they can afford, when checking out a book to take home and enjoy.
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