You’ve heard of preacher’s kids, I’m a librarian’s kid. Growing up in the 60’s and 70’s libraries were in transition—or at least my mom, the newly-minted city librarian thought they should be. She envisioned having colorful and imaginative children’s areas, with reading nooks, play toys and puppets.
Every one of our family vacations involved finding the local library and seeing what that city offered its children.
She lobbied the city council for more money and tried to get the community behind a building project that would see the fruition of her dreams. My mom was just a generation too soon.
Now, libraries feature whole wings dedicated to children. Besides pajama party story times, there are historical dress up activities, board game events, and kids can check out musical instruments and science kits with real microscopes. Mom would be incredibly awed.
So, I take my granddaughter to the public library and let her know that her great grandma would have loved it here as much as she does.
It’s true that we get to keep far more than we can ever borrow from the library.
National Library Week April 23-29.