Blue Skies and Libraries

With my vision being restored right at the new year, I thought it providential.  So this year I’m trying to really see things.  Somethings might just be the beauty of the vision or it might be deeper than that, so, without further ado, blue skies and libraries...

Our January has not been very January-y.  It might not be crisp white snows, but it is remarkably beautiful.  We've taken walks under clear blue skies.  I'm grateful for the sun that shines and the beautiful days.

Then libraries...

When I was a girl my mom would take my little sister and me to our public library.  I remember the open steps, wide to the half way point, that split to two separate sets of narrower steps after that point.  I can still see the stacks of books, low for smaller children in the middle, tall on either end for older kids chapter books on one side and the young adult books by the stairs.  I can remember where the Nancy Drew books were in the dimly lit section.  The L.M. Montgomery paperbacks on the wire rack in the YA section.  The microfiche on the first floor, the actual cards in the book, with your due date slip to be stamped.  Carrying stacks of books that we precariously balances to the parking lot in the shady lot out back.

My school library is where I found the Mr. Men & Little Miss and Amelia Bedelia  books before I graduated up to Nancy Drew and Little House books.

In college, I worked in the stacks, reshelving books.  I did shelf reading, the somewhat tedious task of checking the call numbers of each book to be sure they are all in the right spots.  I edged books (lining them up at the edge of the shelf to make it easier to find the right book).  I helped with shifting books as the collection changed, and worked on the barcoding of the books the summer we started that project.  I also found Jane Austen in those days.  I'd check out a copy to take home and read a shelved copy on my breaks.

I've held library cards in Kentucky, Alabama, Kansas, and Tennessee.  In Alabama, I checked out the first six Harry Potter books (seven hadn’t been released yet).  In Kansas I would push our double stroller the mile and a half each direction to get there, when the weather was nice enough.  Our first library here had an excellent home school section, and Katie got her first library card there.  Then we moved to a much larger library system, which I hoped we could walk to, as the children grew, where they will ship in the books I request from other branches.  They moved our branch a bit further away, allowing for expansion, and incorporating every request our family made...a separate juvenile non-fiction section, child friendly restroom, an animal theme, we’ll, and I assume n the new books procured that Nate's young desire for, 'more digger books' was probably met too, though I didn’t double check the catalog on that one.

I can't imagine life without the library...  Books have been my friends, my source of income, and my educators.  This past year the library has given me books for personal reading and soooo many books for school.  Books on WWI, WWII, the Wright Brothers, literature books like Animal Farm and The Great Gatsby, books for historical reference like The Century by Peter Jennings and The Hiding Place, and books for philosophy like The Screwtape Letters.

Then there are the services libraries now provide the community for those who might not be able to have them at home...internet and printing services, educational opportunities, and story times for children.

So today I'm thankful for the beauty of blue skies and libraries.