Librarians I have loved. Hhhhmmmm....
There have been many. There have been various personalities.
As I previously said my mother was the first librarian in my life. She was in charge of our in-home collections of reading materials. I suppose she had no choice, really. Between her love of reading and her mother doting on us five children (Grandma Landers' ONLY grandchildren!) she was forced into it. If she wanted to protect her precious reading materials from five high energy children she had to come up with a way to not constantly want to strangle us for all the destruction that ensued. (After all, the first of the brood had unceremoniously stacked up and sat on, there by crunching under a diaper wrapped heiny, Mom's entire 45rpm record collection from the 1950's! Yes that meant ORIGINAL rock and roll greats that Mom had listened to as a teen.Yes, that child has forever more been looked upon as TROUBLE. And it was not ME! Yea!)
Grandma Landers was a retired teacher/principal/saleslady/farmer/lawyer's wife, etc by the time I had come along so all five of us were her pet project in a big way. We were blessed with old pull down maps, Audubon Society charts, globes, dictionaries, thesauruses, encyclopedias of every hobby and like that we could come up with, an upright piano, various field trips (kind of like the Von Trapp Family Singers - well, except not talented, pretty, or beloved by a whole nation.....) AND the dreaded cemetery visits! THAT is another whole post on its own, so I won't get into that here now. Just suffice to say that it included family history and travel and boredom and lots and lots of lessons in doing what your loved one wants - just because you love them.
All my life I have been told that what you do in front of your children they will do also. It certainly is true about Mom's reading! We five children like to read or learn new things all the time. We like to acquire skills and DO things. With this in mind I made a point while I was pregnant with my son that I walked to the library every few days and chose books to read aloud. Then I realized that even though the baby was not born yet I still did not want it hearing certain things. AND I DID want it to hear other things! It may have been a bit foolish, maybe not, but it set a pattern of intentionality toward my children's upbringing. It also renewed my love of fairy tales, folklore and rhymes. I was living in Denver at the time and I had access to three different libraries. The Main Branch, the Park Hill Branch and the Mayfair Branch. The Mayfair Branch does not exist any more. At the time it was in a strip mall at the south end of Mayfair Park on Holly Street. We lived in two different apartment buildings during this time on either side of Colfax Avenue on Ivy Street. Park Hill and Mayfair were quite long walks for a very pregnant young wife, but as Denver is a very pedestrian city this is what I did. It made for good exercise and fresh air. My mother would have been scared to death if she had known that I even walked there in snow storms that winter. THAT was how much I loved my books, the libraries and the librarians. I was new to Denver and I learned a lot from these buildings, people, books, and experiences.
Dr. Seuss wrote " OH, The Places You'll Go!" This was one of my favorite books to read to my then yet-to-born-son. I like to think that he had this notion that Theodor Geisel wanted to foster planted inside him even before he set foot in this world. I like to think that I, yes me, I was HIS first librarian. I do know that my son lives this little story every day in a big way, so maybe I did influence him.
When my son was older I could go to the Main Branch of the Denver Library more often. It was farther away from our apartment and he did not like to sit still as I whiled an entire day away in the seemingly endless stacks. One day, while serving jury duty downtown, I had several hours before my husband was due to pick me up. This was before cell phones so it was customary to just wait for your ride instead of calling to change plans at the last minute. (I HATE CELL PHONES.) I accidentally strolled past the library without realizing it - until in the February cold I decided I would freeze to death if I did not find a public building in which to while away the hours. Then, it hit me- the library was just back there! I walked as fast as I could to get inside.
Now, in major cities it is common to see homeless people inside the libraries in very inclement weather. Some librarians in Denver were heartless and drove them off, some just let them be as long as no trouble was involved. I did not want to risk being mistaken for a homeless person (I was bundled up pretty heavily against the Mile High winds), so I asked how late they were open as I had to meet my husband down the street and wanted a warm place to read until then. The librarian assured me that I was fine. Then I asked her a question I will never regret. "What is your most favorite collection here?" She looked very surprised and said "Follow me quickly!" She took me to the Genealogy section. OH MY GOODNESS! There was a three tiered mezzanine that would have held three Fayette County Public Libraries in it that was the Genealogy Department!
That started my first real endeavors into historical research. I was hooked. It was 1991. I was reading complete strangers' life histories and they were amazing, and totally normal. Each one made me think what life had been at that time. Also I wanted to do research about other details in the stories. I was frustrated because I was running out of time to kill. I was determined to come back. I did, any time I had the spare minutes to break away. The Main Branch stayed open until 10 p.m. then so it gave me more time. Not much, but enough to foster my burgeoning history addiction.
Tomorrow I will continue "Librarians I Have Loved" in Part III.
For now, I will leave you with links to the libraries I have visited quite often in the last few years:
Fayette County Public Library and here
Rushville Public Library and here
Cambridge City Public Library new building project album and here
Franklin County Public Library and here
Henry County Public Library and here
Shelby County Public Library and here
One of my favorite librarians just passed away this week after I started this article. Julie Hankins was a great lady. She often times could be heard laughing over the sound of the rowdy children that would pile in after school at the Shelbyville Library. She called me her little bag lady because when I was going to school online I would bring my laptop and bag, my camera equipment and bag, my school books and bag, my library books and bag....etc. She could always spare the time to chat with a patron and tried to make everyone feel welcome to use all the facilities and programs. I will miss her as a librarian and a friend.
Marion Public Library and here
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