Fiber Fool

Being a lover of books and of learning new things, I love my public libraries. I’m fortunate enough to live in a town with three public library locations and a large state university library that as a member of the community I can also use. The libraries are sources of new knowledge and of entertainment for me. They are also my office away from home, most often used in the summer when the house gets so hot I feel like my brain is no longer functioning.

That said, this week they may get used quite liberally as an out of house office as local politicians are calling 4-6 times a day trying to get my vote for our election next week. Even though I don’t answer, the ringing throws off my thought process. What I’m not understanding is why they think it is okay to call me daily with the *same* freaking recorded message. Sorry. Tangent. Let’s get back to the good things - the public library!

1. The most important in my mind is - if you don’t use the public library, don’t expect it to be there when you really need it! Funding of the libraries if often tied at least somewhat to usage numbers and patterns.

2. To save money - in addition to borrowing books, we also borrow MP3 books, occasionally a DVD especially of BBC shows like Midsomer Murders etc.

3. To find books I’d otherwise never know existed - I don’t do it often enough, but just browsing the stacks is a much different sort of process than browsing on Amazon. Often more fruitful too!

4. To test drive books before I buy - I do this pretty faithfully with cookbooks and knitting books. You just never know until you sit down with them if they will bring anything new to your existing collection. I also do this to check out new fiction series too. More often than not I figure most series I read these days I’m not likely to reread, but I’ve found a few I’ve decided to own.

5. Quiet place to work - if I really need to get work done, sometimes I just have to get out of the house and away from distractions like the tower of dirty dishes teetering in the sink. I find the library to be a bit more productive of a space to work than most of the coffee shops I’ve tried. I can hide in tables in the stacks, or I can sit more out in the public where I people watch. There are many different places I can decide to set-up depending upon my mood. I just wish they still had the coffee cart! But I just stop off somewhere on the way in.

6. Influence future book purchases - by checking out books I’m telling the library what type of books I value and help drive their future buying patterns! For this reason, I do not shy away from taking advantage of our regional library loan system, Prospector or requesting an ILL (though I try not to go the ILL route unless I’m quite serious about that title).

7. A place to read magazines - I love that I can go in and browse the latest issues of fashion and craft magazines for inspiration without adding additional clutter to our house.

8. Reference librarians - they are the bomb! I don’t have call to use them very often these days, but they are a fountain of helpful information for tracking down more obscure information. I want to always have them to go to!

9. Community programs - our library has a plethora of events each week one can attend. I used to faithfully attend a bookclub every 6 weeks until the chosen books really just kept me from reading (due to the change in people in the club, the selections are voted on, but suddenly they all turned to non-fiction political titles) and it was no longer worth missing my weekly knitting night. i’ve taken a photography class and attended a ghosthunting demonstration. They also have some fun annual fundraising events like the Annie Pet Walk and Victorians in the Park. I think one of the locations has family movies shown each Friday evening. There are cultural and historical lectures each month. The program director of our library system does an awesome job!

10. Back up internet access - if our internet goes wonky the library is my go to savior! Thank goodness for library wi-fi and laptops. They have been a sanity saver at times!

What do you love about your public library?