HAPPY LIBRARY LOVERS WEEK....

Must admit to a bit of bias...I think libraries are great places. All those books, free to take home. Row after row of them, all lined up in easy to navigate order. What more could a person want?



And libraries today have changed dramatically since the days of the frowning spinsterish badly-dressed older woman telling everyone to shhhhhhhhhh! Today they are a vital part of the community....in some cases they become the hub of the community.

Whether you use a library to borrow books, CD's or DVD's (cheaper than the video store), to do research, use a computer or game station, a quiet place to study or even to sit down and catch up with the paper...it's all good.

And if you thought working in a library only meant dealing out books, here are some of the things I've done over the past few years
* Read blurbs to the visually impaired to help them decide which ones they would like
* Found the local pound
*Using the Melways to find not only local addresses - but how a visitor could make his way down to Dromana
* Found the CD a person wanted with the words Diva and World somewhere in the title (that no library held) and how she could order it from Amazon
* Helped set up email accounts and helped those new to computers navigate their way round
* Oohed and aahed over new babies, held crying toddlers and hugged tired children
* Helped OS travellers find nearby B&B's to stay the night
* Helped with resumes, job applications and on-line forms
*Helped pack bags and cars
* Found local government building codes - and tried to explain them
* Helped identify birds
* Read, sung and danced
*Talked to new mothers on the benefits of reading to children from an early age
* Talked to teenagers when they decided 'there's nothing good to read here'
* Directed people to the early voting station
* Directed people to the train station
*Directed people to the nearest U3A, newsagent, pay phone, police station, place where they can fax
*Found the local police number and helped a teenager phone
*Informed toddlers that the F word is not suitable
*Informed people that what they are watching on the public computers is not suitable
*Asked people to pull up pants, pull down tops- informed them that showing too much flesh is not suitable
*Lugged boxes of books, packed boxes of books, unloaded boxes of books, shelved, weeded, discarded, displayed, catalogued, covered, mended, jacketed.
*Blew bubbles and created balloon men, made paper snowflakes and snappy crocodiles, sung Happy Birthday and complete with bells, Jingle Bells, danced the Reindeer Hokey Pokey and Dingle Dangle Scarecrow
*Helped a child figure out why the Spiderman game he was playing was not the same as the one he plays at his uncle's house
* Talked about my favourite books - new books- best sellers and what I recommended
*Introduced authors and listened to authors
*Helped children find the book they NEED now - adults find the first book in a series and they think the author's name was Jeff somebody or other - found music scores and CD's featuring the song that goes la la dada la dah

Libraries are wonderful places. They open up a world of imagination and fun. And it doesn't matter whether you use them for research, to pick up the latest Patterson or Meyers, to find a quiet place to sit for half an hour while your children are being entertained.... the important thing is to use them. To make sure that libraries are seen as the important part of the community they are.

Vicki :)