Notes From the Library: Turn Up the Volume

In Which the Children Arrive

Last week at the library we celebrated national Take Your Child to the Library Day and it was chaos for a good part of the morning.

The day before had been the great deep freeze and my guess is that families had stayed home that day, to come out and celebrate this day. When I pulled in, the parking lot was nearly full and I could hear the kids from the porch. Of course, I forgot the snacks so I ran down to Dunks and picked up a 50 pack of munchkins.

We had scavenger hunts and crafts, and many of the parents knew each other from school, so they got to catch up. We even signed up a bunch for new library cards.

This all brought a couple things to my mind:

First, this isn’t your grandma’s library any more. Loud is good. There will be no shushing (within reason) at my library. Speak up, laugh with great volume, clap and sing. New Librarianship encourages energy and liveliness. Our 130-year-old institution should be a place where the community can immerse itself in controlled chaos. We want kids to learn, yes. To open their hearts and minds, yes. But also to have fun.

Second, we need more space. We can barely handle a dozen kids and their families. As the library moves toward expansion, a major focus must be creating a play space, a create space, small nooks and crannies, private areas for parents and little ones. There’s so much we can do!

Due to some other commitments, Little Bean wasn’t able to get there until later in the day, after the initial first big rush. The result was she had the children’s room to herself for a while and I was concerned she’d be unhappy, or even worse, bored.

Living the Life of a Librarian’s Daughter

After settling herself in with a Baby Sitter’s Little Sister graphic novel, I came over to see how she was doing, wanting to keep her occupied until more kids showed up.

“How was school today?”

“Good.”

“Are you hungry?”

“No.”

“Do you need-”

She interrupted me, a hilarious look of frustration on her eight-year-old face. “Daddy, please, can’t you see that I’m reading.”

I left her to her words.

Note to self: In the rush to provide a world of information to the community, don’t forget that the library has, you know, books. We read on. Always.