The Magic of the Public Library
A million treasures and then some
When I was a toddler, my mom was a single mom in her early 40s. We visited the library early and often throughout my life. Looking back, I wonder if she just needed a big puffy chair and five extra sets of eyes on me, or if it was her own love of biographies and history books that compelled our many visits.
By the time I was 9, my mom made a habit of signing me up for not one, not two, but three summer reading programs. I remember the day one summer when the turtles visited the library from the St. Louis Zoo. My hands held Alan the box turtle, but my brain was exploding inside: the library opened the world with books, and now ANIMALS?!?!?!
This is the magic of the public library.
When I take my guide-daughter to the library for Pig the Pug books, we also play on the pirate ship, unleash our inner physicists, have a warm beverage (it is the great white north after all), and make a friend also perusing the we-don’t-believe-in-banned books shelf. At our library you can check out ice skates, beach chairs, and get tax help, along with forty other lesser known and likely useful services or supplies.
During graduate school for my Master’s in Social Work, they taught us that libraries are the most universal and easily accessible social service - the first line of community defense for any of our needs and a place to hold the duality of our shared humanity and individuality in balance. Magic.
It is in our deep love of all things local library that
and I want to introduce our tiny substack podcast project: At the Library - 10 minutes every episode of the most surprising and obvious wonders to be found at your local library. Library joy and library substance and library wonderment.Look for posts to come, share your favorite library-ism or resource with us in the comments, and subscribe to kavitch around the creativity of all the treasures to be found: At the Library.
Read
’s post on library love here:(Photos from two exceptional films, Moonrise Kingdom and Past Lives, also treasures to be found, likely, at your local library. Credit: shot.cafe)
 | A guest post by
|