Celebrate National Library Week
It’s National Library Week, a time to celebrate and raise awareness about the contributions libraries, librarians, and library workers make to their communities every day.
This is not a difficult celebration, as virtually everybody loves libraries. Many of us have fond memories of rushing there after school, picking up yet another book so we can discover ourselves, get lost in a new world, and become our own superheroes—even if it’s just for a few hours. Few of us have forgotten the magic that happened in the library as a child, because we still visit our local library monthly, weekly, and sometimes daily.
In fact, last year, Americans visited their library more than 1.4 billion times. Billion.
Creating Opportunity
Libraries serve as our nation’s great equalizers of knowledge, providing free access to information and opportunity for all people. The public library is often the heart of a community, bringing people together in a way no other community organization can: through books, through computers and Internet access, and through dedicated staff who are so passionate about knowledge and information. While Google or Bing can give you 50,000 responses to an inquiry, your librarian can help you find the one answer you need.
Plus, librarians are incredibly cool. Case in point: Librarians Do Gaga (below), the Geek the Library campaign, and Unshelved, a web comic set in the library.
Geek the Library
In fact, whatever you geek, whatever you are passionate about, the library helps make it happen.
I geek science fiction. I geek sonic screwdrivers. I geek hobbits and Middle Earth. I geek space. And I can get my geek on at the library.
But unless we continue to support our libraries, this won’t be the reality. Did you know that libraries get around 80 percent of their funding from local sources? That includes taxes, levies, and donations. Remember that the next time your are griping over a late book fee or reviewing your tax contributions.
What can you do right now to support your local library? Get involved in National Library Week and tell others how important the library is to you, your community, and your country.
And let us know in the comments what sort of things you geek about and how the library helps you explore this!
One of my favorite quotes and heroines is Evelyn from The Mummy: “Look, I… I may not be an explorer, or an adventurer, or a treasure-seeker, or a gunfighter, Mr. O’Connell, but I am proud of what I am. I… am a librarian!”
Sadly, at my son’s grade school funding was cut for the library, so there hasn’t been a librarian there for the last two years. Thankfully we have a great public library to turn to.
I love that scene. Knowledge is power! 🙂
School libraries are often the first things to get cut, which is so unfortunate. But, as you say, thank goodness we have some incredible public libraries to turn to!
I geek fantasy books. Unfortunately books can be expensive, and as a poor grad student, I don’t have endless amounts of money. But thanks to my local libraries, I’m never out of things to read! 😀 Love you, Berkeley Public Library and Alameda County Public Library <3
<3 Love it, Becca! And I love fantasy books. Do you have any current favorites? I am really digging the Graceling books from Kristin Cashore, have you read those?