Today marks the start of National Library Week. Remember the last time you saw, and smelled, so many books? Time for another visit there.
Theme
Sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA), National Library Week has grown since 1957 to include other countries, making it international. For this year’s theme, they chose “Drawn to the Library.”
Something about libraries draws us in. Even in the Internet Age, libraries retain the aura of vast, free knowledge that nothing online can match. Entering even the smallest one, we feel akin to those who wandered, awestruck, amidst the scrolls of the ancient Library of Alexandria. The full shelves whisper, “Here you’ll find the information you seek, the wonder, the adventure, the knowledge of those who came before. Borrow a book. They’ll all free.”
Authors and Libraries
You might think authors hate libraries, since you can read the author’s books without paying. Perhaps some authors harbor a grudge, but few libraries carry every book written by the more prolific authors. If you sample a few for free, you might well buy those you can’t borrow.
In a larger sense, libraries encourage reading. The more people who read books, the greater chance some readers will read mine. All good.
When asked about libraries in a 2013 interview, author Ray Bradbury said, “Well, that’s my complete education. I didn’t go to college, but when I graduated from high school I went down to the local library and I spent ten years there, two or three days a week, and I got a better education than most people get from universities. So I graduated from the library when I was twenty-eight years old.” He went on. “[Libraries are] the center of our lives.”
Little Free Libraries
Perhaps I shouldn’t neglect libraries so small you can’t walk into them. Over 200,000 tiny libraries, just boxes containing a few books, have appeared in front yards all over this country, and over 120 others. Sponsored by Little Free Library, these small containers remain available for sharing books even when the library building is closed. You can find the little free library nearest you here or build your own.
Don’t Resist the Draw
Admit it. You’re drawn to the library, and you haven’t visited one in awhile. You couldn’t pick a better week to go, and re-establish the habit. It’s National Library Week. When you go there, you might see—
Poseidon’s Scribe
