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Please Don’t Turn That Page…. a.k.a. (What Will Become of Dewey Decimal?)

So, there is this little thing called the Kindle, also many other applications that you can get for your Iphone, your PC and just about any other device that hooks up with the internet!  I think this is an amazing service an awesome concept. There are so many books at your fingertips, you don’t have to leave the house, in fact you can access pretty much any book from any location.  Nice, I guess…. Well I mean, I did just get the  Kindle app for my pc but… I LOVE THE PUBLIC LIBRARY!!!

I hope that we don’t see the day that the library closes its doors for good.  But I fear that this is the direction we are heading.  Recently, I had the opportunity to vote on a city referendum that would help to fund our city’s libraries.  I happily voted “yes”, funding something that my family and I have enjoyed so much over the years seems like a good way to spend my tax dollars.

Where can you go and borrow something so priceless for numerous weeks with no strings attached? Besides books, you can check out music, movies, periodicals, maps, why you can even check out artwork (WHAT?) that’s right, artwork. And if you need them for a longer period of time you can renew them!  I love it and I am always in awe that I can just walk out with a pile of books. The librarian is willing to cheerfully wish me well, as I make off with maybe hundreds of dollars worth of books and other items that aren’t mine, as long as I return them!

We have “branch” libraries where I live so if I want an item but it is at the “main” library I can just get on the computer and request the item, if it is available they will truck it over to the branch library that is most convenient to me. They will even let me know when it arrives! When my children were small we attended free shows at the library.  They hosted a variety of performers such as  singers,  storytellers, puppeteers, jugglers so many fun things, we enjoyed.

Technology is a wonderful thing, we all make use of it, how else could I be writing this blog that will make its way all over the world!  That  is awesome! However, I hope that I don’t see the day technology replaces the actually bricks and mortar of the library.  I believe that it is an institution that is worth keeping around for the generations.  I just can’t see myself as a grandma cuddling up with my grandkids and my Kindle to look at a picture book together or read a classic bit of literature. I think I will always enjoy turning an actual paper page more than flicking the computer screen. Please don’t turn that page in history and let libraries become obsolete!

Tell me what do you like about the library? Or do you enjoy reading on a device?

You Know What It’s Like – Jane

 

 

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3 thoughts on “Please Don’t Turn That Page…. a.k.a. (What Will Become of Dewey Decimal?)

  1. happinessvirus on said:

    There’s a little village in the Scottish lowlands called Leadhills, where they used to have a visitor centre telling the story of lead mining in that area. An incredibly hard job with small children involved too. Of the 23 founder members, only two were not miners. They started their own library in 1741 and it’s the oldest subscription library in the UK.

    I visited it and listened to the audio tape where a man tried to borrow a book; they had to jump through hoops, promise to keep it clean and return it. And as this imaginary man talked of how he loved books, their smell and their feel, I could feel tears in my eyes. Our libraries are such an incredible gift – Andrew Carnegie knew that when he founded so many a hundred years later, and we must keep them open if people are to learn.

    As for me, while my family would buy me a Kindle tomorrow, I may keep it for handiness sake/travel, but I will always love the smell and the feel of a book in my hand.

  2. i am a tactile person and will forever choose a book over a reader. that’s just me. but i have friends who LOVE their readers and their kids love them so if a “tech-y” thing will get kids to read i think that’s a good thing too. but i know what you mean about libraries, i spent the better part of my summer vacations as a kid in the library.

  3. I, too, have fond and deep childhood memories of the library. I am pretty sure I took out every horse book in the children’s section. I can remember the pride of moving up to the YA (Young Adults) section, and hours spent researching topics for papers for school (remember when you used to need an Encyclopedia to do a report?)
    I don’t think libraries will disappear, but the will likely change…. at least I hope they never go!
    Long live the librarian! 🙂

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