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By the wonderful Grace Farris.
P.S. Reading styles and reading positions.
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Right now my mom stop talking to me and stay out of my room. Stay out of my room and mind her own business.
I miss wandering the aisles of the Library knowing my kids are safe on the other side of the shelf. There is something magically about browsing book titles while still being able to see my littles through the gaps doing the same thing !
Our library has curbside pick-up too. But I discovered their only pandemic practice aside from a disinfectant swipe is to let books “rest” for 5 days between checkouts. All the book jackets are plastic and covid is said to love plastic and live there happily for 3 weeks!
So I mist them inside and out and all the paper edges with 70 percent isopropyl alcohol and let the books sit standing up with the pages fanned out for 3 weeks. At any given time there are at least 6 books sitting for their 3 week “cure”, and a long list of titles on order at the library, so I am well stocked with excellent reads for the winter to come.
Currently reading, “The Boys in the Boat”; about how the University of Washington’s crew team won the Berlin Olympics during Hitlers reign, against all odds. It is excellent so far.
My childhood branch of my city library closed when I was about 20 when they built a larger brand new one a few blocks away. I was sad and nostalgic but then the best possible thing happened- a delicious bakery moved in to the old space. Now I can still hang out and read under that goofy red roof but I don’t get in trouble for sneaking snacks. Shout out to the Hollywood branch library in PDX!
I worked under that “goofy red roof” in 1979. It was a great experience and I loved it.
Our library in Corvallis, OR has been amazing through the pandemic. The deliver books to our front door!! My girls are in a library book club and get a free book with activities each month. There is a phone number we can call to listen to a recorded librarian reading a kids story 24 hours a day! There are daily Facebook live readings. We can check out a telescope, a guitar, thousands of CDs and of course eBooks. There are resources for teens working through anxiety and depression. It is truly inspiring to see the many ways they are keeping folks engaged in our community. It is such a special place and I can’t wait to get back in the building one of these days.
Wow! Very impressed with OR support for literacy and literate citizens!!!
As a grad student and recent graduate from university, I lived in the library. I relied on my local library as well as university libraries along with local small coffee shops to keep me focused while working on assignments and reading. I miss the environment they provided me with, finding the perfect spot off to the side near an outlet to just unwind and power through what needed to be done, it was something about the thought of people watching me made me work harder as if, if I stopped they would judge me or tell my professor. I loved simply the joy from walking through the isles of books and picking on one at random, and it being free to take a book out I never felt regret if the book was not up to par. With the pandemic, my alma mater does not allow people in the library, those without permission and my local library does not even allow for people to walk through simply just online pick up and drop off. I fully understand these changes and am thankful that they care about their guests however I can’t wait to be there when they re-open!
Our libraries here in Richmond, Virginia have done a remarkable job of transitioning to remote operations – they’ve boosted their online services and e-book offerings and built a curb-side check out process for physical materials. We have been mostly utilizing e-readers since the pandemic began (for convenience largely), but I miss leisurely browsing the aisles with my school age children for “the one!” and asking our librarians for recommendations. There’s a calming feeling that washes over me when we walk into the library and you just can’t recreate that feeling online :)
We are so grateful for our librarians and encourage any who feel the same to seek ways to donate to their local library as many are facing funding shortages during the pandemic.
I still use the library during COVID.
Flipster allows me, using my library code number, to view hundreds of magazines in their digital version for free! Download the app and work with your library reception desk to get in. Also, I use all the digital versions of books for my Kindle or audio on the Libby app which is also a library app. Saves money, times and is environmentally friendly! Then I log my books onto my Goodreads account to keep track of all my reading and follow other voracious readers for recommendations. It is really easy!
I’m in the U.K. here, and it was such a relief when the library reopened after lockdown 1 (though I had the excuse that I couldn’t get books from the library, so I had to buy a lot. Oh well).
Just ahead of lockdown 2, it was me and the over 80s there everyday, making sure we had enough books to get us through these four weeks. They are doing click and collect and offering computer access to people who don’t have a computer at home. At least there is still something this time around
I got my first library card at age three and for years our mom took us twice a week. Even when she was in the terrible black hole of vascular dementia my sister and I would take her to the library and she would check out a book or two. She could no longer read but she would pat the book and smile. All the librarians knew her well and it was the one place in her life left that was normal. Until covid my sister and I still went for, ‘coffee and library’ weekly.
It is number one on our post vaccine list! I am going to head right over to New Mystery open one and inhale. Then I am going to go hug a librarian. Ha
I miss reading a huge stack of magazines for a few hours. The libraries have so many to choose from, it’s amazing.
Love this!! When my local library re-opened to the public mid-summer I flew through the children’s section like a tornado, sweeping up piles of books for my daughter. I am not kidding, it was like Christmas morning when I returned home and she saw the haul.
One of my top favorite things is going to the library and getting a pile of books and coming home, having tea and picking up each book and anticipating how much I will love reading it. I have been having these moments since I was 11 and went to the bookmobile once a week, I would get the maximum number of books (as many about horses as possible) and go home to be with my books. I love that I love this about myself. Joy.
I thought I was the only one who had this little ritual!
Oh Cherie my son (7) is just like you and I love that about him! He’s got his own library card now, probably his most treasured belonging.
Libraries (and bookstores) give me the urge to poop after like 5 minutes inside. Anybody else?
Um, yes! I feel SEEN. That musky smell always gets to me.
All these years I thought I was the only one!
I’d give anything to sit in a carol and have quiet, uninterrupted time to get my homework done. Then treat myself to half hour looking at all the new non-fiction titles. (And it’s that time of year when I read Fellowship of the Ring, I need to borrow the beaten up copy that scores of other admirers have surely read lovingly.)
In March/April our libraries boosted their WiFi so people could sit in the parking lot in their cars and still access the internet (if they had a laptop or phone) and it was one of those things that when I heard about it, I burst into tears. Still there for us even when we can’t be there.
do you live in south florida too? they’ve done that here and also designated some parking spots as wifi spots. i was also moved to tears when i was telling someone about it. with this simple move they’ve stripped away the stigma of “stealing internet” to just “using it from outside”. the libraries here have even extended their hours to be more accessible.
Children’s librarian here. My heart is filled reading all of these comments. I love books but it truly is the families that I miss so much! I miss seeing my story time regulars grow-up before my eyes. I look forward to my weekly online programming (story times, baking, crafternoons,etc.) as it’s the one way that I still feel connected to youth. They are so eager to share and be a part of new type of community. It’s definitely not the same but it’s still heartwarming.
Thank you for all of your support. We miss you just as much as you miss us.
OMG all of those I feel. Viscerally.
I feel like if I could be in a library. Smelling musty worn book smell. Surrounded by (currently medically vulnerable, hopefully soon vaccinated) retirees, like my Mom, chatting and volunteering.
We would finally be back to a hitherto unappreciated “normal.”
My daughter is a librarian, my grad student son works in two campus libraries, and I volunteered in school libraries for many, many years, so libraries are very important to our family. I miss browsing in our library, but am so grateful for curbside pick up!
Oh libraries!!!!! I miss you so much! Getting home with an armful of books, so excited to curl up and explore! The thrill of walking around the library and seeing all the endless possibilities to learn and expand one’s own little existence. Oh, even the inevitable and dreaded late fines! …yes, I am that nostalgic for the libraries. Lol!
I love this! I am sorry that your libraries are not open yet. I live in a medium, midwestern town that is being ravaged by covid right now. We are lucky to have an extremely excellent, dynamic, and forward-thinking library- better than we could imagine in our size of town. It was closed for a while and then did curbside pick-up. Then, it opened! They have many rules in place and ways to keep safe. I also think they opened because it is cold here and is a warm place for people who are homeless. They have done so many virtual and safe activities- a drive in movie night where they showed a spooky documentary- virtual trivia tonight. Those librarians are angels.
Aw! I miss our public library too, and all the staff! Our library started curbside pick up, which has been amazing for my kid and me! I also love Libby for audiobooks for free, thanks to the library.
I am a librarian at a university, but my heart really lives in public libraries.
Keep voting for your libraries! xo
I miss our libraries here in Seattle so much! I used to stop in on my way home from work to pick up a book on hold or browse the Peak Picks list. I believe we still have pickup available here, but I’ve been sticking to ebooks from the library and ordering physical books online from a local bookstore. I can’t imagine how parents and children are coping without libraries.
Fellow Seattlite here…ME TOO, Sofie. Curbside pickup just isn’t the same. I loved ducking into the library to see what new titles were available in Peak Picks. I used to stop at the Montlake branch all the time because it was on my bus route. I remember earlier this year, before COVID, I went nearly every day to stalk the shelves and see if someone had returned Such a Fun Age yet. Lol!
I live in a very small town, of which, I am not originally from. Plus, I am likely the only thirty-year-old who uses the library weekly, so I standout like a sore thumb. I joke with my husband that my librarian knows me better than he does! She sees every book I check out, every interest that I have ever had while living here: landscaping, marriage, parenting, self-help, alcoholism, tourism. It is like someone reading your internet browsing history! At first it was a little unnerving because she was like, “Oh, are you gardening?!?” But now, it’s more like I walk in say “Oh my god, Betty, my mom has breast cancer” one week and then the next there is a book in my stack that I never even put on hold, but she put there for me. <3
My friend works in the library and she loves doing the job of stacking everyone’s “holds”- these are books you can reserve and they hold them for you. It feels like she can see my secret heart!
YES! I miss our public library! We have reserved books, and the librarians and volunteers have kept our entire family reading through this period. But, I do miss sitting my the fireplace, looking out the window and flipping through whatever treasure caught my eye. I can’t wait for them to re-open.
I live in SF and our libraries have been closed since March. No reopening date. Bookstores, however, have been open for browsing since June. Why can’t libraries reopen with internet access off and seating areas closed? If bookstores are open then why not reopen libraries in a modified way?
Hi Chris! As a fellow Bay Area book lover, I know it’s hard! Much of the SFPL staff has been deployed as disaster services workers. I’m a library staff at another Bay Area library system and when we are hired we sign a contract agreeing to be workers for the county in times of public emergency… never thought it would actually happen! But anyway, the reason they haven’t fully reopened is because they are way too short staffed to do so. I know that they are reopening branches for curbside pickup though, and I hope you can get your books that way :)
Thank you for everything you’re doing, B!
I always felt Librarian was the dream job; now I am one of the library trustees of our teeny weeny library in our teeny weeny town. Sadly, it’s too small to let anyone in safely, so we do lots of curbside pickup, etc. Unfortunately our town voted not to fund us this year so we don’t know what will happen. Grants won’t cover operating expenses. We’re sending out slightly desperate letters for our annual appeal, but we will have to curtail our open hours if something doesn’t come up. Any ideas out there?
Hi, Mouse. Has anyone set up a Go Fund Me page for your library? If so, can you share the link with us, or any information where people can donate? Wishing the best for your library!
Libraries are my absolute favorite! On top of my normal checking out, my library has been keeping me sane during quarantine as I’ve been checking out and cooking through new cookbooks as I’ve gotten bored time and again with my own cooking! Endless. cooking.
AMEN!!! Also, the joyous serendipity that comes from wandering the aisles (have I ever thought about the beauty of composting or the fiber art cultures of the Mayans? No, but now I must know more!) and the sense of being in a quiet, sanctified space for going inward with my imagination. Oh, also witnessing modern day kids, with their technology and general know-how, fall in love with reading. I could write a love letter :) p.s. Has anyone else read Susan Orlean’s “The Library Book”? Easily one of the most capitvating, dynamic, and well-researched books in recent years!
I look forward to Grace Farris’s illustrations every Friday, but this one really hit home. A few weeks ago, I wrote as essay on Medium, about how much I miss being in the library and what it means to see those doors still closed.
I Just Want Whatever Reopening Phase Lets Me Back in the Library
https://medium.com/curious/i-just-want-whatever-reopening-phase-lets-me-back-in-the-library-a6f32865f0a?sk=5eb338e5ffaaae97b98cd5507babbe05
Purnima,
Your writing is beautiful and I am right there with you. I went to libraries every week and I miss the connection so much. Educating and access to books should be considered essential.
We moved in July and one of the things I’m most looking forward to is exploring the public library here! Can’t wait.
(We eventually want to move to Minneapolis, and the library there is a HUGE draw for me too.)
Browsing!!!
I can request books for curbside pickup, but I had no idea how much I relied on browsing kids books to find good ones for my kids. Reading book lists on the internet for ideas for them is…inferior in every way! Slow, more misses than hits, and heavily slanted toward the new, with zero chance of stumbling on a gem by accident.
I bet if you call your children’s librarian and tell them your kids’ favorite books they could come up with some great recommendations that you might not find on your own :-)
Count me in. When I think about what I miss the most during this pandemic, the thing that comes after seeing family is being in the library! Curbside pickup is NOT the same.
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