Libraries I have Known and Loved

"When I was young, we couldn't afford much. But, my library card was my key to the world." ~~ Actor John Goodman

"The day I discovered that one could go to the public library and take out books was one of the happiest of my life." ~~ Liz Smith

Starting today, it's National Library Week. You can read more about it here.

I kind of stumbled upon knowing about this holiday week(who knew?) a few weeks ago and it got me thinking about my own lifelong love for libraries and books. Wherever I have traveled or lived, I have always found my way to the library. It is usually one of the more beautiful buildings in any town. And I know how lucky I am to have always lived where there is free access to thousands of publications, periodicals, music, movies, etc.
I have as an adult, often chosen to spend a beautifully sunny summer afternoon inside our town library, instead of on the beach which is a few blocks away from the library. So, yeah..I am a bookish Gal. A bookworm. A biblioholic. A Libra. And I think I can instantly like someone who also thinks of stepping into a public library as somewhat similar to the feeling you used to get on Christmas morning.
My first memory of the library was the one I went to as a child growing up in Augusta, Maine--the Lithgow Public Library, the grey stone building shown above.
I got a library card at age six and it felt like I had been given gold. I can still see vividly the children's room on the second floor where my Mother used to take my sister and I. To be able to choose any book I liked and as many as I wanted (I always came out of the library with a huge armful--I was so greedy) made me immensely happy. In fact, when I looked up the website and saw this image of this particular library, I got a little thrill seeing it again and was glad to know it looks exactly the same(set high on a hill) and is still the main library in my old home town.
It makes me remember all the Dr. Seuss books ("On Beyond Zebra", "If I Ran The Zoo"),
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle,
the teeny tiny green Beatrix Potter books,
and the books about the little ghost named Georgie I liked to check out back then.
This may sound strange, but I sometimes can almost recall the strong but not unpleasant odor of the glue in the binding of some of those books.

This is the Kingston Public library--one of many libraries in the area I live in. Since there are many small villages within a larger town, each little community has it's own library and with one card you can visit and borrow from all of them. I used to take my daughter to this one a lot when when she was little because the children's room was small but also cozy(with cushioned window seats) and nicely stocked with picture books. Like the Robert Bright "Georgie The Ghost" books!(that was one very good thing about reading books to my daughter--I got to rediscover all my own favorites from when I was younger)

The Kingston Free Library was once the county court house; the Rhode Island General Assembly met there(alternating with the county seats in Newport and Providence) from 1754 until 1852. It got a face lift some time after that, losing it's Georgian/colonial look with the addition of a mansard style roof and tower. Author Jhumpa Lahiri worked here for a time when she was in high school.

This is another beautiful old library in the area--the Peace Dale library. This handsome stone building in the "Richardsonian Romanesque" style(very similar to my first library in Augusta, in fact) was built in 1891 in memory of Rowland Hazard II by his sons. It was designed by architect Frank W. Angell to house the village library which was founded in 1863. The interior of it it is beautiful, too, with high vaulted ceilings.

Not all the libraries I lost myself in as a child were in grand buildings such as these. When I first moved to Rhode Island I went to a small school in a very rural community that had a closet sized library--basically a tiny room lined with shelves. But I always seemed to find something in there.

"The Snow Queen". "The Red Fairy Book" "The Blue Fairy Book".

One book I remember discovering there and borrowing over and over was D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths . I now own that book. Well, I got it as a gift for R when she was learning about Greek mythology a few years ago in school, but I have to admit I really got it for myself. ;-)

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"It's funny that we think of libraries as quiet demure places where we are shushed by dusty, bun-balancing, bespectacled women. The truth is libraries are raucous clubhouses for free speech, controversy and community. Librarians have stood up to the Patriot Act, sat down with noisy toddlers and reached out to illiterate adults. Libraries can never be shushed."
-- Comedian and author Paula Poundstone