Our first weekly series I'm going to start is the Monday Musings. In this series we'll discuss all sorts of topics related to books and reading. I thought since I obtain 99% of my reading material from my local library, I would start with some "musings" about libraries.
Libraries have been around since the beginning of civilization, beginning with clay tablets down through history to our modern day bound books. Instead of investigating the world history aspect of libraries, I thought we'd look at the history of libraries in America.
"The oldest library in America began with a 400-book donation by a Massachusetts clergyman, John Harvard, to a new university that eventually honored him by adopting his name. Another clergyman, Thomas Bray from England, established the first free lending libraries in the American Colonies in the late 1600s. Subscription libraries - where member dues paid for book purchases and borrowing privileges were free - debuted in the 1700s. In 1731, Ben Franklin and others founded the first such library, the Library Company of Philadelphia. The initial collection of the Library of Congress was in ashes after the British burned it during the War of 1812. The library bought Thomas Jefferson's vast collection in 1815 and used that as a foundation to rebuild.
It wasn't until waves of immigration and the philosophy of free public education for children that public libraries spread in the US. The first public library in the country opened in Peterborough, New Hampshire, in 1833. Philanthropist Andrew Carnegie helped build more than 1,700 public libraries in the US between 1881 and 1919.
Libraries may have changed over the years - no longer do pages carry scrolls in wooden buckets - but the need for a repository of knowledge remains." --History Magazine, October/November 2001 issue.
Some of my most cherished and earliest memories are of going to the library. I got my first library card at the age of 4 and loved visiting the library weekly with my Dad, who was also an avid reader. I remember bringing home 4 or 5 books and thinking I was just the stuff :) My dad taught me to read at age 4 and it was the best gift he could have ever given me. It was something we enjoyed together and since he passed when I was 10, something I still cherish. The memories of being piled up on the couch with him reading, with fans blowing (no AC back in those days) and the sun pouring through
open windows. And of course, there was always the stop at Dairy Queen for a chocolate soft serve cone after we left the library.
The scene in To Kill A Mockingbird in which Scout's teacher tells Atticus to not read with Scout anymore because she needed to learn under the instruction of her teacher, was a poignant moment for me because my teacher told my parents the same thing. One of the many reasons I love To Kill A Mockingbird. I also found a great old copy of this book at my library's book sale. :)
What are your fondest memories of the library?
Happy Reading!
shopgirl
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