Behind The Blog #42; Many Different Worlds

I know it may seem that I only recently started waving the Library Flag because I started working in one but the truth is, I have always been an avid library fan. Growing up, we used to have a mobile library turn up at the bottom of our road once a fortnight and my mum would take my sisters and I there all the time. Then when I went to my secondary school, I spent most of my lunchtimes sitting between the shelves reading the books I had checked out. It was amazing to me as my mum never really had enough money to buy us lots of new books so when I couldn’t buy them, I was still able to read them and enjoy them. And, when I found a gem, or an author I loved, I made sure to buy the books. (Which occured with Malorie Blackman, Kevin Brooks & Anne Rice).

A lot of my memories actually occur around libraries, possibly because I also just feel most comfortable around books. When I was in college, even though there weren’t as many fiction books to text books available, I would often hang out in the library with my friends where we would either all be reading or just sitting around and talking. Then, at university, the library became essential as text-books were often too expensive to purchase, especially if you were looking at a book for just one essay! But also, the library was a place to go that was quiet, with an amazing view that made it easier to concentrate on my work. Not that it always worked but most of the time I got a lot of work done in the library that I struggled to get done in my room. Then there was the county library that I would go to, to get my fiction fix and it was a great library with a vast selection of books that I enjoyed going to but I actually didn’t do much more than just collect books and return them, unfortunately.

Then, of course, I returned home after university ended and did a volunteer programme for my local library. The “Summer Reading Challenge”. This may be my greatest (or second greatest compared to working there) memory of libraries. For this volunteering job, I would sit in the children’s library on select days throughout the summer and children between the ages of 4-11 would come up to me and tell me about all the books that they had been reading. It was such an experience to not only hear children describe the stories they read but to actively encourage them to read more by awarding them for their efforts every time they read two books. It was so amazing and truly rewarding. It is why I have a suspicion that libraries will be around for longer than many think.

So, if you haven’t already guessed, libraries have always been a big part of my life and they will probably always play a large part in them. But then again, if you’d asked me if I’d ever work in a library when I was younger I would have just looked at you dumbfounded, not because I didn’t want to work in one but because it was a dream for me, and yet, here I am, living the dream. At first it was scary, there was (and still is) so much to learn, so much that you have to know and get your head around that I felt a little like a shark out of water. I still liked working there, enjoyed going there and being at work but it was also very overwhelming but now, three months down the line, I am feeling a lot more confident. I feel like I know what I’m doing or feel confident enough to ask a colleague if I don’t and that means more to me than everything. To me, the library will always be a special place and even if I no longer work in one, I am certain that I will continue to visit libraries for many years to come.

Unlike many children who loved Beauty and the Beast for its ordinary girl falling in love with a beast, I loved the film because of Belle and all of her bookworm tendencies but also because of the library. It is my dream to have a house with a library that big one day!

Then there was the library in Harry Potter that I adored in the books and was enamoured with in the movies. It looks so big and amazing. Besides, books that talk, move, scream, flip randomly? Sounds scary but also pretty damn cool! Could you even imagine the endless possibilities?

Finally, while I wasn’t a fan of the book, some of the mentions to libraries and all of their wonderful functions in Beatuiful Creatures did cause me to smile.

There are so many more books and films with libraries in, and big amazing ones at that, but my mind is drawing this big old blank as it normally does *rolls eyes*, but these ones were the few that stuck in my mind for now.

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