National Library Week April 10-16

It's not to late to celebrate National Library Week, which is going on right now. Many libraries are offering activities to celebrate. But even if you missed out or your library isn't participating you can still celebrate the love of reading and the wonderful services our libraries provide.

It's no secret that I love my local libraries. I am there so often that most of the librarians at two out of the three libraries in my county know me by name, if not, than by face.
With the continual changing of technology it would seem libraries would become obsolete, but that is not the case. In fact, in my opinion they are becoming more important than ever. So what is so great about the library anyway?

Well first off as a cheapskate, I love the library because it's a great deal. Besides checking out books for free there are so many other free services. My local libraries also have available for loan DVDs, VHS cassettes, audio CDs (music), audio books on cassette and CD, computer games, and probably even more. By checking these items out at the library you can see if it something you want to purchase or not. My library loans CD ROMS for the same length as they do books, which is three weeks. This is the perfect amount of time to see if your kids are actually going to play the game or not. Or depending on the game just beat it after two days and toss it aside. With computer games costing $20- $50 or even more it makes sense knowing you will actually get your money's worth. Although many people use such services as Netfilx to rent DVDs and stream movies, the library is still a great place to get your movies. In my house we use Netflix streaming as our primary source of viewing children's TV and movies as we do not have cable, satellite or even an ariel antenna. But if the item is not available for streaming and it is not something the whole family will enjoy for family movie night, it usually gets kicked down to the bottom of our DVD queue. That is where the library comes in handy. I also use it to check out the "chic flicks" my husband also keeps kicking to the bottom of the queue.

Another feature I love that I can only get from my library are the programs. My libraries offer tons and I rarely have the opportunity to take advantage of the ones offered for adults, but my kids are regulars at the children's programs and story times. My local libraries host such programs as various craft classes, computer classes, movie showings, book discussions, lectures, Leggo clubs, contests and so much more. I love the story times. My library offers different ones for different ages and they are a wonderful way to introduce little ones to the joy of reading, the love of learning, the wonders of the library and interacting with other kids.

As my oldest two children have grown, the library has been an essential resource for school work. Although, now in high school, they have some teachers that allow internet sources for writing papers and essays. However, when in younger grades many teachers still require the use of Encyclopedias and other print media that can be found at the library. Although not all libraries offer this service, one of my branches has (or at least when my kids were elementary and intermediate school) a copy of the text books that our local public school uses. This is a lifesaver for the times when you child forgets her textbook at school and has homework due the next day.

Another great advantage is that our local libraries house local history and help us reunite with our roots. Besides being an excellent resource if you are tracing your family tree, libraries often house archives of old yearbooks and newspapers. When I was a reporter for my local newspaper I did a story of the 100 anniversary of fire that changed the face of much of the town. The internet was no help in my research. The newspaper office did not have newspapers that old in our archives, but the library did. It was on microfiche, a media that few are familiar with these days. I had to do a lot of searching but my library is so excellent and the librarians are so helpful that the librarian who specializes in such things as history and microfiche (and yes, that is a specialization) found it for me and made a hard copy for me.

Which leads to another advantage of the library: the librarians. First off I have never met the stereotypical librarian which her long gray hair in a bun on top her head, her half-moon spectacles perched on the end of her nose and "Shhhhhhh" the only sound that is uttered from her mouth. The librarians I know are awesome! They are beyond helpful for locating a book, recommending a DVD or answering a number of my questions. They are the ones that take their time and resources to come up with, organize and put on the story times and other programs. Few other business professionals show continual excellent customer service like librarians.  This phenomenon occurs not only in my local small-town library, but in large city libraries that I have visited as well.

For more information about National Library Week contact your local library or visit the American Library Association's website. If you live in NW Indiana more about my local libraries can be found here.