Libraries I have loved

I never intended to become a librarian when I was young, but looking back on my personal library history it seems it might have been inevitable. My earliest library memory is climbing the huge stone steps to the Bangor Public Library. We would have a stack of books from the week before to return, and the lure of a new stack of books waiting inside. Inside and to the right was a huge room with what seemed to be all the knowledge in the world. From an imposing desk in the middle of the room emanated the soft echoing *thuds* of books being checked-out and stamped. I remember the day I realized that the library held the key to know everything. I said to my Mom, "You mean I can look up anything I want?" The first subject I remember looking up was witchcraft and spells. I still see young girls come in to the library and ask for these books, and they always remind me of that day.


We later moved to Camden with its beautiful brick library. I have to admit that while I don't hold this library in such awe, it still made a difference in what kind of librarian I am. What is now the Reading Room was once the main part of the library. I quickly worked my way through the children's section. One day I wandered over to the Young Adult section to see what was there. As I was browsing, the librarian came up to me and told me that I was too young for those books and I needed to return to the Children's area. When I explained that I had used up the kids' books and wanted to move on, she insisted again that I was too young. Hah! I read To Kill a Mockingbird and Watership Down (for the first time) when I was about 9. What did she know! She ticked me off. I grabbed The Wizard of Earthsea from the "too old" Young Adult section and defiantly checked it out. Thus my romance with Sci-Fi and Fantasy was born. To this day I am very careful never to assume anything about a child's reading level.

For most of my life after that I rarely went to the library. The school library and the public library didn't have much that I wanted anymore (I thought), and my brother and I bought books about as copiously as most kids buy music or video games. The Owl & the Turtle Bookstore was where it was at. Oooh, and they had the best Tea Room in the store! Then, when I went to college I snagged a work study job at the Hawthorne-Longfellow Library. I found then that I kept working in bookstores and libraries, so when it came time to pick a career, voila! Library school.