The card that opens the world

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A Post a Day in May 13/31

I have many fond memories of my undergrad degree experience at the University of Alberta (1978 to 1982) — some of them even related to my formal learning with professors in classrooms. But most of my memories relate to the learning I did on my own through long conversations with friends over coffee at the Java Jive; through writing for The Gateway student newspaper; and by wandering through the stacks in the library and coming across books as if they were breadcrumbs leading me to ever-expanding vistas of knowledge.

The starting point for a visit to the library was usually an assignment, often a research essay that required digging into a topic via a question, set by the professor, that I barely understood. Help! My first stop would be at the reference desk, where the friendly librarians were always happy to help a hapless undergrad find her way to the right section of the card catalogue and, thus, thanks to the Dewey Decimal System, to the right section in the stacks. 

Once there, the search that began for one book would, inevitably, lead to others in neighbouring shelves and then to others…and so on. I loved the experience of being in amongst all those books, towering above me, holding such a wealth of information. My memory is that I could spend hours, happily wandering through the stacks, pulling books down, leafing through them, putting them back…checking out only a fraction of what I had discovered. 

I take this visceral and emotional memory with me today when I visit my local library. There, the card catalogues are long gone, of course, but the friendly librarians remain, as does the Dewey Decimal System — though I no longer need to navigate it. I manage my searches and reservations online, from the comfort of my desk and with the ease of a catalogue that requires only an author's name or book title to yield the wanted treasure. I only enter the library to collect the books I have waiting for me on the ‘holds’ shelf or to return the many I have enjoyed in depth or merely skimmed through. Such is the bounty of the library that there is no risk in trying out a new author or interesting-sounding title. If it’s pleasing, great; if it isn’t, nothing has been lost except a bit of time. 

Libraries are a key component of any community, whether that community is a neighbourhood or an educational institution. They are a place to land and to stay, as much as they are a place from which to take flight into stories that delight and subjects that teach. 

With a small and simple library card in hand, the enormous world of books is ours to explore.

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Land acknowledgement: I respectfully recognize that I live on the original lands of Anishinaabe, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota and Dene peoples, and on the homeland of the Métis Nation.

Photo licensed through Creative Commons. 

Comments

  1. PamelakatMay 14, 2022 at 12:44 PM

    My first introduction to libraries was through a charming little bookmobile that would appear at a park near my elementary school on the third Friday of every month. There was nothing better than the musty-inky-bookish smell when you entered this tiny palace of books. I would spend a good hour, my heart full of anticipation, selecting the six volumes that were allowed. After the librarian had put the cards through a mysterious, magical roller system, I would carry my full book bag out towards a park bench and begin reading one of the books before walking home.

    The bookmobile visits helped me make my way through all of Andrew Lang's 'Fairy Books of Many Colours' by the end of Grade Two: one fairy book each time, along with 5 smaller books, one of which would be about art or how to draw and paint. It was my own little world, something not shared with any of my friends at that time, and it was a highlight of my young life.

    As I grew older, I started to meet "book friends" who shared the passion, and have remained close to me forever. I continue to visit libraries in my city and anywhere I travel. Such a gift!

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousMay 15, 2022 at 12:54 PM

    I discovered libraries at school.
    The college library saved my sanity. As in introvert, it was a refuge from crowds and noises, a place to read and to do my work between courses.
    The library of the little town near home is my favourite place. When I travel , I often insert libraries visits. Their architecture and atmosphere are often amazing.
    Danielle

    ReplyDelete

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