Check out a Book! It's National Library Week

Andrew and his library card outside our library

Can you believe National Library Week snuck up on me? It must be because I'm on vacation. I tried to dig into the history of the week but the only thing I could really discover was that National Libarary Week is sponsored by the ALA (American Library Association) and the 1st National Library Week was held in 1958. You can find out more about the ALA and their events for the week at the following link:

http://www.ala.org/conferencesevents/celebrationweeks/natlibraryweek

Now
Libraries now have become more dynamic and interactive with library goers. Most have embraced ebooks, offering them on loan like a print book. Heck, my local library here in Castaic has computers geared for 3-7 year old kids with interactive learning programs. There are author readings and next week and interactive activity is planned where a science group is coming in and setting up a tide pool.

Growing up in the 70's & 80's
I remember visiting my local library growing up in Manchester, NH. First, I thought the building was huge and must have had over 1,000 books. (Trust me, with 3 stories and rooms full of books, it had more than that, but the girl in me thought 1,000 was a big number at the time.) I recall my favorite section had books on dinosaurs, space, and the Hardy Boys. In the 1980's, I often checked out books by my favorite authors VC Andrews and Victoria Holt. And my library card was a manila card with a metal stamp number on it. The librarian had to stamp the tab kept at the back of the book with my metal number. Then there was the card catalog! The Card Catalog was a beast!

My Top 5 Things I love about libraries
1. They're free
2. You can explore space without leaving Earth
3 You can always find what you're looking for
4. They also have CDs, Audio Books, and DVDs
5. They promote reading




Libraries never go out of style
I love taking my boys, Andrew and Joe the library. Andrew is 10. His favorite section is the one on the presidents. Currently, he's reading a book about Ansel Adams. Joe is 5 and is just learning to read. His favorite books are by Dr. Suess. Both of them like to explore the library.

The Best Part about Libraries...
are the books! There's always a book available which inspires, explores, and tells a great story.

My favorite part of the library is the biographies. What's yours?

Share your top 3 reasons why you love your library. I'll pick a winner to receive a PDF copy of my free ebook, "Moonlight Sonata."