As many of you know, my family and I will be spending six weeks this summer back in our home-state in the US. I am really looking forward to this time with friends and family, of course, but I find myself daydreaming about something else entirely. I've recently been spending a lot of time in the American library in my mind.
There are plenty of things that I miss about the US; easy to flush toilets, good burritos, Target. But I think what I miss the most, besides friends and family, are the libraries. Go to just about any town in my home-state with a population over 1,000 and you will find a public library. Now I can't attest to the quality of each and every library either in my home-state or in Dublin, but my impression is that most US libraries have Dublin libraries pretty well beat in terms of number of books, size of facility, programs, and use. I don't mean to hate on Dublin libraries, but my local library consistently disappoints me.
When I think about the Davis library I salivate. Want an book by Roald Dahl? Sure, which one? We have his entire opus. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban checked out? No problem. Request it from another library for free. Does the library have A Midsummer Night's Dream*? Are you kidding? Of course. 3 copies. Let's browse the audio books today, set aside at least an hour to do so. On a Sunday. Have Earth Day projects planned? Go ahead and check out the 7 books on Earth Day, both fiction and non-fiction. They're easy to find. The biggest problem you'll encounter at the Davis library is carrying home all the books you can check out. You're allowed 50 at a time. My local library in Dublin allows 12.
12.
Library lovers, you get me. I am a library lover. Libraries rock. When I was in 5th grade I was allowed to walk from school to the library (5 whole blocks!) by myself and spend several glorious hours there. In 8th grade I wrote a poem that was a loving portrait of my local childhood library for a school project (Although, I admit, this project was a collection of poems of questionable merit, one of which was titled "Ode to a Stapler" and which included the lines "You can staple your teachers/and muddle their features," which probably would earn a suspension if handed in today.)
I don't think Americans know how lucky they are when it comes to free access to books and media. My mother says that anyone who has access to a good library is not poor. So USA here we come. I'll see you at the library.
*Cute Aside Alert: Catie came home from school yesterday and asked me earnestly "Mom, have you heard of William Shakespeare?"
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