It’s National Library Week
April 8 – 14 is National Library Week which is an event to note and celebrate all of the contributions that are made to our lives by libraries and librarians. This is where you get your books, have homework help, find all the information you can ever need (and more that you can’t imagine), have your mind enriched and often make new friends. These are the people who are the keepers of the information and want to share with you how to get it. From the huge libraries holding collections of antiquities and other rare sources of knowledge, to the rural BookMobile that ensures that books and more are available to everyone, to the person who sits behind the desk and can do all the tech stuff that rivals the Geek Squad the library is a place of serious knowledge and skill.
If you want to read some library related books here are some suggestions.
The Man Who Loved Libraries: The Story of Andrew Carnegie by Andrew Larsen
The story of the wealthy Carnegie who funded the building of 2500 libraries around the country and who we can thank for the public library system as we know it.
The Book Thieves by Anders Rydell
This is the story of the Nazis’ systematic pillaging of Europe’s libraries, and the heroic efforts of the few librarians now working to return the stolen books to their owners.
And if you love your library one way to show thanks is by asking your elected officials to continue funding the libraries. The American Library Association needs funding, they need support in Washington and the way to get it is to act on their behalf.
And if nothing else, go and thank a librarian today.
