Storyteller's Journey

Public Domain Photo

The Legacy of a Library

In some ways my community's library system has been more important to my education than my elementary, middle grade, and high schools. The reason I make such a stark statement is that as a child my family moved nine times! (Always within our city, but usually to a different school.) Consequently, I was seemingly always in a new building, never making longtime friends. Thus, the local library was the stable source of information for me. Even the librarians were familiar to me when my own teachers seemed to come and go.

This is the first library I was introduced to as a little girl. I visited it several times as a child with my granny, on a field trip in the 1st grade, & with my Blue Bird group.

(The 1909 building is now the Clark County Historical Museum & is on the National Historic Registry.)

When I was in the third grade this "new" building was built. It's where most of my library memories were made! (It now serves as the Fort Vancouver Regional Library Operations Center.)

Then in 2011 this new state of the art library was built in the downtown section of our city. Early on, I weekly volunteered there for two years.

I also volunteered at the Cascade Park branch of the library. Since then, I've participated in two author events at this location. The most recent, last Saturday.

I was honored to be invited to participate in the Words & Pictures Festival. It's always fun to meet readers (and authors) of all ages, and to sign and sell my books. Many thanks to Fort Vancouver Regional Library for hosting the fantastic event.

As you can see, the library system in my community has been an integral part of my life. I'm sure thousands of Americans can say the same thing about their libraries in every corner of our country. A library is more than a repository of literature. Every branch of our library (15 of them!) offers visitors a comfortable place to read, learn, and meet new friends. They offer weekly ESL classes, provide gift packets to new mothers, host book sales, and on and on. I can't even imagine our town without them. They even provide awesome events like this one:

It will be great to attend this wonderful event again this year!

Make sure you support your library - wherever it is! Click here to read an insightful article by writer and cultural critic, Maria Popova: 

The Public Library: A photographic Love Letter to Humanity's Greatest Sanctuary of Knowledge, Freedom, and Democracy.