Later, I have clear memories of the library at St. John The Apostle Catholic in Hialeah, Fl. It was a very small library with a small enough browsing section that I was able to read it all. It had two rooms and only one side of it had a partial shelf of books the librarian thought were my age. I read through that and all the rest of them my third grade year. In the fourth grade, I didn't go to the library as much because I was in "advanced" classes now - which just meant more work.
After that, I went to the John F. Kennedy (I think) library branch across from the school. It was a really old place with lots of 10' tall built in wood shelves and sliding ladders and a special section I wasn't allowed in. It was, of course, magic. I would often run over there right after school and end up missing my "go home" bus and have to be picked up by my Mom later. That was okay by me because I hated the bus and I hated the daycare I had to go to. I loved the library.
Highschool found me in a very small town with a very small library - one small building that had been a realtor office before (It had been a storage unit before then, I think). It had two rooms but they were larger and some offices in the back for the librarian - who was a volunteer (retired). She would load books into the back of her station wagon and take them out to the migrant farmer work camps so the kids could get a book. I remember that the men would sometimes come over and pick up a book and look at it longingly but they were usually too embarrassed to check it out - kids books. Eventually, they hired a librarian and my memory falters over the details of if it were that nice retired lady or who else but I know she shamed the town council into paying for it.
I was saddened to recently discover the following sentence on their website: "Non-residents must pay a yearly $20.00 fee for a library card". To anyone not familiar with the area, it would seem a totally reasonable thing. However, I know that the point of it is to keep hispanics out of the library. The bulk of the hispanic population in Lake Placid are migrant farm workers and, therefor, not residents.
Bigotry really ticks me off.
Then, in 1988 - August, I went to the University of Florida and I got a student job at the West Library. I worked in the Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica - the Jewish collection. They had received a grant and it paid me to sit on a stool and fold the ends of pages (3 per book) back and forth five times to see if it were brittle. I was expected to test 100 bks an hour. No sweat. The other 30 min of each hour I spent perusing the the children's section of the collection and trying to teach myself Hebrew. I loved admiring the old Torahs all wrapped up in beautiful carpets. It was "MY" collection. mine. mine. mine. LOL!
Now, I work at the University of Louisville William F. Ekstrom Library. I am the circulation supervisor. I love my job. I love my library. Man. I really do.
