Every city with more than one library in it has a “good” library and the “other” library. If you grew up in a town too small for multiple libraries, there was almost certainly an adjoining township (or recently incorporated community, or burgh, or hamlet) with a good library that put your visiting bookmobile to shame. Whether you lived closer to the good library or the lesser branch affects your development for the rest of your life.
The good library had multiple floors, sometimes as many as three or four, and as often as not, an elevator. An elevator in a library!
The branch library had a carousel of paperbacks, all of which you have already read, for a kids’ section.
The good library was the place you first read something you weren’t supposed to, and the underside of your skin went cold and hot and cold again after you did it.
The branch library was less than a mile away from your house, which means that after you turned ten your mom let you walk there with a suitcase by yourself. By then you had read most of the books at the branch library, so you checked them out again.
The good library had a grassy area in front of the main entrance. The good library had a main entrance, and sometimes a fountain.
At the good library, you could spread out with as many books as you liked because all of the tables on the second floor were empty. Sarah Chladek never told you that your house smelled weird at the good library in front of everyone. You didn’t know what her house smelled like because you’d never been invited there, so you didn’t have much of a basis for comparison.
You had to wait to go to the good library, because your mom had to drive you there. And for your mom to drive you there, she had to be home from work and she couldn’t be too tired and she couldn’t be doing something else. At the good library the librarian would print a receipt of all the books you’d checked out for you, so you wouldn’t forget to bring any of them back.
The good library was an excellent place to feel rich, because you could accumulate everything you wanted without limit or exception. Unless they had a limit on how many books you could check out at a time. But still. It was close.
A final word from our own Nicole Cliffe:
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CatFoodParty 65p · 608 weeks ago
elsamac 121p · 608 weeks ago
On the way out to the parking lot, I noticed a man sitting forlornly on the curb of the busy street, a beat-up folding cart half-full of newspaper and cans beside him. That was the day I learned the word "homeless," and something about that confluence of events made me aware even as a child that resources are made available in different ways to different populations, and that as sad as I was about the appropriation of my beloved books, I was still extremely fortunate. I didn't learn the word "privileged" that day, but if I had, I would have understood it --- just the barest glimmer of middle-class white-kid understanding --- for the first time.
The best library day was a week later, when Mom came up to the desk with me to tell the librarians in her special slightly-scary voice that they were never to deny me a book because of my age, nor to scold me for browsing the grown-up shelves, nor to say I was "too young" to understand anything, and then she stood there with me while the librarian made a note to that effect.
It's also the day I learned to use a special slightly-scary voice with conviction, and the day that I understood how powerful my mother could be, not only to kids but to other adults who seemed to be in charge. It was an instructive day.
anninyn 124p · 608 weeks ago
I was also allowed to take stuff out of the middle-and-high school library from the age of seven when it was realised the tiny primary school library couldn't possibly service me.
There was a particular series where I was the only one to EVER take it out so they sold it to me at the end of the year.
br1gid 78p · 608 weeks ago
The good library was by my dad's office, and I only got to go when he picked me up from the orthodontist, which meant I really couldn't enjoy it that much because my whole mouth hurt.
anxious_mofo 90p · 608 weeks ago
(shockingly, I grew up to be a librarian)
lyetteann 112p · 608 weeks ago
I spent as much time in the Edgartown Public Library as I did at home. Once a week I would sit in the periodicals room and read every magazine that had come out that week, from Popular Psychology to Sports Illustrated. Whenever I got obsessed with something, I'd work through all the books and back issues featuring it. I may have been the only kid in Edgartown allowed in the magazine storage room without supervision.
All the librarians knew me by name. They would tell me when late-fee amnesty was coming up when I owed, like, $30 on a book. I went back a few years ago with my nephew and was shocked to realize how small the library actually was. I remembered it as magnitudes bigger than it actually is.
anachronistique 115p · 608 weeks ago
fleurdelivre87 93p · 608 weeks ago
Now I am five days into a job at the academic library for the University in my hometown. This is the best library.
pamplemoussi 96p · 608 weeks ago
icebergmama 113p · 608 weeks ago
I also read all the VC Andrews at my dad's town library, because I knew my mum would not approve of it. Sometimes my dad's hands off approach did not work out, like the time I ended up reading a really upsetting book about a man who genetically engineers a smart gorilla and then falls in love and has sex with her.
rosalineee 80p · 608 weeks ago
bgprincipessa 108p · 608 weeks ago
The two "good" libraries in the towns over did have multiple floors, and my mom did have to drive me, but only if she wasn't tired, how did you know? It was so much fun to explore because I didn't already know every inch of them, like I did with my library. But our librarians were always and still are the friendliest. I miss my library now that I live multiple states away, but it's okay because I follow their active Facebook.
I am very sad for people who had read all of the books in their library and then run out of options (although I did this at my school library as well). When I worked there, we had younger children who would come in and take out gigantic stacks (like is described in the story, and like all the other commenters say, and like I did). I loved watching them, because they were so much like me! But the difference was, they were allowed to make ILL requests - so they had so many options!! We'd get huge stacks in for them every week, and they devoured them.
I can't wait to work in a library again.
Themissus · 608 weeks ago
thebellewitch 122p · 608 weeks ago
I still have my library card with my signature in 5- or 6-year-old handwriting from that library. I love that library cards last forever and I could go there and check books out with it to this day.
scopypdx 102p · 608 weeks ago
elsamac 121p · 608 weeks ago
paperbgprincess 107p · 608 weeks ago
I always wanted to grow up and work in a library, although I never did. I still love going to libraries though. And now they have kindle books too, so sometimes I don't even have to wait as long as the bus ride to start reading something!
S. Pebbletush 97p · 608 weeks ago
Ugh, yes. This was the reason I read "The Face on the Milk Carton" about 5 times in the 6th grade. Our Young Adult Fiction section was one small shelf (not bookcase, a single shelf) in the corner full of battered, yellowed paperbacks. I read the entire section. Then I stopped reading for fun until the summer before my junior year of college.
eviesky · 608 weeks ago
The central library is the "good" library but it's donwtown and didn't open until I was 11. It has entire floor for children's and YA. I read through a good chunk of that library too but it's not as cozy and homey as 'my' library.
My college library was the best. It was 4 stories and very quiet and had very old wonderful books (too old maybe). I used to hide on the 3rd floor in the PNs all the time. I am a librarian at an art college now.
flanhoodles 39p · 608 weeks ago
fondue with cheddar 84p · 608 weeks ago
I currently live a mere block away from the library where I live now. It's not very big but it's not small either. And the county libraries here are HUGE, so with ILL I've got basically everything.
GlowCloud 101p · 608 weeks ago
The best library is also the main arts library at my university, which has an old part and a new part and several storeys. I've spent uncountable hours there in the past five years. The old part has a massive old study room which is colloquially referred to as the "Harry Potter Room" due to its resemblance to the Great Hall in the movies, a special collections library in the basement (which also looks like it was pulled straight out of Harry Potter, and which is full of fantastic things and people), and the School of Library and Information Studies, where I'll be starting in a few weeks.
Treasaigh_b 68p · 608 weeks ago
MoxyCrimeFighter · 608 weeks ago
Also, we had 3 libraries that we went to, in 3 different towns. Our town's library was my least favorite, although I think I would appreciate it more now. It was in an old Victorian that smelled odd - not like ink and paper, but like the sun never came in - and the floors creaked in a way that made me feel uncomfortable about disturbing the silence a library required. But it had a giant stuffed bear whose lap you could sit in to read.
My middle favorite library had gerbils to play with and a giant raised playpen with squashy pillows, but I never seemed to be able to find what I wanted and the pillows weren't as accommodating as they looked.
My favorite library was in the town where my parents and sister had lived until she was 1; right next to their old house, actually, and it was the site of a story my father wrote about how my sister had saved the library from a dragon who escaped one of her books. The children's librarian knew us all by name, and I was an expert at navigating the YA and grown-up sections. There was a used book room where my mom would usually end up; it was down a stairwell with vaguely sinister lighting made up for by the pleasing acoustics.
cdive 75p · 608 weeks ago
I suppose the good library was in the next town over, but when I was ~10 there was a big hubbub between the two towns about residency policies, and my mom held a grudge and refused to patronize it for years.
Now I live a quarter mile from the central library in my town and it is the best.
MilesofMountain 121p · 608 weeks ago
msjinxie 106p · 608 weeks ago
We moved to Georgia when I was 12 and I was bitterly unhappy to leave "my" library and the new town's library was pretty crummy and had a shit YA section. In retrospect this was good for me, since it forced me to leave behind all the kid stuff in favor of Clan of the Cave Bear and Anne Rice and Danielle Steele and then I found the adult horror section and it was ON.
At some point shortly after the move I stumbled upon VC Andrews and though I'm sure my first encounter was at the library, I remember buying most of those books at the grocery store (which sold them, for some reason). As strict as my folks were about some stuff, thank god they could never be arsed to screen my reading material for appropriateness.
Today, shamefully, I live in a city with a HUGE main library and many neighborhood branch libraries and my nearest branch is only like 4 blocks from my house but I never go. Young Jinx would be so unhappy with Current Jinx, but it takes me so long to get through (most) books these days that it makes sense to just buy them rather than having to renew 3 times and/or incur $10 in late fees.
*Though I'll give them props for the sweet redo they did a few years ago. It's huge now, has a nice lounge area with a damn FIREPLACE, good selection. Of course, I'd long since moved away by the time this happened, but I'm happy to know some awkward 13-year-old has a nice home away from home.
urwelt 78p · 608 weeks ago
Running out of books was never a problem, because I was a master of the interlibrary loan system. How else was I going indulge my morbid curiosity and read every single book in the Upper Hudson Library System on Multiple Personality Disorder and/or self mutilation? Plus one year my aunt shipped me a box of my cousin's old books and accidentally included one her own Amelia Peabody novels. After that I realized that both the YA and Adult sections had wonderful things to read.
AnneCoot · 608 weeks ago
The downside of being a librarian's daughter is that I ALWAYS forget to return my books on time as an adult and I accrue fines regularly. I just think of it as supporting the library.
TheRenleigh 110p · 608 weeks ago
I've had a library card in my current city for about a year (before that I just used the university library) and I'm still in the process of figuring out what the good library is. Of course, none of them will ever be as good as the home library because they charge you a dollar per hold! I know they need money, but that is some bullshit. If I'm going to be paying money to read a book, I want to own the book after. (Yeah, I know I can't buy most books for a dollar but for some reason I'm hung up on the matter.)
Lemonnier · 608 weeks ago
You could also check out art! They had Ben Shahn lithographs available for loan, which blew my mind when I got old enough to know who Ben Shahn was. They had microfilm machines and newspaper microfilms going back into the 1800s. The librarians would totally let you look at old microfilms just out of curiosity! They loved it when you asked to look, in fact.
growlith 40p · 608 weeks ago
And then there was the small library I walked to every Wednesday afternoon because my Catholic middle school had early dismissals. Here, I discovered carousels of bodice rippers that put VC Andrews to shame. I'd pull one out and slide my hand over the cover so the adults wouldn't think I was depraved.
My dad's idea of parenting was to deprive me of everything but those items necessary for academic success, but whatever, there were so many libraries and so many books that kept me sane.
sandwichharlot 53p · 608 weeks ago
I think it's even more badly funded now, which breaks my heart, especially given that my fondness for that library is why I was a library assistant for two years. I was definitely (and am still) a problem patron, though; always late returning books, always forgetting which books I had, always losing books under my bed, so I'm sure my family offset that poor funding at least a little...
victorytasteslikehashbrowns 101p · 608 weeks ago
If there is a post about feral children, I would read it like woah. Please let there be a post about feral children!
Passing_Strange 101p · 608 weeks ago
I also wish that I could recapture that sense of wonder and limitless possibilities that I always felt when entering libraries as a kid. As an adult they just fill me with anxiety: I want to read all the books but I know I will just rack up all the fines.
discontinuity · 608 weeks ago
Sunny · 608 weeks ago
babycrow · 607 weeks ago
then at some point I moved to a 10 min walk from the main/central library which is gigantic and very old, like... I don't know, like the White House of libraries. marble stairs leading from floor to floor, every genre given multiple levels in its own massive room, an entire section just for ancient maps! god I love that place.
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