Visiting the local library was always something that I enjoyed as a kid. I grew up in a small country town, and our town library and the school library were one and the same. Whether I was visiting the library with my Mum on a weekend or going with my class at school, the library was a place where I really felt at home.
I have so many happy memories of my time spent in the library as a kid. Rainy lunchtimes spent with school friends reading together or playing board games in the library. My brother and I borrowing the same Disney book over and over so we could trace over the pictures. My friends and I checking out the card in the back of embarrassing books to find out who had borrowed them!
The library was also a place where I felt so grown up. It felt like such a grown up thing to look through the library catalog cards to find a book. Or to look through the non-fiction books to find a new book about horses - I was a bit obsessed! I'll never forget how grown up I felt when I was given permission from the librarian to borrow books from the high school section even though I was still in primary school.
I'm pleased to say that all three of my kids have a love of books (even if two of them can't actually read yet!) and enjoy visiting our local library just as much as I did as a kid. Times may have changed and our local library may be a little more high tech than my childhood library, but that feeling of joy when finding a good book is still the same.
