In celebration of Library Week

It's once again time to do something in celebration of Library Week! Last year on Artdog Adventures, I posted a different library-related quote each day. The brilliant Simini Blocker illustrated all of them. Of course, The Weird Blog didn't exist yet, this time last year.

This year, I'm no less grateful and delighted that we have libraries in our lives. I have a lot less time for blogging. But I owe it to libraries and their impact on my life to do something in celebration of Library Week!

Many thanks to Shellie's Quote Emporium on tumblr, for this quote from Mari Barnes.

Libraries are centers of knowledge

Of course, for any book lover, libraries are life and breath. They also have been a feature of civilization for about as long as civilizations have existed. You might consider libraries as one of  the characteristics that marks a given cultural flowering as a "civilization." Unfortunately, in most civilizations, libraries weren't open to the general public. 

Granted, the general public couldn't read for most of human history. Also, the concept of a public library hadn't occurred to anyone. One thing we citizens of the USA can be proud of is that free public libraries appear to be an American invention.

Libraries function as repositories of information, accumulated wisdom and insight. Sometimes poppycock mixes in there, too. But that's often hard to discern till much later. In every age, they're centers of knowledge. And you know what they say about knowledge.

Many thanks to ebook friendly for this Dr. Who quote.

Years ago, a wise person told me that reading material in the home often tells us who'll be a greater success. A good-sized collection of books (in their field or more general) signals a more agile mind.

More than books alone

From the very beginning, libraries have always been more than just collections of books. Books are useless unless someone reads, thinks about and discusses them. For this reason, the ancient Library of Pergamum had four rooms: three for storing books (scrolls at that time), and one for meetings, conferences, and banquets.

In Colonial North America, Benjamin Franklin and a community of friends created the first "social library." They each chipped in 40 shillings to buy a collection of books that all could use. Groups of scholars or a church might share other libraries of the time. 

Three different sites claim bragging rights as the "first" public library. But whichever was first, what we'd recognize as proto-modern, free public libraries arose in the early 1840s, in the eastern United States, in tandem with public schools. Both schools and libraries support the idea that only an educated citizenry can govern a democracy well. 

Many thanks to MEME for the Henry Ward Beecher quote.

In Celebration of Library Week

There's so much to love about libraries! They actually may make us better people. 

A 2014 Pew Research poll discovered that 2/3 of Americans say they have "high or medium engagement" with their local public libraries. Better still, library patrons are more involved in their communities. They're also more likely to be engaged with friends and neighbors, and generally be more capable tech users.

Contemporary libraries provide a resource center for all kinds of information, materials, and computer/Internet access. They offer a haven of resources for lower-income information-seekers and those in need of services only available online. And they often serve as a port in the storm for some of our our homeless population.

In celebration of Library Week, I could have gone in many directions with this blog post. But I hope you've enjoyed this glimpse of public library history. What would we do without our libraries? If you're so inclined, please share your favorite aspects or experiences with libraries in the comments below.

Many thanks to ebook friendly for this quote from J. K. Rowling.

IMAGE CREDITS

Many thanks to Shellie's Quote Emporium on tumblr, for the quote from Mari Barnes; to  ebook friendly for the Dr. Who quote.  Many thanks to MEME for the Henry Ward Beecher quote, and again to ebook friendly for this quote from J. K. Rowling.

Why Creative Parents Don't Fear Summer

They don't fear it, because they Know. Not that it isn't a creative challenge--bored kids can get into a lot of very un-fun, uncreative trouble. Our job is to provide a nudge, keep an eye on the boundaries, and offer a little space.

This is the reason why I've always been of two minds about the "Summer Slump." It's an all-too-real phenomenon, easily observed and documented by teachers everywhere--the loss of skills that atrophy over a roughly two- to three-month vacation.

Worse, for children living with food insecurity, the long summer vacation can be a time of deprivation, if not outright famine. 

Taken together, the "summer slump" and the serious problems of food insecurity and sketchy childcare for children living in poverty have led to calls for year-round school. 

Yet I remember some of my best childhood moments from those months of long, unstructured days and unbounded imaginations, when my sister and I would invent our own worlds and delve into new, exotic realms through books. 

Looking back on it, I was a lucky child--a child of privilege, though I didn't realize it and my cash-strapped parents would have been startled to hear that evaluation. But we had enough to eat, a safe place to play, and all the books we could read, thanks to our local public library. Untold riches!

I worry that the value of "down time" is being overlooked these days, in our concern about other pressing concerns. 

The mentality that prescribes "drill and kill" approaches and "minimum-security prison" protocols for inner-city schools is the very approach that de-funds and eliminates the music, art, and sports programs that give at-risk kids the will to fight on and stay in school. 

Even in more well-funded neighborhoods, the pressure of competition tempts parents to lock down a child's every moment under the relentless tyranny of "enrichment" activities, such as tutoring, organized teams, and summer school, that allow no time to sit and watch clouds go by or think big thoughts. 

Rich or poor, kids need time to just be. To think about stuff, to experiment, fail, succeed, and make up their own stories and games. To learn who they are, and what they value the most. Indeed, as explored on Studio 360, a little boredom can be a good thing! 



Wise parents know it's a delicate balance that absolutely must be struck, if kids are to grow fully into themselves.

Do you have any good stories about fun things you did as a kid that were "freeform" and creative? What imaginative adventures did you enjoy? Please share them in the Comments. 

IMAGE: Many thanks to "The Artful Parent" Pinterest board, for the image, and to Studio 360 for the audio clip.