I don’t think I am unusual for a Librarian in the sense that I have every Library card I ever was issued. Shocking, I know, but the more I think about it, it really isn’t.
My first memories of the Library are in Sacramento, California where I lived til I was 9. We went to a branch library and I remember reading Curious George and knowing exactly where he was. I recall my sister also having a fondness for the Francis stories. Later, towards the time we moved I was reading the Wizard of Oz. I realized there was more than one (a series even!) and determined to read all of them. We moved and at the next Library (in Dearborn, Michigan) I resumed the quest and read as many as I could get my hands on. Looking back I wish the Librarians would have introduced me to Interlibrary Loan because there were some they did not have.
Most of my Library cards have been issued as an adult. They chronicle my adventures moving around the country as an adult. A card from Alabama, two from Oregon and of course the Library card from the Library I first worked at during high school and college (which I still have the barcode number memorized).
Recently, I wondered what had happened to my first library card. In my head I could see perfectly the design and its vertical orientation (versus the traditional horizontal). It had been years since I remembered seeing it and thought it was lost.
Around Thanksgiving I was helping my Dad clean the basement in preparation for Christmas quests. As we moved boxes, halfheartedly going through them because we were simply moving them not sorting my eye caught something in the bottom of one of the boxes: my first library card. It was exactly how I remembered it. I picked it up and nearly squealed like a 12 year old girl meeting the Jonas Brothers.
And so blog readers, I give you “The First Library Card”:
You can see the back, which was what I saw in my mind. Notice that even in the 80′s it was a “Public Library and Information Service”, way ahead of its time I think. On the front you can see where I wrote my name in the box (I was probably only 5 or 6) and above where the Librarian (at least it doesn’t look to be my parents writing) wrote my name so it could be legible.
I think the fact that I kept this card shows how long I have loved Libraries and what they represent. What about you? What are your earliest memories of a library? Do you still have your first library card?
Growing up in Trinidad, there was only 1 (!) library – the National Library. No branches and close stacks. Oh wait, the local university also had a library, but it was way out and also closed stacks and relatively closed access. So, my earliest memory of a library was going the National Library to study for my national end of school exams when I was around 15/16. I’m not sure how much studying we got done, but it was airconditioned! And, there was your stereotypical librarian perpetually shushing us. On subsequent visits home, the nat’l library has many (24) branches around the island and I always visit the one 2 minutes from my Gran’s house. They have a surprisingly diverse and rich local authors collection as well as popular authors. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
I never got a library card until college,
because my moms covered us, and being the closest library was a 15 minute drive by car, there was no way I was making it there on my own without one…
I think she still has and uses that library card… which was made out of blue construction paper and they put a label on the back with a barcode and a stamp on the front…
but yes I have my college one
who would want to get rid of those fond memories of the library?
I got my first library card when I was 5. I still carry it in my wallet, as I live walking distance from the branch I signed up in. It no longer scans the barcode, so they have to type the number in. I refuse to get a new card, because my childhood handwriting is preserved on it. It’s even partially torn, and I still won’t give it up. I spent hours in that library, from pre-school through middle school, read almost the entire children’s section, and delved into the “tween” sections of fiction.
Oh, to read for fun again, and not just a chapter a night before bedtime!