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May. 3rd, 2011 07:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spiralngphoenixThe card got me thinking...
It's a reasonably well-known fact that I am a librarian's daughter, and that I spent much of my childhood in and around the town library in some fashion of another. Hell, in addition to generally being around, I substituted there on occasion before I was technically legal; when we switched from the "sign your name on the line" to "Here's a number", my number was 4, and even served as the secretary of the Junior Friends of the Library committee. I spent hours after school entering books into the new-fangled computer filing system. I remember being terribly excited about this new program called Inter-Library Loan, that meant I could request books from *gasp* other libraries (which, when your library is so small it only has a few thousand books, including the children's section, this is a HUGE THING). My mother started the Sunday morning Story Hour in our library. As I write this the original Story Bear, Pookie, who was purchased from a small toy shop that was only open in town for about a year and who was named by suggestion box drawing, sits on the back of the couch, watching me. (I keep thinking I should donate him to the library, but I just can't part with him. The library now is not the library I knew, and I can't be sure he will be given the proper respect he is due.)
Why the reminiscing about my childhood library? Well, you see, I got my first library card since I left town several years ago today. Why? At first it's because I didn't need to get a new one. My library card at my library was a "lifetime" one. (Or, more realistically, lifetime so long as the old guard were still around, and since they aren't I'm assuming my number's probably been given to someone else by now.) I was back and forth on a regular basis, so I could continue to check things out as a wanted. For the last few years, I've been a bit gypsyish. Somewhere along the way I had developed a strange view of libraries and library cards.
You see, I apparently hold libraries on the same level as, say, a sacred temple. While they are open to all, they should be deeply respected and revered, and not bothered by the small little ant that is me. (This does not, by the way, extend to anyone else... Everyone should take full advantage of their library!) Possessing a library card means that I am no longer a transient passing through, but says "I live here. I am a part of this community. I am here to stay." As I am still effectively transient (I live off the kindness and charity of a friend. It is his home, not mine. I'm just a stray animal taken in for fosterage until a more permanent home can be found for it), I have not gotten myself a library card until now, because then I would be admitting that I am going to be here for a while, and that means that I'm a resident.
Now, mind you, in the 34 years of my life, I have moved 28 times. Twelve of these were before the age of seven, and eight more of them between August of 2008 and August of 2009. I'm pretty sure at this point that I'm NEVER going to feel that I really live anywhere. I'm gun-shy on getting attached to places, because I'm only going to be moving again. So a piece of plastic that says "I live here"? Kind of terrifying...
I also freely admit that someday I'm going to make a therapist's bank account VERY HAPPY. I may have a few issues. ;)
So, yeah... weird day. I have a library card again. I'm not entirely sure what to do with this, just yet.
Cross-posted to Podrozny Studio
It's a reasonably well-known fact that I am a librarian's daughter, and that I spent much of my childhood in and around the town library in some fashion of another. Hell, in addition to generally being around, I substituted there on occasion before I was technically legal; when we switched from the "sign your name on the line" to "Here's a number", my number was 4, and even served as the secretary of the Junior Friends of the Library committee. I spent hours after school entering books into the new-fangled computer filing system. I remember being terribly excited about this new program called Inter-Library Loan, that meant I could request books from *gasp* other libraries (which, when your library is so small it only has a few thousand books, including the children's section, this is a HUGE THING). My mother started the Sunday morning Story Hour in our library. As I write this the original Story Bear, Pookie, who was purchased from a small toy shop that was only open in town for about a year and who was named by suggestion box drawing, sits on the back of the couch, watching me. (I keep thinking I should donate him to the library, but I just can't part with him. The library now is not the library I knew, and I can't be sure he will be given the proper respect he is due.)
Why the reminiscing about my childhood library? Well, you see, I got my first library card since I left town several years ago today. Why? At first it's because I didn't need to get a new one. My library card at my library was a "lifetime" one. (Or, more realistically, lifetime so long as the old guard were still around, and since they aren't I'm assuming my number's probably been given to someone else by now.) I was back and forth on a regular basis, so I could continue to check things out as a wanted. For the last few years, I've been a bit gypsyish. Somewhere along the way I had developed a strange view of libraries and library cards.
You see, I apparently hold libraries on the same level as, say, a sacred temple. While they are open to all, they should be deeply respected and revered, and not bothered by the small little ant that is me. (This does not, by the way, extend to anyone else... Everyone should take full advantage of their library!) Possessing a library card means that I am no longer a transient passing through, but says "I live here. I am a part of this community. I am here to stay." As I am still effectively transient (I live off the kindness and charity of a friend. It is his home, not mine. I'm just a stray animal taken in for fosterage until a more permanent home can be found for it), I have not gotten myself a library card until now, because then I would be admitting that I am going to be here for a while, and that means that I'm a resident.
Now, mind you, in the 34 years of my life, I have moved 28 times. Twelve of these were before the age of seven, and eight more of them between August of 2008 and August of 2009. I'm pretty sure at this point that I'm NEVER going to feel that I really live anywhere. I'm gun-shy on getting attached to places, because I'm only going to be moving again. So a piece of plastic that says "I live here"? Kind of terrifying...
I also freely admit that someday I'm going to make a therapist's bank account VERY HAPPY. I may have a few issues. ;)
So, yeah... weird day. I have a library card again. I'm not entirely sure what to do with this, just yet.
Cross-posted to Podrozny Studio
