Sherry’s Art Binders
Category: Librarian
Tracy Born’s Living Books Rescue Preservation Library
When I arrived in the church basement, there were a couple of elderly church ladies sitting there all alone, and I discovered many boxes of beautiful vintage children’s books…most still in Dewey Decimal order, as they had just been pulled off the shelves of a library. Little did I know, but the church was attached to a school that had just closed its doors, and I was looking at the entire contents of the school library!
Erin Hassett’s Library in Australia
I make my home in Clarence Valley, NSW, Australia with my husband, ten children, aged thirty to ten, and two daughters-in-law, though only five of our children now live at home. We live on a rural property with cattle and chickens, with the children driving 4WD’s and dune buggies and swimming in the dam. Our children have always been home educated, and we have graduated six thus far.
Ashley Borrego and Cornerstone Living Library
It took about six months from the first time I suggested the idea to the church leadership until they approved it as a new ministry that they would support and finance, with me as the volunteer director. During that time, I did a considerable amount of research on how to run a library. I had to make a detailed plan, create a realistic budget, and made multiple presentations to various groups within the church.
Kathleen Seeger’s Library Journey
“Cooperates quite well, but all books have to be hers.” Written by my mother when I was just one year old, this statement lines up perfectly with the memories in my head, that as far back as I can remember, I have always loved books.
Plumfield Library Membership Cards
When we started this library journey, I thought that since we lived way out in the woods, no one would want to drive out here very often. I assumed that I was going to need to drive the books into town and do meet-ups with patrons. That still may happen, but so far, every time I propose it to my patrons, I am met with shock. “No! I want my kids to have a real library experience!” After hearing this half a dozen times, I knew that people were coming here for the kind of experience that I had at Spies Public Library. And, I knew that we would need library cards.
What is another way to organize and shelve picture books?
I gave most of my picture books away over the years. I kept the best ones for the future, but as my children aged out of them, I shared the rest with friends to make room for my growing collection of chapter and middle grade books. Because of that, when I set up my library, I decided to organize my picture books really differently than most of the other librarians I was following. And, so far, it’s been working really, really well for us.
How do you handle library discards that already have stickers, stamps, and bar codes?
And by the way, librarians who stamp large DISCARD stamps over the print in a discarded book should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Too bad there is no law against huge, black (or red) DISCARD stamps.
Stacie Bean’s Humble Library
Over the years, we learned to visit the used book booths when at homeschool conferences and to stop in libraries when traveling to see if they had a book sale section or room. It seemed we could always find some treasure for each member of the family. Once, a friend and I got a call that a local school was throwing their entire library collection into their school dumpster. What do you think we did?? Minivans here we come!
Why Libraries?
This article was originally written in three parts and published in The Wyoming News Chronicle in the spring of 2023. Andrew Carnegie, born in Scotland in 1835, emigrated with his parents to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania when he was twelve years old. His life is an almost unbelievable rags-to-riches story. He went from working as a bobbin…
Show Notes: Our Reading Life – October
Sarah Kim’s References: Tanya’s References: Diane’s References: Sara Masarik’s References:
Show Notes: Our Librarian Life – September
A brand new podcast series for librarians by librarians. Our Librarian Life is a monthly chat between private lending librarians about the lives our private lending libraries.
Emma Filbrun’s New Zealand Library
We’re open when we’re home. Very few people use it, as I said, so it’s no problem. I mail books to people who request them, after they pay for the postage. Eventually, if the books haven’t come back, I ask for them back. I do not charge fees, other than the postage fee.
Books by Mail and Me
We live in a small town in the middle of nowhere. I have owned more books than the tiny local public library for at least two decades. We rapidly outgrew their collection before the oldest of our six children turned ten. Because our town’s library service was so limited for so many years, we qualified for the state library’s Books by Mail program, as did the majority of smaller towns in the state. We have borrowed many hundreds of books this way. Because the Maine State Library is taxpayer funded, there was no fee for this service IF your town met the qualifications. If the town was not on the list, the service was not available at all.