Living Books Rescue Preservation Library, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Tracy Born, Librarian.
I have loved reading and libraries for as long as I can remember, but until I began homeschooling, it never occurred to me that I would enjoy being a librarian. Funny how that is, because the library was my favorite place when I was young, and I can still picture exactly where the Childhood of Famous Americans series was in my elementary school library! I remember being very impressed with something posted at our library: a “stump the librarian” challenge. I was struck with the idea that the books could be consulted, and that these amazing librarians had the keys to find that information.
Just before I turned forty, I found out I was expecting our third child, and when I was eight months pregnant, I withdrew our boys from public school and began homeschooling. Things were financially pretty tight in those days, so I did most of my homeschooling with my library card. I began to realize again how much I loved the library! I could afford anything there, carting home thirty books a week, cozy reading days on the couch . . . this was good! I was hooked. When our little girl was born, and was old enough to begin homeschooling with us, I turned to the Five In a Row curriculum, and loved reading her the beautiful picture books they recommended, over and over. I have heard it said that Five in a Row is the “gateway drug to living books,” and I believe it! I began looking for books everywhere, estate sales, library sales and flea markets.
The sales our libraries had were really great! I recall once seeing an entire hard cover set of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books for only a few dollars, and thinking, “Don’t they KNOW how good these are?” This was followed immediately by the urge to grab them before they realized their error in pricing them so low!
After a few years, I discovered homeschool groups online, and began to realize that not everyone around the country seemed to have access to as many great library sales as I did here in Pittsburgh. I’m not sure exactly how it began, possibly in a Facebook group, but I started offering books for sale to other homeschoolers. I have always loved a good treasure hunt, and it gave me a good reason to collect more books than we could possibly ever read, plus make a little money on the side! I enjoyed it very much for a time. I believe it was in a Charlotte Mason Facebook group where I first heard someone talk about how they had “rescued” a book. So that’s how I began selling books as “Living Books Rescue” on social media.
One summer day, I recalled that a neighborhood church was having a flea market. It was about the time the sale was ending, but I sprinted out the door, thinking that maybe I’d find a few books. 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!
Trying to keep my composure, I asked them how much they wanted for the books? She said that whatever was left after the sale was probably going into a dumpster after the weekend, how was three dollars a box? Well, I nearly fell over. I set a large section aside for next-day pickup and I offered to share about their sale on social media for them. The next day we were not alone! I’m sure the church did very well that day. It was at this time that I began to be less concerned about selling the books, and more concerned about stewarding the books with which I had been blessed! Something was happening here.
The idea of having a lending library was percolating. Listening to Liz Cotrill and Emily Kiser, on the Delectable Education podcast really clinched it. I remember that Emily said that when they began their living books library, it was in their home with six people living in about 1200 square feet. I only had three people currently living in the same square footage! Oddly enough, they even described their basement having fabric hung on the ceiling, which is exactly what I had done to cover the ugly basement-y look of mine. That made me smile!
In January of 2020, I invited (through social media) a group of homeschoolers over to see my soon-to-be-ready lending library. A couple of them decided to sign up. In February of 2020, I saw in the local news that another Catholic school in my neighborhood was closing and combining with another. Then I heard of ANOTHER school closure. All I could think about was “what about all of the books in their libraries . . . are they doomed to be put in a dumpster?” So I made a few calls, and spoke to several kind, but sad nuns, who said they’d be happy to keep my number when decisions were made about the libraries. Well, we all know what happened in March, 2020, and as a result of lack of school enrollment, even more Catholic schools began to close. It was bittersweet, when in late summer I began to get phone calls. “Hello, this is Sister Mary So and So, are you still interested in the books?” (Of course I was!) In each case the Diocese said they did not want a bunch of people coming into their school, but said they’d be happy if I could help them get rid of their books. So my daughter and I, and a couple of times, a homeschool friend with a bigger vehicle than my little Elantra, came and filled many boxes with books from at least five libraries. Once, when opening a library door, there was a “Welcome to our library” mat in the entry way, and the kind nun who welcomed me asked me if I’d like that too? Well, of course, I cried! It was pretty overwhelming . . . so many good, old books. My husband was very wonderful, and hardly complained at all that his garage was quickly becoming a book warehouse. God bless him!
Of course, a garage is not an ideal place for books to live for very long, so I began searching for used bookshelves any place I could find them. I fit as many books as I could in my basement library and arranged them in a loosely Dewey Decimal order. I figured I’d sell what was in the garage, either online or perhaps in a brick and mortar store. (With visions of “You’ve got Mail” dancing in my mind . . . 🙂 I only had a couple of families borrowing books then, but I so loved welcoming them into my home and seeing their faces light up at my book treasures! I charged them $60 a year, which always went right back into books.
After a few months of lending to a few families, I got a call from a homeschool friend who had opened a homeschool resource center. She asked if I might want to move my library to the center? It sounded like a wonderful idea, because the books could be accessible to more families! So I rented a truck and asked some kind friends for some help, and we moved my library. New shelves came from another library rescue, and I was able to move the books in my garage to the shelves in my basement! This was perfect, right?
Unfortunately, the idea of the library really did not catch on there, with many moms not understanding why the books I had were any different from the ones they could find in our local libraries. I had hoped to be able to share my enthusiasm for living books with them by doing little classes, but there were many other activities going on there. It was a wonderful space, just not the best fit for my library. Lesson learned: a space for books does not mean it is the RIGHT space.
I did not rent a truck to move the books this time, because I had no place to put the newly acquired shelves the books were on. The shelves stayed at the homeschool center, and the books came home in boxes. Things became complicated. Most of these were the best books!
I did not want to keep them in the garage, so I called several churches nearby to see if someone might have some space that I could use, and possibly put the entire library. After several months, nothing had opened up, so I began to put the books into good plastic containers in order to protect them a little better for a while longer. It became quite crowded in our little garage, and getting to holiday decor and the potting bench was more than a little tricky. “Just a little while longer,” I said to my husband, and really hoped it was true! I was officially overwhelmed.
That is when God sent Hilda! Sometime late this past spring, my sweet friend offered to come to Pittsburgh from North Carolina, to help me organize the library for an entire week! What an amazing gift and a God-send she was. I met Hilda Manriquez on social media, by way of homeschooling and selling books, and we had been chatting on Voxer about books for years. I knew that she had a wonderful eye for great books, having her own large private library, and experience helping at her church and local library. I couldn’t think of a more perfect person to help me. God is so good and gracious!
Well, she came in August, and after about four days of sorting through boxes and beginning to make a little headway, Hilda said, “There is NO way we are going to finish in a week. Maybe I could stay two.” I cannot tell you how thankful I am for the work that took place here this summer. She helped me to sort through more than thirty-five boxes of books, and to also go through the thousands of books on the shelves of my basement bookcases. She helped me to be ruthless, in the best way . . . to discern which books would be the best of the ones I had, and that could fit in the space I had in my basement library. The ones that did not would be either sold to her book-selling friend, or to local homeschoolers, or donated. It felt SO good to finally know what I wanted to do. I wanted a library that I could manage and share with joy from my own home. More is not necessarily better! Hilda and I put the books in Dewey Decimal order, with the exception of keeping series together. It is wonderful and very gratifying, to see all the Landmark books I have, and all the We Were There, etc. all together.
My garage currently has only a few plastic bins of books, and I am happy to report that when it comes time for reaching the Christmas decor soon, I will not be falling over boxes! I am in the process of cataloging books, using the Library Thing app, and preparing to share them with my Charlotte Mason homeschool friends very soon. I have begun a Charlotte Mason mom’s encouragement group in my home that meets once monthly, and my prayer is that my little library will be a blessing to these wonderful mamas, and to my grandchildren and church friends.
I am unsure how many books I have at this point, but I have fifteen tall shelves that are quite full, plus a rolling library cart of holiday/ seasonal books that I will rotate. I am up to 485 in my app, and that is one “not too tall” shelf and a cart. I am guessing I have about 4,500 books right now, not counting my personal library upstairs.
I recently purchased some book repairing supplies online, spine tape and clear plastic to cover some damaged and worn books. In the past I charged families $60 per year to borrow an unlimited number of books, and I think that is still reasonable, to help cover cost of supplies, and more books on occasion! I have often been torn about this part. Part of me wants to make membership free, but I believe that folks really do assign value to anything they pay for, so I will keep the fee.
My former method of check-out was very simple: I took photos of the spines that a patron was borrowing, and then emailed them the same picture. If a book was damaged I made note of it. I also let moms know if a book was valuable, so they could decide if it was worth the risk to borrow. I never had a problem having books returned with this system, as low tech as it is, but my goal is to eventually use Tiny Cat with the Library Thing app, to check books out. I plan to have an official first day in the next couple of weeks, and to invite the ladies from my homeschool group to a “Christmas book-look tea.”
I am very thankful for the books I have to steward and preserve, so that they can be enjoyed. That is really what it is all about! It took me a while to figure how it could work in my little space, but I am so happy to have that “Welcome To Our Library” rug at the bottom of my basement stairs, and to be able to share these treasures with my friends.