Thursday, September 4, 2008

She Said She Likes It When I Roam Around...

My friend in Thomasville said she reads the Bookworm Blog. She said she gets good information from it about our library, what to read, events we hold, etc.
But she said what she likes best is when I roam around and tell what's going on at the library on a particular day at a certain time. She said that doesn't necessarily mean she's nosy, but that it's interesting to read about what people do at the library. So, today, to please my friend, I took another little roam around the place at 2:45 p.m. and here's what I found.
I was surprised to find two young ladies sitting in the reading area, working on their laptops; one at a table and the other in a comfy chair next to the sofa. Laptopers are usually sitting in the reference section. You know we have wireless access to the Internet now. That means people can come in with their laptops and work in various areas of the library. Kinda cool, I think.
There was a boy of about ten working a giant puzzle in the Children's Library. His grandmother sat on one of the primary-colored couches, reading her book.
And a middle-aged man was sitting at a table near the magazine racks, reading a newspaper.
As I walked from the Children's Library toward the circulation counter, I saw four people in the nonfiction stacks, peering at books on the shelves. Then I noticed a woman using her laptop (which was plugged in) in the reference section. That's the area I like to use because it's really quiet, not many people, and just the right place to study.
As I walked past the circulation counter, I saw ten people working at the bank of Dell computers. That surprised me, because usually all twenty computers are busy.
There were four people being helped at the circulation counter, one person looking at books in the new fiction section, and two people walking toward me in the long, white hallway.
As I entered the foyer on my way to the Odom Genealogy Library, I saw a woman sitting on one of the three benches in the foyer, with another woman coming in the library door from outside.
In the Genealogy Library, three people were working in the workroom; a man and woman with heads bent toward each other as they poured over records, and a woman using one of the five public computers.
I thought that was a nice number of people to be in the library on a Wednesday afternoon around 2:45.
Now, yesterday was a different story, and I'm glad I didn't try to count the people in the library during the morning hours. The Willcoxon Auditorium was filled with homeschooled children and their teachers. The Melody Jenkins Conference room held the board meeting for retired teachers, and the back half of the public reading area was filled with members of the Magnolia Garden Club, who were holding their monthly meeting.
I can honestly say I've never seen a day when the library has not been busy.
My neighbor said her teenage son asked her one day when they were driving by, "Who still goes to the library?" Of course, he has Internet at home, and television, and games to keep him busy. Made me wonder how much he reads...like a good mystery or teen fiction or a book about sports. I wish I could have been there to invite him to come visit our library. On just any day! We always have gobs of stuff going on here. He might be amazed at what he would find.
You, too! Come visit us. The more, the merrier! This is an exciting place.

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