Checking Out Libraries by Mary Dutta

My local library branch is closed for a year for renovations. It’s a temporary situation, but losing that access has me thinking about all the wonderful time I’ve spent in libraries over the years.

I grew up in a town with a Carnegie library. It was a red brick building built in 1904, with a Civil War-era cannon out front. That library played a crucial role in making me the avid reader I remain. I remember the summer reading programs and the gradual graduation from the children’s room in the basement to the adult shelves upstairs. I still know my library card number: 206F.

My college and graduate school years in New York City had me doing a lot of research at the main branch of the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue. That’s the one with the famous lions, Patience and Fortitude, flanking the steps. In those days, paper call slips whooshed through pneumatic tubes to the vast stacks, and the requested books would be delivered to the stately and stunning main reading room.  

I passed my love of libraries on to my kids. First in Boston and then in Virginia, our local libraries played a prominent role in their growing up. They proudly signed up for their first library cards, participated in their own summer reading programs, and loaded up at the annual book sales.

Here in Alabama, I take advantage of all my county system has to offer. One branch holds the biggest selection of travel books. Another has a peaceful forest setting. A third has the best friends-of-the-library bookstore. While my closest option is closed, there are still plenty of welcoming spaces available for a book lover like me.

I was a reader long before I was a writer, and I owe much of that identity to the libraries that shaped me. They have changed over time, in more ways than one. My hometown library quadrupled in size after I left, and the NYPL finally retired its pneumatic system in favor of an all-electronic one about ten years ago. I know my local branch will be a bit different when it reopens next summer, but it will always be a home for me.

How important are libraries in your own life?