I Can - MyPoWriYe #161

Georgia's Library Card

Photo by Amy LV

September is Library Card Sign-Up Month!  And to celebrate, the American Library Association has written a list of 52 Ways to Use Your Library Card, one for each week of the year.  Hooray for libraries!

A reader can find no better heaven-haven than your public library.  In our county, as I imagine in many, a library card is a free ticket to many, many libraries.  Books may be returned to any library in the system, and so you have an near-limitless selection of books, music, DVDs, and magazines.
 

One local Erie County family has embarked on a fabulous adventure, visiting each of our county's 37 libraries and blogging about their visits.  You can follow them here at Operation Reading Road Trip.

Part of the beauty of visiting libraries is the books, of course.  Another spark is the feeling of being part of something, part of what Frank Smith has called "the literacy club".  In a library, you are surrounded by book lovers, you can explore and take whatever you want, you can talk about your "visit to the library", and you have a big bag of books to carry around.  I'm often asked, "How did you get your children to love reading so much?"  Libraries are part of the answer to this question.

Students - do you have a library card?  If you do, you might consider inviting a friend to join you the next time you visit.  You might help your friend get a card and show him or her around your favorite library.  If you don't have a card yourself yet, this month would be a perfect time to ask an adult to bring you.  As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "In a library we are surrounded by many hundreds of dear friends..."

Back at the beginning of this poem-a-day project, I celebrated the second day of TV Turnoff Week with another library poem, poem #20, "The World for Free".  We are lucky in this country to have our libraries, and I am grateful for all who work at, take care of, and frequent these golden buildings.

I invite you to forward this post to a librarian-friend today.  And if you have a library card story or thought to share below, please do!

(Please click on COMMENTS below to share a thought.)