Before the library closes...

Life has changed a lot in the last few weeks but nothing hit me quite like hearing last night that my local library system was closing indefinitely.  This is getting real!

I dreamt/worried about it all night and woke up at 6 reviewing my plan to get to the library when it opened today.  It's not like we don't have tons of books here at our house and we still have access to the libraries digital books, but I visit the library sometimes 3 times a week.  Especially as I have 1 reader in a full on reading binge and another I'm trying to tempt into one.  Reading binges require a lot of books!  So when I knew the library would be closing, I made sure to get what I could before it did.

Me and my kids arrived at the library 15 minutes before it opened this morning and we got one of the last open parking spots.  We waited in our car for about 10 minutes and spent the last 5 outside with several other people waiting for the doors to open.  When they did, everyone politely went inside, no stampede, but there was tension in the air.  I suspect most of us there are regular library users and we are all struggling with the idea of losing access to such an important part of our lives.   Those of us with children to homeschool have an additional reason for really wanting library books.

I gave each of my kids an extra large bag and I had one for myself.  I told them all to go look for books that look interesting and to try and fill their bags up.  I spent time with each child trying to help them find things that I thought would interest them.  After about 30 minutes we had 4 very full bags of books.  One of the librarians asked to take our picture saying, "You are the poster family for a day like this."  Part of me was concerned about taking more than our fair share of books but I also thought that the library is full of thousands of books.  It would be a tragedy for all those books to stay locked up on library shelves for weeks or months when they could be in peoples homes, being read.  The librarians clearly agreed with this sentiment.  They kept reminding everyone there was no limit on how many books we could check out (a temporary relaxing of rules and actually the limit is 300 books) and encouraging us all to take more.

Shelf 1 of library books

While I was typing this a friend pinged me on facebook to point out that my family's picture is now part of the libraries stock-up-on-books advertising.😂  I've been training my whole life for this!

I was also thrilled to hear that the libraries are hoping to work out a way for patrons to put books on hold online and then come pick up holds from the library without actually going in to the library.  I think this is a brilliant idea and I really hope they are able to do it.  To the librarians of the world I say, bless you and thank you!

Shelf 2 of library books

When we got home I told the kids to bring the books inside but not take them out of the bags yet.  Painful for all of us.  I wanted to clear some space on our bookshelves first to store all the books. I always have a basket for library books but it was already mostly full and it only holds about 50 books.  We needed to find places for about 150 books.  So we moved some books up to our bedroom bookshelves and reorganized a few shelves and then we started unloading the library books on to shelves just for them.  I find it critical to keep library books in the family room, in designated locations so that we don't lose them.

Overflow in the basket that normally holds our library books

If/when a child wants to take a library book to their bedroom, I require that they "check it out" with me.  I take a picture of the book and don't delete it until they bring the book back down stairs.  We were all in heaven pouring over the books and organizing them onto our bookshelves.

Now the struggle is what to read first.  Chloe and I are both midway through other books that we want to finish before we start on these.  Good thing we now have so much reading time!

Shelf 3 of library book

If your library hasn't closed yet, go get some books!  Start putting things on hold too!