Thursday, 21 August 2008

Childhood Memories of Libraries

Edited and moved to Scribbles and Diversions 

Posted by John (@bookdreamer) at 07:25
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16 comments:

  1. Paula21 August 2008 at 09:33

    Wow, thatw as a great story.
    I think that memory is a wonderful peice of history!

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  2. Anonymous21 August 2008 at 09:52

    Very interesting response. Thank you for sharing this glimpse into your past!

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  3. BooksPlease21 August 2008 at 10:37

    Well, I'm glad this revived some good memories even if it did shatter some illusions. It's interesting to wonder how much of our past is real,or reconstructed from other sources.

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  4. Lynda21 August 2008 at 11:54

    Wow...interesting memories and history.

    My answer is here:
    http://lyndasbookblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/booking-through-thursday-21808.html

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  5. SmilingSally21 August 2008 at 13:50

    I remember the mobile library; we called it the bookmobile.

    I had a great childhood experience.

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  6. Anonymous21 August 2008 at 14:36

    Wow that is an amazing experience. I know my county has a book mobile but I've never actually used it.

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  7. teabird21 August 2008 at 14:40

    When I first became a librarian, one of my first jobs was to go on the bookmobile once a week. I still miss it - how the children used to get so excited that you'd think we were the ice cream truck!

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  8. Anonymous21 August 2008 at 15:11

    Powerful history there. Thanks for this post!

    And I forgot to mention mobile libraries in my post!

    Library memories

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  9. Confuzzled Shannon21 August 2008 at 17:42

    My Dad and his sister grew up in a mining area in PA. It is part of the area that they saying the mines are still burning under the houses. I had never heard of mobile libraries before thank you for sharing.

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  10. Cathy21 August 2008 at 18:06

    I enjoyed reading your memories and shattered illusions, John. It reminded me of something I didn't mention in my own post: the bookmobile. In order to broaden our library's book base, Mom agreed to have the big city bookmobile stop by every month. Mom and I would hop aboard and choose a selection of books we would make available to our library patrons. We'd barely started using the service when the big city librarians started showing up for their inspection tours. They'd walk up and down the stacks, peering down through the lenses of their glasses and sniffing through pinched nostrils. Then they'd walk up to the desk and proceed to tell Mom how the library should be "presented". They were quite insistent that their way was the only way, but Mom was just as insistent that she knew her patrons much better than they. They spent about six months trying to force their ways upon our village, but it was a TKO in the eighth round. My mother could verbally out-box the best of 'em!

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  11. Anonymous22 August 2008 at 02:32

    This is a wonderful response. Remembrance of things in the past. I remember the mobile library that used to make its way around town and stopped at schools. The more I thought of this, the more it made sense that the bookmobile could be the only way to reach families living at remote locales.

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  12. Anonymous22 August 2008 at 03:10

    Wow, what a story. You have seen quite a few ups and downs in your life. I'd never actually heard of a mobile library before (clear ignorance since they've been around since the 1850s!), what an interesting idea.

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  13. John (@bookdreamer)22 August 2008 at 09:10

    Waves @ Paula thanks it just happened!

    Waves@ treehousejukebox yes it must sound diffrent

    Waves @ BooksPlease yes it got me thinking. I have to write a autobiographical essay for my creative writing course so may well dig around here to assess what was really going on rather then what my memory is telling me.

    Waves @ The Holistic Knitter thanks for dropping by.

    Waves at Smilingsal so much more cooler then mobile library

    Waves @ Bluestocking well get out in the streets, prime your thumb and go and give it go!

    Waves @ teabird wow what a nice image

    Waves@ gautami tripathy would be interesting to here how mobile libraries work in your area


    Waves @ Confuzzled Books. Scarey! At Bath near where I live they have problems with underground quarries emptied to build Bath in the 18th century. Houses on the top are tumbling in as the crust collapes. they are having to pump in foam that hardens to make them safe

    Waves @ Cathy Love that story. I can so see a movie made of it

    Waves @ Matt I would agree but in some rural areas they are not investing in mobile services as the country roads are too small! My suggestion to have a Helicopter mobile library wasn't taken seriously

    Waves @ megan but perhaps they had a 13th century mobile library. Each book carried by a monk in a long solemn procession with a companion chanting plain song as they marched over dirt tracks.

    When they reached a town they would stand in a circle and the town people would come and give donations to hear a monk read from a page. Then at the end of the day a torch would be given to each companion monk and in time to a Latin Prayer they would slide towards the nearest Monastery for a nights rest as the people of the town keeled in prayer for the miracle of the mobile library.

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  14. trish23 August 2008 at 02:35

    Wow! What a cool memory. :-)

    Will you be one of those people who say, "Back in my day..." If I had memories of a mobile library, I would totally take advantage of the Back in my day card. :D

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  15. Jeane23 August 2008 at 15:10

    That's very interesting. I did not know so much about mobile libraries before. I never used a bookmobile, but always thought they looked very quaint!

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  16. Anonymous21 September 2008 at 17:28

    Way to go, John - you've really come a long way!

    Mobile libraries are still a common feature in my country, Malayisa.

    I hope they continue to be (I'm not sure) because I hear of rural-based students in my English classes getting access to books that way too.

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Hi, welcome I appreciate the time and effort you are making to leave this comment and I will respond when I can

John

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