Playing Library!
Posted by: Cindy Dobrez and Lynn Rutan
Cindy: Kids these days! They have it so easy. I recently saw this photo on awesome librarian friend Kevin King’s Facebook page announcing what his oldest daughter bought with her bookstore gift card: A Personal Library Kit. Now, before you villify me….I adore this young avid reader (and her younger sister) and I am THRILLED that she wants to have a personal library. I’ve seen her book-filled bedroom and she even stores stacks of books on the ladder steps to her bunk bed–she must use her Super Spidey skills to get into bed! But in MY day, we had to do this the hard way. I spent hours making my own cards and pockets and did not have a cool date due stamp and ink pad to use. The hardest part came in going to my brother and begging him to come borrow something from my library so I could use my cards and be the librarian.
I am a little surprised that her techie father has not set her up with a Library Thing account and a CueCat scanner…but I do love this little kit. You can check out the kit here, or you can buy your own pieces from one of the sources that we professionals use, Highsmith. Either way, I’m delighted that kids still want to play library. It warms the card catalog drawer of my heart!
Lynn: Hey – it’s not just kids! I’m ready to get this and use it with all the books I lend out to friends and family … and to feel like I’m back in my old library for a little while. You can take the librarian out of the library but you can’t get the library out of the librarian. I admit it – my personal collection is alphabetized by author! Who else out there played librarian when they were small – or still do today? Fess up!
July 24th, 2012 at 7:14 am
I totally did this the old school way when I was a kid! Complete with asking my family to come borrow my books.
July 24th, 2012 at 12:02 pm
I became a book buyer in elementary school when the public and school libraries were always missing part of the series I wanted to read. (Now ironically I have an MLIS.) I didn’t start managing my personal library until my first copy of Harry Potter disappeared. Now I use Delicious Library software.
July 24th, 2012 at 5:16 pm
While in high school (back in the 60s) my mother and I set up a library system with donated books at a neighborhood center in Muskegon. All books and library materials were donated by local businesses.
July 24th, 2012 at 6:49 pm
Oh, yeah. Mine was in the attic, and neighborhood kids actually borrowed books! This would have been third or fourth grade, probably.