Our New Library

… is open.

It’s beautiful! Spacious and sunny, layout well thought out, filled with books and books and books (of course!). It makes me want to go back to my old project (that will forever be unfinished) of going through every single picture book there is, just to ferret out the gold nuggets. Sigh… it’s a tough job but someone’s got to do it. I’m glad I get to share the load with other homeschooling moms.

My observations:

1. They had slots to drop in the books you’re returning, 2 for adult books, 1 for children’s books, and 1 for “Everything else”. To make things easier for library patrons visiting today (opening day), they had an USHER telling everyone coming in where the Book Return was! They sure could have made it easier on themselves if they had just placed a huge banner up top proclaiming “Book Return”.
2. They now have an OVERDUES office! An office! With a door, and a chair and a desk with someone sitting behind it. Scary. I wonder if it would feel like being sent to the principal? “You’ve got overdues? Step in here, please. We need to have a talk.” Yikes. I wonder if we will be getting an overdues report card at year end. Mine will say, “Funded 3 self-checkout computers as of 12/31/08″.
3. Let’s go over to the TEEN section… hmm… seating area, lots of selections but uhm… wait, WHAT? what is THAT doing over there? “THAT” is a large poster of Twilight featuring the male lead (sorry, too lazy to google who that is). Ooooh, and flanking the poster are…. books! Both sides with a very provocative LABEL on top, just to make sure you don’t inadvertently miss the whole display! It blares, “Vampires”…. in bold black calligraphy on a neon orange background. Like those weirdly-dressed mascots of some store that always manage to catch your eye, standing at street corners in shopping areas, advertising the latest and greatest discounts. Come on in! Huge closeout sale going on now! They’re ugly and out of place, but apparently, they work, since the stores keep using the same tactic over and over.

   But yeah, back to the vampires sign. I was just musing as we walked around the new library that my 13-yo seems so excited to be a TEEN, given license to finally explore the teen section by himself. Given that the teen area is just a few steps off of the children’s area, I wonder how many kids are just waiting for their 13th birthday so they could officially saunter over and cross that invisible line, anxious to sample the literature that heretofore was not necessarily recommended for younger eyes and minds? Okay, maybe that doesn’t happen. Maybe it’s only in our family that kids are waiting for their debut into the world of older literature… my 10-year old keeps on asking, when do I get to read THAT? Here, we actually consider age as the more arbitrary determinant of when certain things are allowed. If I had to pre-read much of the literature that made it to my 18-yo’s shelves when she was 13, my efforts have to be doubled now. But again, back to the topic at hand.

   Where was I? Oh, yeah, the vampire books display. Isn’t *anyone* concerned that this is easily seen from the children’s area? What do parents say to their little kids when they ask, “Mommy, what’s a vampire?” Or is this the type of information that most little kids these days already know? Hmm… I probably already know the answer to that question, I just want to remain in denial for a while.

   More questions: if that were a Jesus display instead, would people comment and complain? How is it at your library? At our local ones I see displays for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Valentine’s Day. Rarely, if ever, do I see a Christmas display. There are some, but usually mixed in with Kwanzaa, Diwali, and Hanukkah. There’s an Easter display sometimes, but often the rabbits and other secular Easter-themed books (IOW, nothing to do with Christ’s resurrection) dominate the grouping.

   And I can’t help but think — this Christian/Catholic thing is so offensive to the secular world… is it because it’s such a specific belief? Are we only into brand names when it’s clothing or cars, but we don’t want to be told exactly what or who to believe in? Not that Jesus Christ is a brand name, but is it that “vampires” is supposed to be a religion-neutral thing? Is it that Twilight can be attractive to Christians/Muslims/Jews/atheists alike, so that it doesn’t offend anyone, or maybe offends everyone instead, as opposed to only a few?

   I don’t know… I’m not really complaining anymore. Just… observing.

4. On our way out, another poster… this one, announcing that there will be an anger management lecture that parents might want to attend if their kids are getting out of control.

   Hmmm… culture of death anyone? Would it occur to any of the library people that maybe, just maybe, what the children are READING are contributing to their anger? I am somewhat amused that the two most prominent “announcements” in the building were for vampire books and for anger management. Wonder if things would be different if we advertised saint books and unconditional love instead?