The Librarians

I guess I have the library on my mind this month.

another grandson in his favourite place--not sure I always like his choice of reading material--he has such a dark soul

All of the Fabrigos are book lovers. Two of the Fabrigos have volunteered on their local library boards. Two that I know of have relatives who are librarians. All of us own a lot of books. Book discussion is usually a major portion of the conversations we have when we get together.

Last weekend my cousin, the librarian, and I had a discussion about library fines. She works at three very small branches of their local library. She told me that its basically at the discretion of the head librarian how dedicated the branch is to collecting fines. Some of them are very adamant about collections--others are a little more lenient.


Remember the line in It's a Wonderful Life, when George asks what happened to Mary and the reply is that she's a librarian. I love that line. So much said about how our image of the old maid librarian has changed in a few short years. The librarian in our family is not like Spinster Mary the librarian at all!






My youngest grandson has been going to the library with me for a while. He usually takes out a movie. This week when we were driving there I asked him if he was taking out a book this time. His reply was that he doesn't like to RENT books--he likes to buy them. Wow what privilege!! He is privileged. He can and does buy books.


When we went to check out, Michael found a wallet on the floor in front of the desk. I could tell it was a child's wallet. There was a library card and a paper "visa" card inside.
He handed it to our librarian, and she took one  look at it and started to laugh. Seems the young owner of the wallet had tried to pay his library fine with the Visa card. She said he was about Michael's age. We had a little giggle about it, checked out my books and came home.


And I have been thinking about the young man ever since. I wonder how important the library is for him. Does he love the library?  Is that his only access to books --and now has he racked up so much in fines that this privilege has been denied?  And now will that make him stop reading?


Perhaps he was careless with the books. My grandsons have mothers who keep them on track. It's the mothers and the grandmothers who make sure that the books and movies are not late--and its the mothers and the grandmothers who make sure that they get returned--or pay the fines if need be.


Perhaps this young man has a mother who is not as capable of keeping his books in good order as she should be. Maybe grandma can't help either. Next week I think I will try to find out if I can pay his fine.


thanks for stopping by


karenwholovesthelibrary