Page 72 - Senior Link Magazine Summer 2023 - Online Magazine

SENIOR RESOURCES

For the LOVE

of
Libraries

by Cathy Sypert

Libraries also made me aware of some this valuable resource]. Encourage
of the more disturbing aspects of your friends and family to become
human behavior. My initial exposure members also. Shopping regularly in
to the horrors of the Holocaust our fabulous BookStore in the Mahon
happened in a high school library, Library Basement and donating your
where our class first watched the books to the FOL for resale to others is
ibraries have been the center films about the liberation of the also critically important.
of their communities for a very concentration camps after WWII. We
Llong time. Consider our Library were also shown newsreels of the Watts We have everything—from adult
of Congress. Founded in 1800, it holds riots and the Civil Rights struggle that coloring books to world history; from
one of the largest collections of books, engulfed our nation in the 1960s. jigsaw puzzles to classics—all sorted
manuscripts, photographs, sheet music, and shelved, so they are easy to find.
voice and instrumental recordings, and As an adult, reading a book or two at Volunteer with our FOL group to
maps in the world, not to mention the a time is still part of my daily life. The ensure that the BookStore will continue
Declaration of Independence. Schools, feel of a book in your hands, the smell to function smoothly and be able to
from elementary to university level, of its pages, the joy and anticipation of contribute funds to the library that it
each have their own libraries, and local meeting new characters always brings doesn’t receive from local allocations.
public libraries provide a wide variety me joy; and while there is nothing like Get involved in your community and
of materials and services. the feeling of holding a book, e-readers attend city council meetings where
definitely have a place for anyone the fate of libraries will be discussed.
My own exposure to the magic of who loves to read. After all, how else Let your local, state, and nationally
libraries was developed as a member can you travel with over a thousand elected officials know how important
of a military family. We moved every books at your disposal? It was a great you think libraries are to the health of a
summer for most of my school years. revelation to find that you can check community.
Military bases always had a library that out eBooks from the library, no travel
was close enough for me to get to on necessary to get the book, and it just Take advantage of your local library
my bicycle, allowing me to spend many disappears off your device when it is by requesting and checking out books
a summer afternoon in the cool and due. or accessing materials through their
quiet, solving mysteries with Nancy internet services. Involve yourself and
Drew, imagining sailing on a Chinese Unfortunately, libraries are under your children or grandchildren in the
junk, rooting for the outsider like siege from a myriad of outside sources summer reading program. Create in
Jonathan Livingston Seagull, hoping no today. Political groups, as in many the children in your life a life-long love
one had already circled all the Hidden times past, are attempting to limit what of reading by reading to them, letting
Pictures in the Highlights magazine, a library can make available to the them see what joy a book brings, and
and dreaming of seeing some of the public. Additionally, the availability by encouraging them to read books
exotic places and animals found in of adequate money for all public on their own. Support your local
the pages of National Geographic. [As services is constantly under stress. library in any way possible so that the
a teen] the library still drew me in. I Taxes support first responders, schools, generations to follow us will not end
sobbed through Death be Not Proud and roads; they provide help for the up like the characters at the end of the
and Love Story, fell in love with Scout impoverished and fund countless other famous H.G. Wells novel, The Time
Finch, Jem Finch, Dill Harris, and Boo worthwhile and necessary causes. Machine. Don’t know what happens?
Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird, stayed Libraries are just among the many Read the book!
awake after reading Silence of the Lambs entities competing for limited dollars.
and Sleeping with the Enemy and viewed
my dog with suspicion for days after Joining Friends of the Library is one of
finishing Cujo! the first steps you can take [to preserve

72 Lubbock Senior Link