Ten Reasons I Love My Library

April 11, 2017 Top Ten Tuesday 20

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature/meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. 

Ten Reasons I Love My Library

OK, I’m cheating this week. The topic is supposed to be Ten of the Most Unique Books I’ve Read. But it’s also National Library Week, so I decided to focus on what I love about my public library instead.

First, let me introduce you to my favorite “local” library, the Central Rappahannock Regional Library. The headquarters library is actually a half-hour drive away from my house, but CRRL has branches throughout the surrounding counties (except mine, darn it. Hence my willingness to make the half-hour drive—and pay a yearly $30 fee as a non-resident. My own county’s library is quite small in comparison.)

Central Rappahannock Regional Library Headquarters (Photo © K. Pekar)

 

Here’s what I love about CRRL

Wonderful librarians. Everyone who works there is kind and helpful, and I’ve even made friends with one or two of the librarians I see most often. The reference librarians really know their stuff, and have been able to track down books for me through Interlibrary Loan (ILL) when CRRL doesn’t have a copy.

An extensive collection. Because it has 7 branch libraries in addition to Headquarters, CRRL has an enormous collection of books, audiobooks, and even movies. They have probably 80% of the books I look for, at some branch or another. If I want a book from another branch, I can have it transferred to the Headquarters library and pick it up there.

A good online catalog. Most libraries have an online catalog these days, but some of them are clunky and kind of a pain to use. CRRL’s online catalog is intuitive, visually appealing, and simple to use, making it a cinch for me to search for a title, see whether a book is available, and place a hold request (which will initiate a transfer if it’s at another branch.) I can manage my holds, pausing them if I’m going out of town or have too many other books to read, and reactivating the hold when I’m ready without losing my place in line. I can even tag books I might like to read later, renew my checked-out books before they are overdue, and see my borrowing history. Oh, and I can read other patrons’ reviews, too — or post my own.

No borrowing limit. They have never told me I was checking out too many books — even when I was checking out about 40 (some for me, some for Robin.)

Almost unlimited renewals. As long as no one else has requested the book, I can renew it as often as I want to. This is particularly useful for audiobooks, which take me a while to get through. And again, I can renew them online, without having to call or go to the library.

A pretty good digital book and digital audiobook selection. It’s not as extensive as the print books, and doesn’t always have everything I want to read, but when it does, it’s quite useful. I can have a Kindle book sent to my Kindle library, and have three weeks to read it. Not bad! And of course, I can access the ebooks and audio downloads from anywhere in the country, even when I’m on vacation.

Fabulous biannual booksales and a small but useful “bookstore” in most branches. The Friends of the Library organization runs the twice-a-year booksales and the year-round bookstores (usually a bookcase filled with the better or more popular titles in good condition.) The Headquarters booksales are huge; I almost always come home with 20 to 30 books, sometimes as many as 40 or 50 (but some of them are for Robin.) There is also a summer sale of fiction only. And when I need to prune my books and get rid of some, I simply take them to the library and donate them for the next sale. If the library sees a book they want, they have first dibs; otherwise, everything goes onto the sale shelves or the biannual sales. I usually volunteer to cashier for a few hours for the big biannual sales, which go on for about 5 days.

Great programs, from summer “Music on the Steps” concerts at Headquarters to talks and signings by local or regional authors (including Maggie Stiefvater!), programs on local history or on doing genealogy, book clubs, writing groups, activities for children and teens, and even knitting groups. Several times, they’ve brought in authors from outside our local area, like Susanna Kearsley (twice!), Deanna Raybourn, and Joanna Bourne. In February, they brought in Margot Lee Shetterly, the author of Hidden Figures — and had so much interest, they had to ask the local university to donate the use of their 1000-plus-seat theater/auditorium. (And it was packed!)

Self-catering holds and self-checkout. I love interacting with the librarians, but it’s also useful to be able to pick up my holds and check them out myself, especially when I’m in a hurry.

“Suggest a Title.” CRRL has an online form where you can suggest titles you would like them to get. Whether they buy it depends on their budget, but they often do.

 

Why do you love your library?

 

Related Posts

20 Responses to “Ten Reasons I Love My Library”

  1. Angela

    I love this post so much! My library is an invaluable resource for me. Even though my local library is kind of small, like yours it is part of a great county system and there are very few books that I can’t get by requesting them from another library in the system. My library also does a year-round book sale; they have an area set up where they always have books for sale – can’t beat a book for a quarter!
    Angela recently posted…Seasonal Book Covers: Springtime!My Profile

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      Our year-round sale tends to be the better-quality or more in-demand books for between $2 and $8, but the biannual sales have books for as little as 50 cents each. It’s great! This spring’s sale starts in a week and a half. They just called me this afternoon to ask me to cashier. 🙂

  2. Lark

    Your library does sound amazing! I wish it were mine. (But I’m awfully glad that I have a library as close to me as I do.) Libraries are fabulous inventions…I don’t know what I would do without them. 🙂
    Lark recently posted…Loving Arches…My Profile

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      I do have a library closer to home, but I use it less often because, well, less selection. (Especially in some of the genres I like to read.)

  3. Lindsay

    I adore libraries — I can’t imagine reading as much as I do without them. And, of course, I enjoy working at one. Your library is GORGEOUS! I’d love to work in a historic building like that. (My previous library was semi-historic… it used to be a post office a long time ago, but it wasn’t as old and lovely as yours.)
    Lindsay recently posted…10 Of The Most Unique Books I’ve ReadMy Profile

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      It is a wonderful building, isn’t it? It used to be a school, built in 1908. The city donated it to the CRRL system when that body was founded in 1969. 🙂

      Have you seen any of the Carnegie Libraries? Some of them are quite attractive. I’m starting to collect them (well, photos of them, at least) when I come across them.

  4. Katherine @ I Wish I Lived in a Library

    What a fantastic post! I use a little branch just a few miles away from me but I absolutely love it. The librarians are amazing and very friendly. They have a daily children’s storytime that we used to go to all the time. The selection at the branch is somewhat limited but I can get just about everything I want transferred there by going online. I use it all the time. Sometimes it’s fun to just wander through the shelves and pick up all the things that look good!
    Katherine @ I Wish I Lived in a Library recently posted…Top Ten Tuesday – Ten Unique BooksMy Profile

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      Being able to transfer things from other branches is a huge benefit of a multi-branch library system. Sounds like yours is great!

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      It really is. I have to pay to use it (a yearly fee, I think $30 at present) because I live in the one county in the region that doesn’t participate in the multi-county system. But it’s worth every penny.

  6. Stephanie@Fairday's Blog

    I love my library (libraries) too! You listed so many of the reasons I would give. I am amazed at the audio book selection my library has and the setting is also lovely. I can check my books out myself- which I also like. One of my favorite things is that my library does not charge late fees. Very helpful with audio books and returns that are late. 🙂
    Stephanie@Fairday’s Blog recently posted…Spring Break and Ways to Win!My Profile

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      No late fees sounds great! Our library runs a “No Fines Week” about once a year, and sometimes runs a food drive where you get a dollar off your fines for bringing a certain number of cans or boxes. But on the whole, I don’t mind paying the fines when I incur them, since it helps the library.