Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Christening a new library

After many many years of effort, our small town has a brand spanking new library! And our girls were asked to play an honorable role during the christening - to hold the ribbons while the head librarian cut through and officially opened the building to the public. When I asked why they, specifically, were chosen, the librarian said it was because they were "model library users" and would represent the homeschool community. She had also asked two other children to represent the public school community, but unfortunately the family was out of town.




A local pastor offers an invocation. Yes, we live in a place where pastors can still offer invocations without being arrested.


Paulina, the head librarian, thanks everyone for their combined efforts to bring this project to fruition.



One...two...


Three!


Everyone marvels at the size. By comparison, our old library only had about 800 square feet.


The dirt in front is the footprint of the old library building, which has since been bulldozed.

11 comments:

  1. Younger Daughter (in the light blue, right?) seems younger than in these pictures than I had gotten the impression she was from reading this blog previously.

    Perhaps it's just me.

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  2. My dad said "Books are your friends!"
    Your library has lots of new friends and old ones,too! I can only keep my favorite 5000!!!
    --Homeschooling in Oklahoma--Karen

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  3. Congratulations to your community! In an age when so many municipalities are cutting back their library hours and services, your town has a brand new and bigger one. Way cool.

    And congratulations to daughters Elder and Younger for having been invited to take part in such an honored way. I know it will be a treasured memory for you all.

    I muchly appreciate your having shared the occasion with us.

    A. McSp.

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  4. Oh how nice to have a new library. I have to say that all old library books have a certain smell that just pops me right back to childhood. I am again on my bike with a pile of books in the front basket, pedaling as fast as I can so I can get home and not waste any reading time.

    I still sniff the books at the library. The librarians just smile and look the other way. I think they understand.

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  5. What a blessing. I am excited for you.

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  6. For whomever asked, Older Daughter is 14 and Younger Daughter is 12.

    - Patrice

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  7. Congratulations on your beautiful new library and congrats on your "model library users!" That's a designation I'd love for my children to have someday!

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  8. Does the library have a particular (or restrictive) mission?

    The public library system in Portland Oregon (Multnomah County Library) has become less about printed works and much more about providing free internet terminals and an unsupervised indoor hanging-out place where gangs can do a dope deal and parents can avoid paying for an afternoon place for children until they get home from work. I see lots of children playing video games on the "interactive multi-media terminals" when they would be better served by static words and images held in hands. My neighborhood branch (Holgate) has been gutted of English-language and Western culture books and magazines to make way for foreign-language products (nothing keeps a person foreign like a no-cost stream of "old country" media). This branch sports an almost-full-time Multnomah County Sheriffs' Deputy standing around! It is still useful to order-in books from other branches and avoid a trip to the (wonderful 19th century palace) Central Library in parking-free downtown Portland.

    Thanks for the blog.

    Cheers.

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  9. Our community library just moved to a smaller location, my husband put up the shelving so they wouldn't have to pay someone to do it, yet the library still may have to close in the next year or so. In spite of increasing volunteer librarian help, the open hours keep getting cut back. Sadly, the majority of the library visitors are people using the computers, mostly for games. Not much book browsing or reading going on.

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  10. Our first visit to the library as homeschoolers, the librarian took one look at our stack of 15 books on Ancient Egypt, smiled and said, "It looks like someone is homeschooling."

    It was a relief, I had heard horror stories of librarians in the big city nearby hassling homeschoolers with rude comments.

    It's good to know that there are librarians who appreciate book lovers regardless of schooling method.

    Melody

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  11. I teach reading to special ed. middle schoolers. I love to hear about a new library in a place where you have an invocation. Every day there is more emphases put on being connected. We may need to be connected but we need to introduce our children to the wonderful world of their imagination, and allow them to travel everywhere and anywhere with a good book.

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