I recently attended an international conference for Christian book buyers/sellers from around the world. Now I’m preparing to deliver a keynote speech at a national conference for book lenders—i.e., librarians. I’m excited about this opportunity because I’ve loved libraries since I was a kid. When many of my friends wanted to play outside, I preferred to be holed up in a library, discovering new stories and exciting adventures.
Something tells me many of you are the same way. People who grow up to be avid readers usually developed that passion while they were still children. True, parents are huge influencers when it comes to our love of reading (or lack thereof), but librarians played a large part in that for many of us as well.
If that’s you, please leave a brief story of how a librarian influenced or encouraged you in your younger days, will you? I am collecting these stories to share with the librarians at the conference next week, but also because I want to read them myself. So come on. Tell us your favorite library/librarian story!
Christians Read 
It seems like I have always been able to read and it has speaks given me great pleasure. The small town where I grew up did not have a public library until the early 60s and it was located in a small, dark, one room storefront in the middle of town BUT it.was.glorious!! A few years later, in 1967, a beautiful new library was built and then, in 2007, our county was blessed with a library three times larger. Such joy for this avid reader but the best part of my story: I was hired to work at our library in 1991 and I was part of that wonderful workplace until Jan., 2014. During that time, we saw the card catalog replaced by an online catalog database and one Apple computer turned into almost forty computers available for public use. I have been so fortunate to have been a part of this wonderful world of books!!!
LikeLike
What a great story! Thanks so much, Connie!
LikeLike
I have always read. It started with my mother and grandmother encouraging me as a child to read and I was read to before I could read. I was excited when we got to go to the library when I was in elementary school. The librarian that was there was a lady who could be very strict but she loved readers. She encouraged us and those who were the real readers were her favorites. I was one of those.Our school was so small that she was the librarian for the whole school. She would look for books that I and others might like. We had a new librarian when we got to Jr. High as we had grown enough and integrated so that we had to move some of the people to a new school. I don’t really remember her. I’m afraid she didn’t make an impression on me. When I got to high school The first librarian was our librarian again. If I needed some help with research of just finding books to read she was always willing to help. Even when I was in college and took a class close to home she helped me with the research I needed. She was also the organist for the Baptist church in town. I loved to hear her play. I am a pianist/organist/instrumentalist and her playing had an influence on how I played the organ too. She loved the children and books.
I also went to the library in my hometown and the woman there was very sweet and helpful. The county librarian was helpful too. My high school librarian was the one who made the most impact on me. I now volunteer at my church library and the head librarian there is very sweet and helpful. She has ordered some reference materials for me. I love working in the library. I should have studied library science when I had the chance. Being a music major though took up most of my time. Still I checked out books for pleasure and bought books to read.
LikeLike
Thank you so much for sharing this great librarian story! I will pass it on to the librarians at the conference next week. Blessings!
LikeLike