Today, the high school dropout rate has reached epidemic levels. There are nearly 40 million Americans without a high school diploma—and those adults looking to return to high school have limited options. The startling figures below from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2012 American Community Survey, uncover just how many adults in each state has less … Read more
By Kim C. My daughter is turning thirteen today (shiver appropriately), and she has grown up with our local libraries and librarians. We started out in toddler time, she has been a princess, she has pet a snake, she has even read a few books. She started out with cut and glue crafts and advanced … Read more
By Angie T. In 2014, for the first time, my library organized celebratory events for National Library Week. We invited students, faculty, and staff to submit speech bubbles with stories of how libraries had changed their lives. We received responses such as: “Thanks to our library, I have been able to keep up on my … Read more
By Paula I. I have a reluctant reader who obligatorily visits the school library once a week. Rather than read, he would rather cause a commotion, get others in trouble or just sits and watches the fish. I spent months trying to get him to check out a book, any book. I bought comic books, … Read more
By Deb C. The library has always been an important part of my life. My first memories of the library where I grew up was walking to the little “store front” library branch around the corner and spending hours pouring over the nature books. I loved the smell of the old card catalogs! When I … Read more
“Oh you’re a librarian? I thought about doing that. What do you make?”
What do I MAKE?
By Judy S. I grew up in a very small town in Pennsylvania and our library was, of course, very small. My mother worked for the local doctor, but she also cleaned houses to make extra money. She also cleaned our town’s library on the weekend when it was closed. I can remember going with … Read more
By Cheryl M. When I was little, my mother would take me and my brothers and sisters to the library every Saturday to get 5 books. From the time I was 5 years old and allowed to get a library card, that was the highlight of my week. I loved it so much that I would … Read more
By Ambar A. My first impression of an actual library outside of school was when I was 12. My best friend sparked an interest in books with me when she gave me one about dogs as a birthday gift. She convinced me to start “hanging out” at the library instead of the mall by telling me … Read more
By Chris J.
My first experience with a library was the bookmobile that would come around in the summer when I was a child in Cincinnati, Ohio. Seeing it come down the street was more exciting than the ice cream truck! We would be so excited to pick out a few books to read until the bookmobile would return! The librarian was always helpful in suggesting something she thought we would like too.