Jacksonville Public Library

Family Ancestry

By June C.

I was at a dead end to finding my family ancestry when one Saturday morning, sitting at a local tire station waiting for my car, I picked up the Florida Times Union and found an article by Amanda Durish Cook, titled, “Experts will guide the research of Jacksonville’s archive-worthy abodes,” telling the resources that are available at the Downtown branch of the Jacksonville Public Library on the fourth floor. There are a wealth of resources at my hands for FREE to research – I was thrilled and could not wait to get there to see if I had a new door opened for me and low and behold, there was a whole new chapter of my life story opened up. I found out that my great grandparent had come to the United States from Germany to New York, then to Jacksonville, Florida.

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It’s Always Been The Library

By Katherine M. 

Had someone from the future told me I would one day work in libraries…I would have not been too surprised! As a child, I visited the Fairfield Public Library (CT) children’s department and loved their wooden climb-thru cubbies and the bright tiny furniture almost as much as I loved borrowing a new story book. I tried my best to memorize the words and pictures knowing the book would not be mine for long. What an impression it made, taking my book to the big desk and seeing the ladies stamp with gusto, giving me looks over the counter top that wordlessly conveyed the message: “take care of this book and you can come back for more”. As a tween, I continued to visit the Fairfield Public Library; I walked from Tomlinson Middle School every Friday after school with my best friend to study. Instead of studying, we tried our best to suppress our endless chatter and tweenage “joie de vivre” with our undone homework spread out on a carrel. I used a copy machine for the first time, and shyly asked a librarian to show me how to use the card catalog. I checked out every Stephen King and Danielle Steele book I could find. Twice.

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I Hate Science Projects! But….

By Mike S. 

There’s no use pretending. I HATE science project questions!!!

My main gripe is that some kids fail to get the idea that a science project is about comparing different processes, methods, variables. The research literature you need has to do with what is already known about those variables, not about your particular combination of variables.

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Surviving High School

By Julie M.  My daughter is a senior in high school and she could not have survived without our public library. The online resources have been a life-saver; she’s found current events, multiple sources for obscure art history projects, and she did most of her SAT prep through the library’s database. She’s such a fan … Read more