Did you know that September is Library Card Sign-up Month? Here at Scholastic, it is one of our favorite times of the year! This month is an opportunity to not only celebrate outstanding librarians and the amazing work they do, but also to encourage parents and children across the country to get excited about signing up for a library card and showing it off proudly to the world!
All of us here on the OOM team have wonderful memories of visiting libraries throughout our lives. For us, the local library was and always has been a place of discovery and joy—or even funny/embarrassing/silly moments. In honor of Library Card Sign-up Month, I asked around for OOMers to share their top library memories.
Check out the round-up below, visit the Scholastic Librarians Facebook page and be sure to share join the conversation on social media using the hashtag #LibraryCardSignUp.
Brittany (me!): Growing up, I loved going to the Walnut Creek Library in California to wander the stacks and check out new books—I still have my original library card! Flash forward years later and I had the opportunity to help install artwork in the newly remolded library including Christian Moeller's impressive sculpture made of 3,960 books titled “Portrait in 12 Volumes of Gray,” which, when finished, created a beautiful image in a 2-story tall bookshelf.
Morgan: My hometown library had a separate children’s room, and I vividly remember when I graduated from the children’s section to the teen section, which was out in the “main” library! It was like a whole new world opened up for me. I felt so special!
Julia: I loved my local public library and spent a lot of time there as a kid. My favorite memory was wearing my PJs to “PJ Storytime,” which occurred at the very mature hour of 7 p.m. (And they still do it, all these years later!)
Mike: I was a pretty loud and boisterous kid, so the library was a struggle for me to “keep quiet.” I remember getting shushed all the time by the librarian when I got really excited that my favorite book was in stock. My mother actually got a kick out of it because she was so happy to see her kid get so excited about reading a new book.
Kristen: My library invited kids to lend their collections (i.e. stamps, dolls, postcards, etc.) to them to be put on display in a glass case in the center of the Children’s section. It was a really nice way to get kids into the library and make them feel like they were a part of it! I was already quite the book nerd as a kid, so having my collection of Madame Alexander dolls displayed at the library was such a thrill. It was so much fun to go back to the library every month to see what was on exhibit next!
