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Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Washington-Centerville Library

It's no wonder our library is ranked the best library in the nation, based on area population. I stopped by this afternoon to pick up some casual reading, but didn't have much time. The place is always busy, so I wasn't surprised to have to stand in line. But I was surprised when a librarian asked me if I would like to use the Express Checkout. She showed me how it works--slick as a whistle. Scan your library card, scan each book and scan the card again. The machine prints out a receipt listing your books and the due date. You're done. I love technology.

Still, the library hasn't lost that warm-and-cozy feel it had when I first started taking our kids there more than forty years ago. The library was housed in a small building near the old Centerville High School. It had no parking to speak of. But we visited regularly for years, especially in the summer when the kids participated in the summer reading program. Eventually, the system grew and a new library, called "Woodbourne" (for the area in which it stood), was built just five minutes from our house. We stopped going to the Centerville library. Apparently, they didn't miss us. As the community grew, a huge new library was built just south of town. Most of the libraries' events are held there. The libraries operate as Washington/Centerville Library, Washington being the township area surrounding Centerville.

Libraries have been magic places to me since I was a child. We couldn't afford to buy many books, but a library card was free. Our father took us often until we were old enough to ride the bus and go by ourselves. I made a great many bus trips to the Dayton View Library through the years. Now it seems that the library is one of our Little Artist's favorite places to go. It must be in the DNA.

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1 Comments:

Blogger Joyce said...

I understand your love of libraries. When I was a teenager and desired to devour any books I could get my hands on, but soon grew tired of the small selection in the school library, I ordered books through the mail from a city hundreds of miles away. I could get a large number of books and I can't remember even paying much postage (they may have been postage prepaid because we didn't have money for such things). I loved looking at the long lists of book titles that came with each package and enjoyed deciding on my next set of books to read. I read Quo Vadis and The Robe in this manner.

Libraries are wondrous places!

5:20 PM  

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