Value of our University City Library

Just last week I payed a visit to our University City Library.  I did this for 2 reasons:  part of my sister's doll collection is currently on display and a friend was extolling the value of downloading books "free" at the public libraries.

Growing up, I was the oldest of six kids raised in rural Missouri.  As I recall we had three books: The Bible, The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew and a condensed version of Little Women.  We went to a country school which consisted of 3 rooms for all eight grades and had an outdoor bathroom.  I am talking about the fifties here - not the late 1800's.  The school library consisted of some of the books in The Hardy Boy and Nancy Drew series.

However, during the summer, we had the book mobile.  It came once a week.  We had a limit of 5 books each. We were all very careful in our choices because after we read our picks for the week, we read everyone else's picks.  Since there was a 12 year age span, we all tried to have a say in our baby brother's check outs, believe me.  When we came home my mom would spread a blanket under the walnut tree, make us some Kool-Aid and not hear a peep from any of us for hours.  By the time the week was up, each one of us had read 30 books (except my baby brother, but he probably read 15).

So one can see how a community library is important to me.  The sad part is that I haven't been using it for the last ten years.  Now with the economy as it is, I am tightening my belt and the idea of downloading books from the library rather than Amazon is very appealing and... no late fees.  It just disappears when your time is up as I understand it.  (Android availability coming soon.)  I haven't been able to try it yet because I have an Android.

Thanks to my sister Kathy's doll collection and my friend Carole's downloading suggestion, I have a new library card and am headed back to our wonderful .  

For information about the University City Public Library go to http://www.ucpl.lib.mo.us/.