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SAN JUAN ISLAND LIBRARY |
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Email this page to a friend Related pagesSan Juan Island Library Web site Previous columnsHow Does That Book End Up On the Shelf? part II How Does That Book End Up On the Shelf? Invasion of the Bibliomaniacs! Libraries not as free elsewhere Celebrate the Freedom to Read! Join the Parade of Favorite Books Immerse yourself in the Ya-Ya Sisterhood Dewey will always be in the library Library will be open on Sundays year round Libraries have role in emergencies Library staff is at your service Help Illahee celebrate 75th birthday |
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Hard to let go of peace and quiet
My column is very late this week, but I have a good excuse: the power outage on Sunday. I usually write my column on Sunday afternoon or evening, and obviously I was unable to do so this week. I say "obviously," though people who prefer to write longhand with a pen on paper would disagree. I am one who thinks better with my hands on a keyboard. My theory is that it has something to do with using both hands to type, thereby working with both sides of my brain at once. My good excuse, however, did expire on Sunday night. Why, you ask, did it take until Tuesday morning for me to take care of this? The simple answer is that the 6 hours spent without electricity - 3 ½ of them at the library, and yes, we did stay open - got me out of the electronic mode of web-based work and sound and fury, and into the silent world of books. It was wonderful to be in the library, dark and shadowy and silent, without the hum of all the machines. People who came in actually whispered! I know now that people, both staff and patrons, no longer whisper in libraries not because they are less respectful, but because they have to talk louder to be heard above the incessant electronic background. Sunday in the library was a perfect time for those patrons who took a book or magazine to the comfy chairs in the back (by the windows, incidentally) and read for a few hours. I got to dust off my memory of the Dewey Decimal System to help people find books on particular subjects. In spite of the dark, we had 72 patrons in the library that day. After the library closed, I went home, made a fire, ate cheese and crackers, and read a good book by candlelight. In a way, I was disappointed when the lights came on again, and it's taken me this long to fully reenter my electronic life - doing three things at once and not really focusing on any of them. I may have to just turn the lights off voluntarily from time to time.
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