I didn’t grow up going to a public library, but we weren’t a reading family anyway so I didn’t know what I was missing. Then when I was nine my dad married a librarian and my life changed.
Over the next year I became a voracious reader thanks to bedtime stories with my new step-mom. Although I was now a reader, I still wasn’t a great student and lived with the labels I’d been given when the slow reading group was my whole academic identity. I was soon banned from the school library for talking too much and had mediocre grades. Fortunately, my own personal librarian kept me well supplied with books. I was reading, and that has made all the difference.
Nothing in my early years could have predicted that my first career would be in library sales, taking library software and books to hundreds of libraries all over California. It was my first real taste of the public library world and it wasn’t at all what I expected. The libraries I visited were literary snowflakes, each one unique and different. For a decade I visited library after library, immersed myself in children’s literature and met thousands of public librarians. But the most fun was being able to call on the junior high librarian who had banned me all those years ago. She was probably sure I had not come to a good end.
During the decade I spent in sales, I watched as families visited these libraries. Children held their parents’ hands as they walked in until they couldn’t contain themselves and scampered ahead into the magic of a well-stocked library. Everything was free, and parents were relaxed. No one was going to ask them to pull out their wallets or upsell them on services. Kids felt this freedom too, and gobbled up as many books as their arms could carry. I watched and wondered how my early school years could have been different if I had been a library kid.
Now, as a library director, I see scenes like this re-enacted every day. Families walk into a bright, modern, comfortable library and you can see them relax. The kids roam and explore, parents chat, and the future seems brighter than it did at the mall. And of course, it’s not just young families.
Teens head to Teen HQ after school and college students arrive with iced coffees in hand for study groups. Remote workers head to comfy workspaces farther from the fridge and the laundry. The artistic, creative and curious head for the studio maker space. Caseworkers meet with clients, tutors meet with students, and local groups gather for meetings. Work gets done, meetings are held, connections are made, new authors and hobbies are discovered.
When you walk into the Greenwood Public Library today, you will see beautiful, newly renovated spaces that will feel like home, because they were made for you. You will be greeted by our team, who are glad to see you and are ready to show you around. The goal of our two-year construction project has been to meet your needs and provide a little margin to your life.
Our business hub area provides cozy workspaces and the opportunity to connect with others. The GPL Living Room provides a private space for family appointments. Our large meeting rooms are better appointed for your meetings and our small meeting rooms have increased from six to eleven so you are sure to find quiet spaces when you need them.
Johnson County has multiple libraries for you to enjoy – each their own unique literary snowflake. It is sometimes confusing to people that the Greenwood Public Library doesn’t serve all of Greenwood, and the Johnson County Public library doesn’t serve all of Johnson County. But the good news is that if you live in our county, you have an amazing library to go to. All the libraries in the county collaborate by offering reciprocal use of all libraries, because libraries are awesome like that.
After the holidays you may be ready for some margin in your life and need a space that gives back to you instead of serving you based on what you can afford. If you’re like me and didn’t grow up doing the library thing, I encourage you to come visit. Public libraries are friendly, welcoming, places to read, make, create and connect. And did I mention that they’re free?
Cheryl Dobbs is the Executive Director at Greenwood Public Library. GPL staff members share in writing this twice-monthly column for the Daily Journal. Send comments to [email protected].
