A word about public libraries

It was down in Margaret River that I was looking for a place to sit quietly to do some work on an article I was in the process of writing. Armed with my laptop and backpack I drove trough town to find a quiet looking coffee place, but I couldn’t find one. The sign pointing the right direction to the library caught my eye. What a great place. Apart from all the books you’d expect in a library, this one also had some large tables along one wall with power points to plug in. The amount of work I did in only two little hours was amazing. I decided to repeat this in Broome –some sweaty smelling back packers spoiling the experience somewhat- and no power sockets, but that didn’t bother me.

Then up near Darwin, I went to the Palmerston Library, another bull’s eye. Lot of space to sit and work with power plugs hidden in the ground underneath little latches. The only thing there was a mother&toddler group singing Wiggles Classics. I am not sure which was worse, the fact that nobody was singing in key, or the fact that I recognised the songs to be Wiggles’ work.

The last library I have been to so far was the one in Tully –Queensland. Not only did I go there one afternoon to catch up on my work, but also did they organise an activity during school holidays: fun with beads. While Jolmer was working we went all in, i.e. I took all of my five children to have fun with beads, which we had.

Before Australia my last experience with libraries was back in my student days. I cleaned the library, which in the Netherlands is always a decent size. I thought the toilets were disgusting to clean, but I needed the money. As a medical student I used the hospitals medical Library to study, and I must have spend my fair share of time there. Further into my past going back to my primary and secondary school years I did grow up with regular visits and we would take out books, music and CD’s, prepare of school work, look things up. Mind you this is even before the time we had the world wide web.

This experience has rekindled my love for public libraries. I think they should be well used, frequently visited and cherished. Wherever we will end up at the very end of our travels, I will make sure to pass this on to my children and take out as many books as they can carry in their life time –also try to return them on time!