(PCM+) Let’s Celebrate: It’s Library Lovers’ Month!

The following article appeared in the print issue of Ponca City Monthly magazine, which includes hyperlocal stories about Ponca City. Get full access to all online articles, videos, and content by becoming a paid subscriber. We offer free and paid subscription plans. Find rack locations to pick up your free print copy here, or subscribe here to get online access plus exclusive content.

“The only thing that you absolutely have to know is the location of the library.”

~Albert Einstein

Ponca City’s Library is a gold mine, and I do not feel that is an exaggeration. In general, most people all over the United States and much of the world value libraries for their many services, their atmosphere and for being one of the few places people can go, spend time and not be expected to buy anything to be there.

Neil Gaiman, author of such spectacularly famous works as American Gods, The Sandman and Coraline, remembers spending his summers at the library and wishing he could be there instead of school the rest of the year. Libraries are safe havens in many ways for many people. In an interview with the American Library Association about his writing and the influence of the library, he tells about being 7 years old and going through the kids’ card catalog (yes, some of us remember those wonderful wooden boxes of information) and looking for words such as witches, ghosts, magic and so on, and then finally just reading through it and all the books alphabetically—hours reading at that young age. Once he’d finished reading the children’s library at 10 or 11 “and loved it,” he moved on to the adult card catalog. He said he didn’t enjoy some of those books, so he chose more carefully. He would talk to the librarians about books, and often they would order more of an author he’d enjoyed. At 9 years old, he felt he and the librarian were “working together.” He understands the value and lessons in good books and that has had a tremendous impact on how and what he writes. Of reading The Wind in the Willows, he said he knew, “I’m reading an important book. I’m reading something that I’m learning from.”