Librarian Notices: Robin Pack’s Library Story

From that moment forward I became obsessed with adding every living book possible to my collection to share with the children of my community. Sometimes fear and doubt would crowd my thoughts as boxes of books towered around me, but I persevered and books kept coming to me from every possible direction. Shortly after this fire was ignited, I was presented with what I call my confirmation. I heard of a book sale in Knoxville, Tennessee, of thousands of discarded books. Two homeschool moms came upon a large truck full of books thrown out by the Knoxville public school system. The men were about to put the books in the dumpster when the moms jumped out and said, “Please! You can’t do this! We will buy these books.” They rented a U-Haul, took those books to their basements, priced them from .25 to.75 each and hosted a sale. Oh, what treasures I found! My collection more than doubled with that sale as I hauled three packed van loads home. I still have many books bearing the colorful round price stickers as a reminder of God’s provision that day.
https://plumfieldandpaideia.com/robin-pack-of-childrens-legacy-library-in-tennessee/

Librarian Notices: Sandy Hall’s Library Story

Over the years, I went to many book sales and gathered more and more books for our own children and began sharing them with other families in our church on a casual basis. The collection grew to over 6,000 books, all housed in a 1,200 square foot house, no basement, and five children. There were bookcases in every room. 
One day, my husband came home from work and said, “Go look at my car.” “Why, what happened?” I asked, thinking he had had an accident. When I went to look, the car, a little Ford Festiva, was full to the top with books some person had sent home for me. Another time, an elementary school closed near us. The library was to be boxed up and taken to the dump by Two Men and a Truck. Can you imagine? The driver told the other man in the truck, “I don’t feel right about this,” so he drove instead to the local public library and asked the librarian if she wanted the books. “Yes!” she said. She began going through the books, keeping what she wanted, and putting the rest on carts near the front desk, and priced them three for a dollar. I bought hundreds! Over the years, I have seen God provide many times in unusual ways. We had committed to quality reading for our family and to share the books with others, and He provided.
 
https://plumfieldandpaideia.com/librarian-notices-halls-living-library-from-state-to-state-over-five-decades/

Librarian Notices: Kathie Johnson’s Library Story

Back in Berkeley the next year, I was now a single mom and had to work. My son’s childcare provider was devoted to books, and I loaned her many of mine. I continued to buy—now from garage sales, and sometimes used book stores (both readily available in a town of readers). When this woman started a preschool, and later an elementary school, they continued to use my books, and I continued to buy. My books were stored in a neighbor’s garage, which was dark and spidery, so I was the only one who went in.
In 1985, I had been remarried for several years. An uncle died, leaving me a small bequest. I knew just what I wanted to do—create my dream library, with the feel of the basement in Detroit. I had my garage and basement refinished and built-in shelves added. I cleaned all the books and arranged them by topic on the shelves. I included a toy room, with lots of things for kids to play with. The toy theme now changes, with a rotation of seven months. In 1986, the library opened. At first, there were just a few neighborhood kids, but then a mom who had started a play-date group discovered me and soon after, a Jewish home-school group. Soon I had the library open in two-hour time slots four times a week, and it was always busy. 
https://plumfieldandpaideia.com/librarian-notices-kathie-johnsons-library-journey/

Librarian Notices: Michelle Howard’s Library Story

One day, though, as you probably already guessed, when my little house couldn’t hold another book, the phone rang. A friend with a very large home was going on a one-year trip. Would I want to move into their place, and use their front rooms for a library? Somehow, I was just crazy enough to say yes, because it was a good situation all the way around. Twelve days later, my tiny house was up for sale, and we were already moved into their home. I opened the “library” right away, even though it was mostly stacks of books leaning against the walls and in boxes, because the 24 families who quickly paid to be members couldn’t wait to dig in! We all laughed at the adventure! Sorting through 5,000 or 6,000 as-yet-unlabelled books was quite a scavenger hunt!
Right away, though, many came for work-bees, as I began inputting the books into a database, to create labels and perform detailed searches. Together, we stickered the books, laminated the paperbacks, and put mylar covers on the dust jackets. We added to each book a card pocket and labeled the bookcards themselves. We could now “check out” the gems. It was a blast! (Later, I would use barcodes, not bookcards and pockets, but barcodes didn’t exist when we first opened.)
https://plumfieldandpaideia.com/librarian-notices-michelle-howards-library-journey/ 
 
Show notes: https://plumfieldandpaideia.com/show-notes-michelle-howard-new-patron-orientation-meeting/
 

Librarian Notices: Stacie Bean’s Humble Library Story

I also sponsor, through the library, a few activities such as a CM-based Book Discussion group that I’ve been facilitating in our community for more than a decade, as well as a new fun thing, Conversazione Teatimes, which are basically times to come together for an hour and talk about whatever each person in attendance is currently reading, learning, or pursuing in the realm of arts or literature. It is a delightful time with friends, and I’m finding it seems to reach some that otherwise wouldn’t necessarily visit my library, for example—women that never had the opportunity to have children, retired homeschool moms, and some young adults that have moved beyond high school graduation, but have remained local. Feedback has been excellent! One of my goals in hosting this is for us all to practice the lost art of conversation and, at the same time, be encouraged to pursue good and beautiful things. Currently I host this event approximately once every 6 weeks in the hour prior to my evening open hours. You do not have to be a library member to attend these events. 
I continue to gain books by my own purchase and also by kind donations from friends. I have a lot of support and encouragement, but not a lot of physical help, so I simply have to move at my own pace and be content with that. I have days when I feel discouraged and want to give up. But then I remember how important this mission of Book Rescuing is in this throw-away, tech-crazy world; we are helping to preserve a part of history and that is important and meaningful. I also think how sweet it is to share with others these Book Treasures. I am so blessed to help others find what they need for their lessons, as well as to inspire them to learn by, and to develop a love for, books and reading. I enjoy the challenge of finding books to fit certain needs or requests.
https://plumfieldandpaideia.com/stacie-beans-humble-library/

Librarian Notices: Covenant Family Library in West Virginia

I got in touch with Liz and Emily Cottrill (now Emily Kiser) and asked how to get started. They got me connected to the Yahoo group for private lending libraries (now at groups.io), where I became acquainted with Kristi Stansfield, who got me started going to the Booksaver warehouse sales in Hagerstown. I attended the local homeschool conference in 2014 as a vendor: “Hello!  I’m going to have this library in the fall. . . It’s going to be great. . . No, you can’t see it yet.”   
We set up bookcases at one end of our walk-in basement, the end with the door.  Over the years the library space worked its way around until it took up two thirds of the basement. My husband built nice brick steps to get people safely down and around the house, but on snowy days I had people come in the kitchen door and down the basement stairs so they wouldn’t slip and die. Our one bathroom was on the main floor, so anyone who needed it got to traverse the entire house. I had a baby monitor set up for when my kids were napping, but it wasn’t reliable, so I would occasionally come to a growing realization that someone was screaming upstairs.  https://plumfieldandpaideia.com/the-genesis-of-covenant-family-library-elizabeth-jones-librarian/
 

Librarian Notices: Kristi Stansfield’s Librarian Story

I always had the idea of an official lending library in the back of my mind, and I would trot that idea out when people asked me why I bought so many books. Sometimes people would ask me if I was a teacher or a librarian, and I would say “yes” to the first and “Librarian Wannabe” to the other. 
I also have known from the beginning that having people in our home to visit the library would not be an option, so finding and maintaining an online catalog was a #1 priority. Readerware and LibraryThing have been a huge blessing. 

Librarian Notices: Sherry Early’s Library Journey

"I suppose I was born to be a reader and a librarian. After I learned to read in first grade, I was insatiable when it came to books. And the public library, Tom Green County Library in San Angelo, Texas, was my source . . . The Children’s Librarians there, Ms. Karen, and later Ms. Lynn, helped me find the best books and inspired me to want to do the same for others someday."