#MyLibraryMyStory Author Guest Post: How Do You Library?

How to Library

by Amy Rebecca Tan, author of A Kind of Paradise

My debut novel, A Kind of Paradise, comes straight from my library-loving heart.

I began working in a public library six years ago and knew within minutes of my first day that I had found my home. Thirteen-year-old Jamie Bunn learns the same thing after spending her summer volunteering at her local library. Jamie experiences the library as a vital community center that welcomes everyone and strives to meet a diversity of needs. Haven’t been to a library in a while? Visit today.

Here’s how:

• First, pack a lunch. You’ll be there for longer than you think.
• Bring an empty bag. The library is like Target – no one leaves empty-handed.
• When you step through the front door, feel the thrum of activity pulsing around you.
• Hear the sound of pages turning, keyboards clicking, minds growing.
• Take a quick stroll to learn the layout.
• Scan the wall of periodicals, the spread of newspapers, the bulletin board crowded with local announcements.
• Nod at the patrons in the reading room who make eye contact with you.
• Smile at the patron asleep in the chair by the window.
• Explore the stacks.
• Run your fingers across the spines of Fiction titles.
• Pull out a random biography and flip through the photos inside.
• Stare at a wall of travel books and imagine going somewhere. Anywhere.
• Feel embraced by the millions of pages around you.
• Notice the man selecting a stack of DVDs. As he approaches the circulation desk, hear the librarian address him by his first name.
• Play with the e-book kiosk and decide it’s the coolest thing ever.
• Go to the children’s room and slide an old favorite off the shelf. It’s Curious George or Make Way For Ducklings or The Lorax.
• Spend the next ten minutes discussing favorite picture books with the children’s librarian, who you just met but welcomes you like an old friend anyway.
• Scout out the Teen Room. Study the book covers that show teenagers scowling, laughing, hoping, dreaming. Find the one you read a dozen times when you were a kid. Face it out on the shelf. Imagine a teenager taking it home, a gift from one stranger to another. Feel connected by story.
• Introduce yourself at the circulation desk and ask for a computer guest pass.
• Log on to the library’s website and sip the beverage you brought (in a lidded container). There is a lot to read under the Events tab and you need to stay hydrated.
• Read about a bubble-themed story time for toddlers, a bath bomb making activity for tweens, an origami program for adults.
• Learn about weekly Dungeons & Dragons meetings, an upcoming Orchestra in the Library performance, a new Cupcake Wars competition for ages 8 – 108.
• Register for the Intro to Social Media class, or for the Black & White Film series, or for help with your income taxes.
• Learn that the library’s MakerSpace is open every Sunday for drop-ins. Watch a 3-D printer in action. Make slime. Learn how to code.
• Ask yourself, “This is all free? How is all of this free?”
• Realize you are hungry.
• Go outside and sit on a bench or a patch of green. Eat your peanut butter sandwich, or your hummus on pita, or your banana and pretzels.
• Wonder who invented peanut butter, or how hummus is made, or if it’s possible to grow bananas where you live.
• Decide to find out.
• Go back into the library and grab a book on the history of peanut butter. Or Mediterranean cooking. Or local gardening.
• Or go to the reference desk. Ask the knowledgeable librarian waiting for your questions, eager to help you.
• Realize hours have gone by. You don’t want to leave but you have to pick up the kids, or go to an appointment, or get back to your job.
• You’ll need that bag now.
• If you have a library card for this branch, that bag is already full of books and movies and magazines to check out.
• If you don’t have a library card, locate the sale cart: hardcover best sellers - $2, popular paperbacks - $1, magazines – free!
• Know you will come back again. And again after that.
• You have found a magical haven.
• You have found the library.
• You are home.

Amy Rebecca Tan works in a public library and an independent bookstore. She has a masters degree in special education and has taught in the NYC school system. Amy lives in New Jersey with her husband, two children, and dog. Her debut novel, A Kind of Paradise, is an unforgettable story about the power of community, the power of the library, and the power of forgiveness. It goes on sale 4/30/19.