Library as Education

The Library as Education

            The best education I ever got, as a writer, that is, was by working at the Marysville Public Library, in Marysville, Ohio. Marysville is a city in central Ohio, not very far from Columbus. And its library is home to me now more than ever before, which is saying a lot because I frequented the place as a kid. I was probably there too often for my parents’ liking (they had to drive me, after all), but the library is where the books lived, and that’s where I wanted to be. Not to mention that, at the time, they had much better internet than we did.

            However, these days, I frequent the library because I work there. I should clear something up quickly; I’m not writing this essay to win points with my place of work. I’m writing it because I genuinely care for the library, and it’s had a real impact on my life. Ask the people I’ve come to work with, and they’ll tell you the same thing.

            When I said I was there a lot as a kid, I meant it. See, it was more than just a library, it was a place I could go to be myself. To enjoy the things I liked. And the people who worked there must have known me when I came in. In fact, I once got to job shadow (which is basically bring a kid to work day) there, and it was a pleasure. I still remember it all these years later. Ever since then, which would have been around seventh grade, I felt I was destined to work not only at a library, but this library.

            So, it came to pass one day, when I was between jobs (I had quit my job to go to the East Coast and for a couple weeks and was young enough not to have anything planned when I got back) that I applied to work at the Marysville Public Library.

Well, I didn’t get the job, not on the first try, anyway. But not long after they hired someone else in my place, they found that person just didn’t work out and the job was open again. This time, I landed the gig. At this point, I was working three part time jobs, counting the library. Those were some wild times; I could never have the stamina to do that again.

            Anyway, it was upon my being hired at the library that the world of literature truly began to open up to me.

            When I was in college, I was an English major, and thus read and wrote a lot. But it was a different game then. Not to deride my college education, as it has been valuable to me, but I feel that, in the institution, I simply saw one side of literature. The academic side. It was literary fiction, and it bled into my writing as well. I was always writing stuff that didn’t feel to really fit me.

            But now that I was in the library, I saw the vast collection of books, an unexplored planet of literature. I had, up until this point, formed a very specific idea of reading, and what “literature” was, but in reality, that was just a microcosm of the ecosystem of the written word. There are so many books out there, books you never knew existed. The books I see on a daily basis are but a fraction of what’s really out there.  

            The point is, at the library, all books are, ideally, equal. Literary fiction rubs elbows with popular fiction. The “serious” books stand side by side with the “fun” books. I’m putting those words in quotations because reading is subjective. What some find too serious, some find fun, enjoyable. You never can tell what someone will like.

            And that’s another thing I learned about reading from working at the library: reading is reading. When I was in my early 20s, I was pretty judgmental about what people liked reading, or what they wanted to read. If you didn’t read what I was reading, you were wasting your time. But then, after spending some time being buried up to my neck in books, I came to see there was no shame in what anyone reads. As long as you were reading, and enjoying it, who was I to judge?

            All of these things came to be part of my education as a writer, and they were all very valuable. But above all, when it came to writing, the most valuable thing that the library gave me was simply put: reading.

 I could read without working at the library, that’s true. But, personally speaking, my reading has only increased many times over since I started the job. And, probably more importantly, both the width and the depth of what I’ve read has increased. That is to say, not only have I been reading more, but I’ve also been reading different types of books. Fiction and nonfiction alike are available to me, and I find myself flipping through them with no discrimination. That is not the reading habits of the person I was as a younger reader. If it didn’t have very specific criteria, then I didn’t waste my time on reading it. But, the older I got, the more my horizons broadened. Perhaps this happens naturally, I really don’t know. But when you’re inundated with books every day, coming in and going out, you start to look at things differently. Things start to catch your eye. Fiction becomes appealing because you get to read the back and take it home with you. Nonfiction stops and makes you think, “hey, I wouldn’t mind learning about that.”

            By reading more, you become a better writer, that’s all there is to it. Of course, you have to write, too, you have to write all the time. But reading is just as important. Reading opens up new worlds to you, it introduces you to new ideas, and hey, it doesn’t hurt your vocabulary either. You can study writing, figure out what works and what doesn’t, and what you’d like to try. That sort of thing.

            So, yes, read, read, read if you want to be a writer. My best advice on that is, get a library card. As I said, you don’t have to work in a library in order to enjoy the benefits of one. A library card (which is free) can get you access to pretty much any book you want. And you don’t have to pay for it (well, if you’re responsible you won’t). And while you don’t get to keep the book forever, there’s only so much physical space for books. And if you want to read it again? Well, you just check it out again. It’s a great system.

            Speaking of the physical nature of books, there’s another trick to trade here: digital libraries. Digital books are the fashion these days. While I myself prefer reading a physical book of prose, I love reading comics on my tablet and listening to audio books right on my phone. The advent of the digital reader has been a real game changer. On a long road trip or in the dark of night, I can read on my back lit tablet. And, since fewer and fewer cars and computers can play CDs anymore, listening to an audio book on your phone is very convenient. The audio book is how I listened to Stephen King’s incredible nonfiction work, On Writing. This book is read by King himself, making the whole thing much better.

            There’s two digital library services that I use frequently, so I’ll give them a plug here; Hoopla (which I use for comics and audio books mostly), and Libby (formerly Overdrive, which I use pretty much exclusively for audio books). You can access both of them with a library card and download them on your phone and tablet. Before you go spending money on Audible (which is still good, but I’m giving you a life hack) give it a try.

            What I’m getting at, after that little tangent, is that libraries have moved with the times and made media more accessible, more consumable. Now you can hook your phone up via Bluetooth and play the latest audio books or the classics. You can hold multiple books on one device, as well, instead of lugging around an armful of them. All this is to say, you can read even more. You can read everywhere and anywhere. And reading, as I said, is the key.

            By this point, I feel like I might have made a little light of the element of writing when becoming a writer, but this is an essay on the power that reading has on writing. The actual, physical act of writing is invaluable. It’s the strongest way to build your writing muscles. It’s essential. But, when a writer isn’t writing, you could be reading. That’s not to say you can’t have a life, but if you want to be a writer, well, you won’t have much of one, anyway.

            Just kidding.

            Mostly.

            You’ll also find that the library is a place to go, it’s a destination. People who work at libraries, in my experience, are generally friendly, and many of them who work at Marysville Public Library have become my close personal friends. Not work friends, which is a concept I don’t subscribe much to, but true, honest to goodness friends.

            Then there’s the power of the reference librarian. Sometimes when I’m stuck on a project, or need to talk something through, I go to the reference staff. And even though I work there, I still use them to find books on certain topics when I need help. Hey, sometimes they just do it better.

            So, if you want to be a writer, spend some time at the library. Read all kinds of books, too, you never know where you’ll get motivation. You never know what new author, story, or topic you’ll come to love. As personal testimony to this, I listened to Don Quixote for the first time because a reference librarian recommended I do so (I had wanted to read the book for years but found it too intimidating in size and language). Now, it’s a legitimate obsession of mine. And that’s just one of my many literary loves that has developed through my work at the library.

            A library is more than a place. It’s people, it’s books, it’s a community, and to me, a library is an education.