Our Mansion Library

Posted by Haywood Morales

I live in a fairly small town. Our local theater only has two movies at a time, the bowling alley only has 15 lanes and the youth center is only open two times a week. One would think that we would get bored in this type of setting, but everyone I know actually enjoys it. We have a huge park where there are always community activities going on, and other librarians have visited our library to see how they can make their own more like ours. The library is located in an old mansion that was donated specifically to be the town's library. A few times a week, I will set the ADT Security system and my kids and I will walk the half mile to it. The mansion is huge, and the head librarian has let the folks from town have input into how the library should be. There are rooms where families can watch DVD movies together. Young children can gather in a couple of other rooms for daily book readings by parents. Older kids have their own rooms where they can play video games, read books, watch movies, and all sorts of other things. Adults have book clubs, crafting classes and lessons on computers, since our kids know more about modern technology than we do. It's not the traditional library, but it is one that interests our kids and keeps them off the streets.