In our library they have a monthly BARK reading time for young children. I walked in one evening and was delighted and amused to see all the therapy dogs sitting politely next to a child reading a book to it. The owners were close by and ready to reward the good listener with a treat !

More info :

Founded in 2007, BARK is an all-volunteer program that encourages children to increase their reading skills and self-confidence by reading aloud to certified therapy dogs. Students find it intimidating to read in front of classmates, but love to read to the non-judgmental, calming dogs. BARK now has 170 teams listening to kids in more than 100 schools and libraries in California.

BARK teams also visit nursing homes, senior living facilities, veterans centers, and even de-stress college students during finals week.

I haven't seen therapy dogs in a library but we do have them in other areas such as the Police Court to reassure victims of crime.

Library Stories...oh. so many! Library work was one of the paths I travelled, starting as a junior in a subscription library in the UK. There was a theatre in the town that ran pre-London shows so quite a few well-known actors used the library. I nearly always missed seeing them!

When one actor did come in and spoke to me addressing me as "Darling" the senior librarian hovered nearby with a face like a lemon! I could see she was intending to crush any idea I had of feeling above myself, so I just shrugged and murmured "Actors!" when he left, defusing the situation.

I left that library to go into the Civil Service and it was another twenty years and several other paths later before I worked in a library again.

There are more tales I could tell, even what the Police thought was a murder attempt in one!

Most of my life I worked in libraries and historical societies. I agree that shelving books can be heavy duty physical exercise, especially the squatting down and shelving heavy tomes. My most interesting experience was working in an historical library, where the books could be huge or tiny, often very ancient. e.g. some on parchment from the Middle Ages (Incunabula). I also had to translate works from Old French (16th century) to Modern English -- quite a challenge.

I've just popped into our local library to pick up a book I had ordered and found I had left my library card on the kitchen table. A sign of old age perhaps?

The assistant told me, as I had ordered the book, she would stamp it for me but any other time I came in without my card I would not be allowed to take a book out!

I expressed some surprise as she knows who I am and I confirmed my name and address so she could 'double check'; she is able to process transactions manually. Apparently this is to safeguard 'Data Protection' although what the evil Powers-that-Be could find out about either me or my relationship with the library system is difficult to understand.

Of course had I known in advance the trouble I would cause I could have just walked into the building picked up a book/s and walked out as both librarians were in a back-office discussing how easy it would be to write a book and earn huge sums of money if only they could figure out whether one started with the beginning or end of a 'plot', a list of characters or just a title . . . and wait for inspiration to flow.

Annpan - I WAS wondering about that murder. I can't believe I didn't ask.

Vee - Your library seems both overly strict and overly lax - a good premise for sitcom, I'd say.

When we moved to the country town where we still live over thirty years later, our daughter was about 14 months old. One of the first places we visited after the moving van left was the tiny one room library which was staffed solely by one librarian, a retired lady who loved children and was desperate for grandchildren of her own.

Esme was our first friend in that town. She doted on our daughter and would look after her at the library desk, letting DD play with the stamp and whatever. One of DD’s first sentences, when we said we were going to the library, was “Ess-mee! Libee!” And she loved reading too. (When she got a little older she would “read” books to our cat. Her favourite book was “Chicken Licken” and we must have eventually borrowed every version in the state library system.)

Esme came with us to a science fiction convention, having always had a hankering to but being too shy.

We were devastated when she suddenly, out of the blue, passed away from a heart attack, tragically just a few days before her much anticipated first grandchild was born.

Colleen, what a sweet story! I'm so sorry Esme never knew her grandchild, but at least she knew he/she was on the way,

Donna

I worked at a library for several years and I loved it. I was the children's librarian's assistant and worked mainly in the children's section. One of my favorite anecdotes came from early on in my days there. A little boy (about 3-4 years old) came up to the desk to check out his books and in a surprisingly deep and gravelly sounding voice said " Hi library lady". It was so cute!

While I have worked in various libraries, my favorite story comes from another librarian in a system in Pennsylvania. She reported that a funding measure came up for vote in her area, where nearby communities were invited to join and help finance the library. One community dug in its heels.

The spokesperson commented "We don't need no liberry."

Rose, that reminds me of a New Year's Eve event my DH & I attended once. It was the Shriners or Elks club or some such organization. Anyway, the group spokesman got up to make a speech to thank everyone for coming, since the proceeds were going to organizations working to end child abuse. This man had had a few too many and kept going on and on about how his organization supported child abuse. DH & I still laugh about that!

Donna