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When I was a sophomore in college, one of my roommates approached me one night and said, “I have to go to the library for one of my assignments. Will you go with me?”
The way she asked, you would have thought she was asking me to walk with her through the worst part of town or a haunted house. I asked her what she needed help with, and she said, “It’s just so big and I don’t know where anything is. I’m kind of scared of the library.”
Having grown up making regular trips to the library with my parents, it had never occurred to me to be afraid of the library. In fact, I’d always felt safe and comfortable at the library, like I belonged there.
I couldn’t believe someone could be nearly twenty years old and never been to the library—especially someone who’d made it into a respectable university. So I’ve come to the conclusion that library habits, like good eating habits, must be instilled when a person is very small.
First of all, begin taking your baby (yes, baby) with you to the library as soon as you feel ready to absorb yourself in a book after you come home from the hospital. Your library probably has black-and-white board books meant especially for infants. Check some out and hold them up in front of your baby at home.
When your baby starts crawling, let her crawl around the children’s section of the library. Many libraries put their board books in baskets on the floor so babies can get to them, pull them out of the baskets, and pound on them. Ah, the beginnings of reading.
Nearly all public libraries have story hour, and many have a story hour specifically for babies. You’ll meet other parents of babies in your neighborhood, but more importantly, your child will begin to associate the library with a friendly librarian who claps her hands, sings fun songs, and reads exciting stories.
After story hour, help you child pick out some books to take home. Keep up the story hour routine until your child goes to school. Take advantage of the non-book items your library stocks: videos, music, software, and books on tape.
Almost as important as helping your child feel comfortable at the library is your example. If you drag your child to story time and pick out books for him but he never sees you reading, he might feel like you’re trying to make him eat his spinach while you eat ice cream for dinner. Take advantage of all the library offers for adults as well. You’ll find exercise videos, your favorite music, wonderful novels, cookbooks full of new recipes to try, books on how to start your own business, and more. Your child will be more willing to spend a half hour if he sees you enjoying a book of your own.
Helping your child learn to love the library will give her an educational head start. Don’t let her become a nineteen-year-old who has never willingly stepped foot into a library and doesn’t know where to find anything. If you introduce her to the benefits of the library while she’s young, she’ll go willingly and eagerly for the rest of her life.
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