'lI-"brer-E
British usually and US sometimes -br&r-E; US sometimes -brE, ÷-"ber-E
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural -brar·ies
Etymology: Middle English, from Medieval Latin librarium, from Latin, neuter of librarius of books, from libr, liber inner bark, rind, book

Collection of information resources in print or in other forms that is organized and made accessible for reading or study. The word derives from the Latin liber (“book”). The origin of libraries lies in the keeping of written records, a practice that dates at least to the 3rd millennium BC in Babylonia. The first libraries as repositories of books were those of the Greek temples and those established in conjunction with the Greek schools of philosophy in the 4th century BC.

Today I picked up my library card for the Seattle Public Library System. The little branch I stopped at didn't have any of the books I wanted but promised them in a day or two.

I love the library - though my love affair has waxed and waned throughout my life. As a kid, our mother use to take us to the library each week to check out our 10 book limit (or how many ever we were allowed). Reading was something we did and was very valued. There were series that I read; reading contests that I entered (and won a couple of them); a many great hours spent at the library (yes, yes, yes, say what you want - but libraries are hip in my mind.)

Unfortunately in high school I over dosed on the library. I stayed hours every day to work on some ridiculous project for high school English class and couldn't stand to be in there after the project was done. I got headaches if I spent more than 20 minutes in the library. I think I went into the belly of my college library less than a dozen times. (Though I spent more time the art school library).

Peace Corps changed all of that. If you were to ask me what was the one thing I missed the most in the Peace Corps, I would have said libraries. And I don't think it was necessarily the books, the building, the magazines, the stereotypical old-maid librarian that I missed - it was the access to information and knowledge and the power that came with knowing all of that. There were wars waging; constitutional issues being fought; histories of countries being shaped and I didn't have a library (yet alone the internet) to research; to better understand what was going on. It was piece meal history at best, speculation and rumors at worst.

So now I have a library card. I'm pretty happy.

I got a Washington drivers license last week - I have a completely different opinion on that. (see yesterday's entry on that)