Public Libraries. The forerunner of the Internet. For most of my childhood, life was spent at the public library. From the time I could get a public library card to even today where I attend nutrition classes and have electronic benefits through a regional collaborative, it is where I was able to learn, grow and have opportunities to network as a child that I would not otherwise have.

I remember the joy and excitement that I had in the early 1990s as I turned the eligible age to get a library card. I remember that I did not want to fill out the registration card and the library clerk said very sternly to me that I would not be able to check out materials without filling it out. At the age of six or seven in very sloppy handwriting, I filled out that card with all my might. From time to time when I would have to renew that card before everything would be digitized in recent years, my mother and I would get a laugh out of the “scribbling” on that card.

I contained my reading within the children’s room reading books that I never had the opportunity to get in the past with the occasional grown-up book as time allowed. It would not be until I got older that I was allowed to go into the stacks unless I was escorted with my mother. It would not be until I was in high school that the library would be equipped with computers. I would occasionally browse on them from time to time, however having a computer at home, I did not see a need to have them.

In the summers of my elementary school years, I would go to the summer reading programs that were oftentimes held in the library basement where we would learn things based on the theme and work at reading books throughout the summer. In the school years, we would utilize the school’s libraries, something that has been phased out in my local school district in the manner of books in favor of media creation. Nonetheless, the public library was where I often was in the summer.

As I grew up, my favor with the availability of the Internet, my feelings for the library dissipated and there was less of a desire to go. In the early years of my independent living, I would like to get on the microfilm of our local newspaper, but that has since changed, however there may be the potential that I would go back someday and do something more constructive. I do go for the nutrition classes when they have them and they have the electronic offerings as well, they are an impeccable resource that has often fallen by the wayside, and I know that is where I got my start of knowledge when there were no other options available. As they say, knowledge is power and indeed I know that I need to get out of the house more, in 2025.