Library Lovers Day!!

It is library lovers day!!! This is a day to honor libraries, librarians and all things library!

Libraries are an integral part of many of our communities. Librarians are no longer only people that stamp the card on the inside of a book. They are so much more! For example, my library offers the following services:

• Free breakfast (which is offered every day)—not every child where I live gets breakfast.
• Job help (job searching and resume help)
• Knit and crochet club
• Computer application classes
• Reading help
• Math Mondays
• Spanish class
• English class
• Toddler storytime
• Baby storytime
• Playtime
• Jewelry making classes and clubs
• Block parties

As you can see libraries are so much more than a place to get free books. They are lifesavers for many children and families. Thank you, libraries and librarians!

I talked to the Ladies of Horror Fiction Crew about what libraries mean to them.

Emily – Summer reading challenges when I was younger, but right now it’s being able to do curbside pickup and having more access to e-books during pandemic time.

Audra – I LIIIIVED for the summer reading program as a kid! Those were the days–me riding to the library on my bike and loading up with as many books as my little backpack could carry! Right now, I’ve been using Libby to access my library’s audiobooks because listening to stories is how I’m getting through the day. 

Jen – I love having access to books (and movies) for myself and my kids. Overdrive makes it really easy to request audiobooks from my library.

Tracy – I echo the summer reading challenges. I also loved grabbing a book, finding a comfy chair, and losing myself in pages. I love the quiet and the bookish air and the idea that every book has the potential to expand my works beyond my small town Ohio existence.

Besides the free access to books, movies and music the library has served as a safe haven for some of the LOHF. Where they were able to escape some of the drama in their lives.

Cassie – Libraries were an escape for me! My home life was abusive trash, and we moved a lot, so I wasn’t able to really make friend type connections through a lot of my childhood. We were also very, very low income (living in shelters and our car off and on at times), so I couldn’t afford to own a lot of books. The library to me was like this incredible magical land where you could read for FREE and be surrounded by books and nobody was allowed to yell inside! Libraries were an extremely large part of the only “safe spaces” I had, and now as an adult (before COVID), I volunteer at the library coordinating and running the children’s after-school meetings to give other young kids a fun place to go that isn’t home if they need it.

Laurie – As a teen, the library was a peaceful haven. I would walk there after class and find some solitude until it was time to take the city bus back home to whatever new chaos awaited. Now I use the library mainly for audiobooks because I’d never be able to afford my habit and read so many books without access to the library.

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Toni is one of our LOHF Admins. Toni hosts the Ladies of Horror Fiction podcast, manages our guest posts, and oversees community outreach and communications for the LOHF team. You can also find Toni on her blog The Misadventures of a Reader, Twitter as @Toni_The_Reader, and Instagram as @toni_the_reader.