By Linda H., November 2007

Why do I come to the library? I always thought of the library as my friend — right up there with my love of dogs, which may sound funny at first, but there’s a link. I remember when I got my first library card. I was about six years old and had an eye for months on the animal section of the children’s department in the library in downtown Champaign. I was so proud to at last be able to check out for myself, books on collies and poodles. To me, the library is a dear old friend, like a loyal pet. It has always been a safe harbor, a world where dreams meet reality and where it is no inappropriate to frequent alone, just as it is not inappropriate to seek out the comfort of man’s other best friend — one’s dog — for hours at a time. I always have drawn great inspiration from the solitude and comfort that words provide. The library fulfills that need.

I have grown with the library and the library has grown with me. Throughout my life it has supported my personal interests, my academic career, my recovery from setbacks and illness and my needs for entertainment and the enrichment of my creativity. It has done so through the encouragement, knowledge, expertise and real personableness of its staff of librarians and wide variety of materials. After working as a library assistant myself at one of the U of I’s departmental libraries, I know firsthand how much patience, attention to detail; courtesy and resourcefulness are beneficial and necessary to the job. When I come to the library I know the assistants will give me the time I need to absorb new information, provide me with avenues of research I had not even thought of, even put my book requests on their lift to be materials acquired — all done with courtesy, respect and thoroughness.

Visiting the library has always enriched my life and helped me feel connected to my community, whether its from volunteering my time to tutor adults with learning disabilities to attending an informative and colorful tour of Scotland through travel slides and discussion, to the ever-helpful and exciting privilege of using the computer stations. As a person with a mental disability myself, I know first-hand how important it is to have this link with the world. I attended a workshop on using the LINC system and that was a springboard to helping me navigate the Internet and use a personal computer, which both were new to me as recently as four years ago. This vital link of the computer system was, to me, one of the most important supports I had in pursuing my college degree. I have been very fortunate to be able to use these PCs in attaining my Associates degree in 2005 and now my second Associate‘s degree. The added knowledge so helpfully presented by the librarians has been fundamental in helping me achieve my personal goals. Getting online is fun, not just a tedious effort, and I learned most of the tools I use at the library.

What does the library have to do with dogs, you may wonder? What I know is, throughout the years, through good times and bad, in good health and not-so-good health, in school and out of school, the library has been there like a constant, steady friend. Its doors are open to all, teaching people and bringing people together in an atmosphere of learning and inspiration. And just as though I have a disability didn’t mean I could not achieve a college degree, living in the age of cyberspace and readily available information on the Internet doesn’t mean we should use the library less or read less.

While my poodle may not teach me the essentials of PC operation, she is a dependable, constant refuge from the world and center of family and friends’ circles all at once, just as the library has been.
To me, this is like the library, in my life.