How we use (and love!) our Library

As a librarian who has worked at Lawrence Headquarters since 1991, I have naturally been the one to market the Library’s materials to my family as we have grown and matured throughout the years.  I bring home items for browsing and recreational reading, as well as titles and subjects specifically requested. We have always made family visits to the Library, too.

We are a family of four which includes two teenagers, aged 17 and 18. When they were little, the kids came in for browsing, for summer reading log registration, for story-times and to attend Friends of the Lawrence Library sponsored programs and entertainment.







 


The materials we enjoy today span the Library’s various fiction and nonfiction collections - young adult, adult,  juvenile and picture books as well as audiobooks, movies and music.  We take advantage of holdings at Lawrence Headquarters as well as those we request from the entire Library System.   Though our household contains laptops, Internet, smart phones, digital devices and online subscriptions, the Library’s print collections are still as relevant to us as ever.  And the Library’s expanded digital resources enhance this usage for “at-any-hour” homework needs, test preparation, college planning, eBooks and other general interest information.

We are constant consumers of new and used books and media, too, and we each enjoy buying them.  A fun family outing for us might easily include a trip to the local record exchange or book store.  Family purchases this year have included gift books, magazines, cookbooks, college texts, fiction, movies, video games, digital music and vintage music on vinyl & CD.


For items we do not wish to own or which may be too costly, our Library System continues to be an essential, well-used, free, convenient resource for our entire family. It provides us with materials for finding
answers when we are curious, for solving problems, for family projects and for meeting school deadlines.

We can borrow books to keep us company on sleepless nights, for travel and vacations, quiet evenings, lazy weekend afternoons, beach days and waiting rooms. We can stock up for long car trips, winter snow days and power outages. We can laugh or be scared together watching a Library movie or share popular music from another generation.  In my work helping the public with readers’ advisory and in selecting materials for library programming, I often tap into personal recommendations my family enjoyed or that we read aloud together years ago.

This is a partial list of today’s Library resources we have borrowed and enjoyed this past year for fun and for learning.  It is a mishmash of topics and items that reflect each member of the family’s tastes.









 


The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. Young adult fiction, 1980.
Stay Where You Are & Then Leave by John Boyne. Juvenile fiction, 2014
American Horror Story by Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, Inc. DVD, 2012.
Cooking from the Heart: My Favorite Lessons Learned along the Way by John Besh. Adult nonfiction, 2013.
The Bassist’s Bible: How to Play Every Bass Style from Afro-Cuban to Zydeco by Tim Boomer. Adult nonfiction, 2013.

Occupational Outlook Handbook by Bulletin of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics.  Adult nonfiction, 2012.  
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess.  Adult fiction, 1962.
Bucks County Pennsylvania by Kathryn Finegan Clark. Adult nonfiction, 2012. 
Rats by Anna Claybourne.  Juvenile nonfiction, 2013. 
Inside HBO's Game of Thrones by Bryan Cogman. Adult nonfiction, 2012.

Book play: Creative Adventures in Handmade Books by Margaret Couch Cogswell. Adult nonfiction, 2013.
Random Access Memories by Daft Punk (Musical Group).  Compact disc, 2013. 
The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Food from my Frontier by Ree Drummond.  Adult nonfiction, 2012. 
College Majors Handbook with Real Career Paths and Payoffs by Neeta Fogg. Adult nonfiction, 2012.

Frommer’s Maryland and Delaware. Adult nonfiction, 2012. 
Ice Whale by Jean Craighead George. Juvenile fiction, 2014.
Expressing the Inner Wild: Tattoos, Piercings, Jewelry, and Other Body Art by Stephen G. Gorden.  Young adult nonfiction, 2014. 
Happy Home: Everyday Magic for a Colorful Life by Charlotte Hedeman Gueniau. Adult nonfiction, 2013. 
Decorating with Color by Tricia Guild. Adult nonfiction, 2013. 
The Wrecking Crew by Kent Hartman. Adult nonfiction, 2012.

Doctor Sleep by Stephen King.  Adult fiction, 2013. 
Walking Dead Survivors’ Guide by Daniel Robert Kirkman. Adult nonfiction, 2011. 
Rock 'n' Roll Billboards of the Sunset Strip by Robert Landau. Adult nonfiction, 2012

Black Ice (Sherlock Holmes: the Legend Begins) by Andrew Lane. Young Adult fiction, 2013. 
Lawrence Township Revisited by the Lawrence Historical Society.  Adult nonfiction, 2012. 
50 Years of James Bond. Life books.   Adult nonfiction, 2012. 
Christmas in Germany by Jack Manning. Juvenile nonfiction, 2014. 
A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin.  Adult fiction, 2005.

Legends, Icons & Rebels: Music that changed the World by Robbie Robertson. Juvenile nonfiction, 2013.
Paris by Edward Rutherfurd.  Adult fiction, 2013.  
Disney Trivia from the Vault: Secrets Revealed and Questions Answered by Dave Smith. Juvenile nonfiction, 2012.  
DC Comics : the Ultimate Character Guide by Brandon T. Snider. Young adult nonfiction, 2011.
Octopus’s Garden by Ringo Starr.  Picture book, 2014.

The Read-aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease. Adult nonfiction, 2013. 
The Man who Invented the Electric Guitar: the Genius of Les Paul by Edwin Brit Wyckoff.  Juvenile nonfiction, 2014. 
The Great Jazz Guitarists by Peter Yanow. Adult nonfiction, 2013. 
What does the Fox Say? by Ylvis (Musical group)  Picture book, 2013.


- Laura G, Lawrence Headquarters

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