National Library Week is April 4-10 this year, and the theme is Welcome to Your Library! This year we are celebrating everything that the library has to offer and how we have adapted our services over the past year to expand past the physical library. With our buildings closed for the majority of 2020, the EVPL team has worked hard to bring our services to you at home and online. During a tough year, we have committed ourselves to providing all the library has to offer to everyone and bringing Your Library to you, wherever you may be.
In the past year, we were able to adapt our services to be almost completely online. Our website, evpl.org, was visited over a million times! Our staff created over 300 videos that were shared on our Facebook page, and they were viewed more than 400,000 times. Our digital materials were borrowed around 850,000 times. Everyone at EVPL has worked hard to bring the excitement of the library to you. We hope that, even though we were not able to see each other in person, we were able to keep the library close to you.
I have compiled a list of books that I think capture the imagination and excitement of libraries and library visits. These books, both fictional and nonfictional, celebrate the library as historical agents and institutions. More importantly, these books celebrate the people who make the library come to life: library workers and librarians. These books perfectly capture all of the information, knowledge, history, imagination, and possibility that libraries offer every single day and the lengths librarians will go to to help their patrons.
Place holds on these children’s and adult books by clicking on the titles!
Adult Books
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
“Between life and death there is a library, and within that library, the shelves go on forever. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived. To see how things would be if you had made other choices . . . Would you have done anything different, if you had the chance to undo your regrets?”
The Library Book by Susan Orlean
“In The Library Book, Orlean chronicles the LAPL fire and its aftermath to showcase the larger, crucial role that libraries play in our lives; delves into the evolution of libraries across the country and around the world, from their humble beginnings as a metropolitan charitable initiative to their current status as a cornerstone of national identity; brings each department of the library to vivid life through on-the-ground reporting; studies arson and attempts to burn a copy of a book herself; reflects on her own experiences in libraries; and reexamines the case of Harry Peak, the blond-haired actor long suspected of setting fire to the LAPL more than thirty years ago.”
The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes
“Alice Wright marries handsome American Bennett Van Cleve hoping to escape her stifling life in England. But small-town Kentucky quickly proves equally claustrophobic, especially living alongside her overbearing father-in-law. So when a call goes out for a team of women to deliver books as part of Eleanor Roosevelt’s new traveling library, Alice signs on enthusiastically.”
The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu by Joshua Hammer
“To save precious centuries-old Arabic texts from Al Qaeda, a band of librarians in Timbuktu pulls off a brazen heist worthy of Ocean’s Eleven.”
The Public Library: a Photographic Essay by Robert Dawson
“Over the last eighteen years, photographer Robert Dawson has crisscrossed the country documenting hundreds of these endangered institutions. The Public Library presents a wide selection of Dawson’s photographs— from the majestic reading room at the New York Public Library to Allensworth, California’s one-room Tulare County Free Library built by former slaves.”
Children’s Books
Lola at the Library by Anna McQuinn
“Every Tuesday Lola and her mother visit their local library to return and check out books, attend story readings, and share a special treat.”
Tomas and the Library Lady by Pat Mora
“While helping his family in their work as migrant laborers far from their home, Tomas finds an entire world to explore in the books at the local public library.”
Library Day by Anne Rockwell
“Beloved author Anne Rockwell celebrates books, the love of reading, and of course, libraries, with a gorgeous new picture book about a child’s first visit to the library!”
Miss Moore Thought Otherwise by Jan Pinborough
“Examines the story of how librarian Ann Carroll Moore created the first children’s room at the New York Public Library.”
The Library Book by Tom Chapin
“Using the lyrics to Tom Chapin and Michael Mark’s “The Library Song,” this picture book celebrates the magic of reading and of libraries.”
*Synopses and cover art taken from Goodreads.com
