Library Crush: my (awesome) local library

Library Crush is hosted by Just a YA Girl

(anyone can join in ~ check the link for details)

I LOVE the idea of raving about my local library.

Libraries have been such a HUGE part of my life and I love them to pieces :) My kids love libraries too, and I enrolled them from birth. I have been ever-so-fortunate ot live near awesome libraries ~ while they are not huge in size, they have an incredibly welcome atmosphere.

I have belonged to 5 public libraries before (because I am thinking you are all desperate to know my library history ;):

(feel free to skim right past this info, haha. It is a little self-indulgent :)

Blue Mountains City Library (where I lived until I was 13). My parents took me there all the time. When I was getting older my sister and I would walk to our local branch on a Saturday and bring home bags of books (I read every sweet valley high they had ;) I used to hoon around on the microfiche thingy even though i had no idea what I was doing.

Parkes Shire Library (all my teen years <3, and my kids toddler years ~ my early 20's) Parkes is a country town.

I went to the library a couple of times a week as a teenager. Until I got this job working every school afternoon and Saturday morning and by the time I finished work, the library was closed. It was distressing (to say the least). I had to get my dad to get books out for me (he was sweet, getting all my YA stuff). I also manipulated my little sister into doing my bidding... After a year I found a different job and all was right with the world.

Parkes Shire library was the reason I grew up on Aussie YA. More than half their YA catalogue was Australian and it was rare to read the imported stuff.

I took my kids there as soon as they were born ~ to story time, etc. They also have an awesome kids area with toys, computers, etc. I am still friends with the librarians there (a few are on my facebook list, haha). I was seriously sad to leave Parkes library behind. (I had been involved in helping them get a grant, had taken students there for work, and was a guest presenter during their summer holiday programs ~ running a cartooning workshop). IN a country town library, it feels  little bit like family :D

I found this old pic of my daughter and I at Parkes library in 2007

(taken by my sister ~ who is also a library fanatic)

They have a really great children's area <3

Penrith City Library (moved away from home to go to uni. Although I used my uni (UWS) library way more ~ they had an awesome fiction section)
 ~ back to Parkes after uni ;)


Redcliffe City Library (spent one year in Brisbane)
It was awesome to have access to different books but I was only there for a year and they had self check-out so I didn't really feel like I go to know my librarians well :/

~ back to Parkes after Brissie

Coffs Harbour City Library (current. been here 2 and half years)

So I snuck out yesterday and took some pics of my library. Coffs library has three branches, the main (massive) one being in the centre of Coffs. I *mostly* use the southern smaller branch which is less than 5 mins drive away. The main branch is an 8 min drive (what can I say? i am too lazy to drive that far :)

So there pics are of my personal little branch :)

This is a (very) dark pic of the building from the outside (with my car in the car park)

My main shopping centre is in the same block, so I go here, ahh, a lot ;)

There is a YA section at all three branches. The Coffs branch has twice the selection, though often they are multiple copies of popular titles. You can get them to bring any books you want for collection at any branch.

I am so fortunate they get a lot of new release dvd's, which you can borrow for a couple of weeks for free. My kids love getting out the audio books from here (their faves are all the Paul Jennings ones)

close-up of the (some of the) 'M section' ~ 

(thought you might like a better spy as the bigger picture is hard to make things out on)

if you are familiar with the spines you can spy three of my most ever fave books: 'On The Jellicoe Road', 'Finding Cassie Crazy' and 'Tomorrow, When the War Began'

I chose a close of of M as the 'M section' has long been a fave of mine. In my previous library, I was always checking it out first:

Melina Marchetta, Jaclyn Moriarty, John Marsden, Kirsten Murphy, Maureen McCarthy, James Moloney, David Metzenthen, Juliet Marillier, Kirsty Murray, 

(Now I could add Shirley Marr and Lara Morgan)

These are ALL Aussie authors  used to get out as a teen/young adult)

Now ~ I use my library all the time.Every week ~ sometimes I drop in 2 or 3 times. 

We have 5 cards between our family and they are always all reserved out to the max.

The cards are like GOLD ~ extremely valuable

I know other patrons would LOVE to have 5 cards at their disposal.  

I subscribe to their newsletters and go to any interesting events

(they have a lot of special functions, author visits, etc)

and awesome school holiday events for the kids

I have created a whole heap of 'alerts' so when they add new titles to their catalogue, I get emails letting me know they are on order (a lot of my alerts are for certain authors I follow). One of my alerts is for anything new to the YA section. So last night, for example, I had an email with links to 41 new YA titles they have just added. Those emails are some of my fave emails ;) Alerts are seriously awesome (I also get alerted to all new dvd's that come in, etc, which I can automatically reserve)

Here's some pictures of my daughter Carissa a couple of years ago at the Coffs library ~ a special Questacon event for preschoolers

Aww, she was so little then ... 

(she was 4 here and is 6 now)

I am SO pleased my kids love going to the library as much as I did when I was a kid. 

My boys now use the online catalogue to reserve stuff they want (so cute)

And, I'll finish there :)

Not sure how interesting all this was, haha. But I feel like I could talk all day about my library life, past and present.

Do you use your local library?

Wish you had one?

Have any fave library memories?

Thanks so much to Trish for being the genius behind this idea and for hosting it :)