Loving the library
By Lori White, vice president of student affairs
When I was a good little girl, my treat wasn’t candy or another hour of my favorite TV show, but a new book. My mother was a wise woman who instilled in me a love for reading by using books as positive reinforcement for good behavior.
I remember running as fast as my little legs would take me to the book rack at the supermarket to choose which book I wanted for my special treat. I don’t think I was old enough to read then, but I began to associate books with good things – the sound of my mother’s voice when she read to me, the sense of fun and adventure depicted in the stories and the lessons learned from the characters in the book.
My mother nurtured my love for books by signing me up for my first library card when I started elementary school. I read everything from mystery novels to encyclopedias. Reading was a way for me to spend time dreaming about becoming a young woman like Nancy Drew, who could solve complicated problems, or to imagine that I would one day visit a part of the world that I had never seen before.
When I was an undergraduate and graduate student my college library was one of my favorite places on campus. I loved looking through the card catalog to identify the books I needed for my research papers and then searching the stacks. Invariably I would find other related books that I would have never found if I had conducted only an online library search.
Today, I do not have the time to visit the library as much as I would like. I frequently use the virtual library available to me on my desktop computer. However, when I visit Fondren Library, I am amazed that our technologically-savvy library manages to keep all of what I have always loved about libraries – the cozy aroma of old books, helpful reference staff, places to browse and study, and volumes filled with stories of discoveries, adventure and imagination.
