The Library Cat and the Bookworm

Most avid readers (except perhaps those who got stuck with e-books) visited a library at some point in their lives. I remember my mom taking me and my siblings to the library in our hometown and what a joy it was to be surrounded by so many books. There was however, after a while, one thing that bothered me – who were the people who sat behind the counter taking in and giving out our books and was that the only thing they did the whole day? Now that I am working in a library myself, it is a bit of an eye-rolling situation when someone casually remarks how little work we have. It is not completely untrue – our work is light for the most part, but there is a lot of work going on behind the scenes and receiving and checking out books to the public is only one small aspect. So, without giving too much detail, I will give you a glimpse of what librarians and library assistants do when they are not sitting at the counter. First of all, taking in and giving out books are not the only things w...

In a world filled with many new and fast evolving technologies, many parents are worried that their children spend too much time on iPads, smartphones, and the latest computers, while it seems that they never read except when told to do so by a teacher. Some of these parents, which includes those who love reading and those who do not read much themselves, ask “How do I get my child to read?” This question is often asked of other readers, or parents of a reader, or to those of us working in a library. It is amusing and interesting to see what kind of people visit the library. It might be surprising that many do not visit the library to read at all. In this sense it is important to remember that the library is not exclusively a place of books, not anymore. For libraries to survive in the 21 st century it is as important for them to move with the technological times as it is for anyone else. Thus, it is better to think of the library as a place of information. In other words, libra...

Social media is such a part of our lives that no one, not even the ones who do not use it, can remember how it was without these apps. The wonderful thing about the 21 st century, this age known as the information age, is that there is an app for everything. No matter what it is, anything from exercising to intermediate fasting to praying and meditating or remembering to drink water, there is an app for it. Social media – those little apps that gives us the ability to chat with anyone, anywhere and at any time – is following the same trend. At least I think it is, because I found social media sites made for readers specifically, and my favourite is Goodreads. There is a lot you can do on Goodreads and I am sure that, like with any other social media app, I am not utilising everything. I will briefly try to describe the most important features (i.e., those I enjoy the most) here in the hope you might also like and use this app. The first and most important feature is that you can s...