The library

At long last the eagerly awaited new County-City library is open and everyone is cheering. The old library is closed — the one older residents remember fondly as the “new library” of some five decades ago and the struggle to get that one built.

We’re all avid readers at our house so everywhere we have moved over the past decades, we immediately hunted down the library — Weaverville, Redding, Hoopa, Central Valley, Sebastopol, Enterprise, Douglas county, Oregon (plus their bookmobile), and Anderson.

My first experience with the Redding library was in 1941-42, in the old brick Carnegie Library on Yuba Street. That old historic building standing where Library Park is today was demolished (What a shame!). Inside the building it was old, dingy and crowded with books.

I found a marvelous old book by a pioneer woman who told of keeping a pot of water boiling on the fire to repel any marauders, two-legged or four legged. Throwing boiling water would deter wolves, bear, bison, outlaws or Indians to protect her family while the husband was away. It was a wonderful story of the life in the wilderness and prairie — a historical time, which is long gone. I imagine that book is gone, too.

In 1960 Esther Marden was the librarian in the old Carnegie building.

She was the guiding light for the construction of the new library on Shasta Street. In 1962 everyone was delighted with the light, spacious new library with its improvements and helpful staff. We loved it — and Esther, too.

When I was teaching sixth grade, I was surprised and shocked at how few children had any knowledge or acquaintance of the library and how to use it. I taught them a unit on library skills and we took a field trip to the library. With the help of Mary Kessi, the children’s librarian, the classes were issued library cards, given a tour of the library, shown how to use the card catalog (no computers then), and helped to find, choose and check out two books each. I promised I’d return their books for them if they couldn’t do it themselves. It was a successful, useful field trip.

Libraries benefit all people in a community. The books, tapes, films, computers and other materials are available for everyone to use — young or old, big or small, rich or poor, regardless of race or creed. All one needs is to be a resident and a responsible borrower.