In 2001, thanks to a fire lit by Michelle Miller, author of TruthQuest History and owner of an incredible private lending library, I began preparations for opening a library of my own in my small town in East Tennessee. For several years I collected books, prayed, prepared, prayed, researched the Dewey Decimal System, prayed... Finally I opened my doors officially in June 2008. At that time, to my knowledge, there were four other such libraries in the country.
Three years ago, my friends and owners of Living Books Library in Virginia, hosted the first ever homeschool librarians conference. I was priviliged to attend and give the keynote address. Since that time many libraries have been springing up around the country and more are in the works. It is so exciting and rewarding to see so many families stepping into the role of Keeper of the Stories and sharing their collections of living books in their communities.
If you have ever wondered whether there is a library in your area, please check my updated page entitled Libraries Near You.
If there is no library in your vicinity, I implore you to consider starting one of your own. The need is great. So many families are desiring to give their children the gift of living ideas through living books but many of the best books are out of print and difficult to come by. You don't need a large collection to make a difference. 500 treasures are worth more than 5000 volumes of mediocrity. If this is something you would like to consider, I recommend the recording of the conference mentioned above. There is also a yahoo group dedicated to these libraries. Here we discuss all aspect of book collecting, lending, organization, challenges, etc. I invite you to join us. Search for Homeschool Library Builders in yahoo groups.
I pray more will join us on this journey, whether as members of these libraries or fellow librarians.
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