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learn something new.

I grew up in a small town in upstate NY, and our public library was absolutely my favorite place. I spent hours there & developed a lifelong love of reading. In college, the library provided a quiet escape from the noisy dorms when I needed to concentrate. And when we moved to Dayton almost 40 years ago, I found the wonderful library system here. I am there every week & when we travel, I am there via my Libby app. It’s truly a joy for me to greet the librarians, see little kids in the children’s section enjoying some of the same treasures I read to my children, and browse the shelves for books, magazines & DVDs to fill my book bag. I missed the in-person experience tremendously during Covid shutdowns. Our library system is truly a national treasure.

learn something new.
instill a love of reading in a child.
in other ways.

The library has helped me significantly as a young teacher. While beginning my career, I have not had the money to purchase a large collection of books for my students. Over time, I have been slowly accumulating books. In the meantime, I have relied heavily on the library to provide quality texts for my students. The library keeps up-to-date with the current releases, while also keeping the great classics. I rarely can't find what I need. The librarians are always extremely helpful with pulling materials so that I can spend as little time as possible searching. I truly believe the library has helped me enhance my teaching and improved the instruction my students receive.

learn something new.
instill a love of reading in a child.
in other ways.

When I began working I obtained a job across from the city library and each week I would would bring stacks of books home for the kids to read. While I would make supper my daughter would read each night to her younger brother. As the kids grew older and assigned homework we would go to a branch library of our county's library system to get books for research. We quickly learned that if they did not have what they needed they could get it through the SEO Library. When I would send my daughter to clean her room, hours later I would often find a messy room with her engrossed in a book. Today her husband complains she has too many books but her philosphy is that you can never have too many. Little did I know that years later she would still be reading books and getting paid to do it. If you go into the children's section at the Washington-Centerville Public Library odds are you will see my daughter Amy with a big smile on her face doing what she loves to do, reading books.

in other ways.

Teaching abroad for 5 weeks without the library is no problem. I have picked up 11 novels, 14 Playaways from the classics, to Fromme's Paris, to Learning How to Speak German, and of course a few contemporary novels. I also loaded up my husband and sons with some solid reading material. I have these amazing resources for 6 weeks and cannot wait. It is truly my candy store - personally and professionally