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I've been looking at them online and knew it was just time to dive into. . . a Levenger Circa system! I am the world's biggest office supply addict so any cute notebook that has been on the clearance aisle the last seven years has ended up in my office. This has resulted in me using many different notebooks, folders, and index cards for my stories and research. Now with Circa, I can combine everything in its appropriate place.
Jennifer in our writers' network has a Circa and it always just seemed like such a good idea. So I went all the way to the Levenger store in Marshall, oops, Macy's downtown Chicago and the clerk made me a junior notebook to show me how it works. And then, of course, I proceeded to buy $50 worth of stuff. But it's great because I have a planner with a sheet size that you can actually write something besides your grocery list on and I can punch anything to add to it. I've had Day Timers, Day Runners, and a bunch of other stuff, but I hope this works. I'm tired of looking for notes, stories I started, and research I did the last time I was at the library!
The only place I've ever seen the phrase "free library" is in Urbana, IL, when I went to college at the University of Illinois. The Urbana Free Library is the public library there. It was just like any public library--better collection than any I'd seen up to that point. I'm not sure why they used that terminology, but it appears to have had some precedence somewhere.
The Free Library of Philadelphia.
As opposed to a library where you paid to belong via subscription or shares. The library Ben Franklin started was a subscription library.
Shouldn't that be something like "Apprendre La Bibliotheque" or "Etudier La Bibliotheque"?
Undoubtedly. In that my French is exceedingly rusty despite the 5-6 years I studied it. I'm just pleased as punch that I managed to spell "bibliotheque" correctly.
Both Free Library examples are great, but my point was that seeing a newish sign sporting an, admit it, old-fashioned phrase is a bit odd.
I'm really guessing that the library in the Reading Rainbow clip was a Philadelphia or Philly area library as liz b suggested. All the libraries in Philadelphia are referred to in signage and elsewhere as "Free Libraries," regardless of whether they were built in the 1870's or 1970's. It struck me as odd, too, when I moved here 6 years ago, but I think it's charming nonetheless.
Huh! Well I'll be hornswaggled. You learn something new every day. Just goes to show the depth of the Philly-related gaps in my brain.
Not to dwell on this, but there are "Free Libraries" all around Massachusetts, especially surrounding Boston - new or old.
I loved every video today... especially the Reading Rainbow insane dance in the stacks.
Hey Fuse #8,
I loved the videos! I'm glad someone remembers The Electric Company. Does anyone recall that Bill Cosby and Morgan Freeman were on that show. (I believe MF was a character named "Easy Reader").
As for kids asking their parents what a "record" is, I had a little tyke at one of our storytimes who knew exactly what a record is for. Some of us baby boomers will occasionally pull out an old vinyl album to play at our our storytimes. Well, once I got one and pulled it out of the cover when the little fellow asked me, "What are you going to do with that? Are you going to go "wicki, wicki, wicki?" Like I was some DJ at a club! Just call me Grandmaster C!
These clips were so much fun, thank you for sharing.
there's a ton of libraries in their name, which I didn't get when I first heard their name:
Enoch Pratt Free Library (Baltimore Public Library)is another one.
Once I started Library School, i always thought it related back to the Ben Franklin subscription library...
Oh. My. Goodness.
The excercize video is AWESOME.
Whenever I see a COM CAT in the library (and yes, they do still exist) I'm going to have a devil of a time resisting singing "You Spin Me Round."
As for the phrase "Free Library" . . .there are a few libraries that are titled "Free" in the Pittsburgh area, but not at the one where I work -- the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. Instead, the words "Free to the People" are inscribed in the stonework above the front doors. It's something that gives me a good ol' shot of cheesy pride whenever I walk in.