EDITORIAL: Bring Your Child to the Library Day

Last Updated on Friday, 10 February 2012 15:29 Friday, 10 February 2012 10:17

Saturday, Feb. 4, is “Bring Your Child to the Library Day” in Connecticut, and more than 50 libraries are participating. Many of them are planning a special story time or other event to make the visit a special occasion.

Case Memorial Library in Orange invited Farmer Minor and Daisie the pig to “pig out on reading” at 11 a.m. that Saturday.

The Woodbridge Town Library is offering a story craft at 11 for children ages 3 to 5, and drop-in crafts for older children as well. The following day, Sunday, Feb. 5, the library has the Tanglewood Marionettes visiting at 2 in the Center Building.

Many families use the library regularly, but many do not. Especially in the age of the Internet, the little screens seem to have pushed to the margins the time spent between the covers of a book. That is as true for the adults as it is for the children who grow up under their care.

Fact is, we will get our fill of stories, whether from a book or a movie, because stories define the human condition, no matter how remote they may be to our own experience.

But libraries in this day and age provide more than story times. They provide a wealth of data, help in accessing it, newspapers (!!), magazines, movies, and music CDs, not to forget the talks and events that help us navigate our lives.

It is important to introduce children to this special world of ideas, where curious people congregate. The message they can take away from it transcends the story time.