Can we stop and take a minute to talk about how great our library here in Newport is?
In my day, the library was a place for navigating card catalogues, and the Dewey Decimal System, for research and quiet voices. (Can we take another minute to mourn the loss of my youth, as I just used the phrase “in my day”?) We had occasional storytimes and, once in a while, a visitor, but the library was what it set out to be – a repository of knowledge, a portal to other worlds, a springboard to imagination — a home of books.
In today’s world of Google and Wikipedia, many have feared that the library would become obsolete. Our children no longer need those shelves to find out what made Attila the Hun tick, or locate the capital of Finland. Rand-McNally and World Book are all but forgotten, as everything anyone could ever hope to know can be found within a few keystrokes, right at home.
Our libraries however, have found ever-increasing ways to stay a relevant part of our community. Storytimes, concerts, and a lecture series keep folks coming around to see what the library has to offer. They continue to be beacons of knowledge, just in new ways for a new audience.
Numbered among their impressive list of programs is the “What’s Cooking at the Library” series. Never in my card-shuffling, research-doing early library days did I imagine that I would one day be able to go to the library to get cooking tips from world-class chefs and sample their wares, but that is exactly what one can do when attending one of these forums.
So, while the library is still the temple of knowledge that it always was, the place where you only have to walk down the aisles to transport yourself to countless destinations, make sure that next time you drive by that “sleepy “little scion of the community, you don’t underestimate what it has to offer.
Whether writing a book report, listening to a concert pianist, or tasting a fine wine, the library is the place to be.
For more information on the What’s Cooking at the Library series and other NBPL programs, or to purchase tickets, please visit www.newportbeachlibrary.org
