A Librarian’s Story – Libraries Transform Texas Week

This week (October 4 – 8) is Libraries Transform Texas Week and we are celebrating librarians’ stories and how they are transforming lives and their communities.  Share your story!

I was 8 years old the first time I went to the library. I couldn’t believe there were so many books in one place and that I could read all of them. I didn’t of course but the highlight of my childhood Saturdays were those trips to the library after all our other errands were completed. Saturday nights were spent looking through my new books and deciding which one to read first. As I grew older and could get to the library on my own, I went more often. Sometimes, it was to do research for school; sometimes just to look and browse; and other times I was on a mission to find something specific. Having a library at school only added to my reading pleasure. I have always loved the atmosphere of libraries. The muted silence of pages rustling; the gentle thump of books being taken and returned to the shelves; the not-so-quiet laughter of children discovering a funny new book: all are still music to my ears. Today, that music includes the voices of the high school students who people my library. It is also the sound of the copy machine as students print out what they need for class; it’s the soft knocking of wood on the chess board; it’s the giggling of the students as they color pages of mandalas or work on the puzzle that’s always out on one table. I get to spend my days surrounding by books. I get to look at a landscape populated by bookshelves filled with books that educate, entertain, and fill me and my students with wonder. I have the best job on the planet: I am a librarian!

Lynn Butler has been a librarian for 21 years and is currently the librarian at Taylor High School