Little Women by Jessie Wilcox Smith

Have I ever mentioned how much I like our library? It is one of the largest library systems in the nation and it contains an amazing collection of books. We use the library often for books and printing purposes. 

The library has been a wonderful asset to our family. I used to add to our personal collection of books without much thought; however, due to space limitations and a shrinking budget, I eventually started turning to the library more and more. I am glad that I did. We visit the library about once a week, checking out Catholic titles, out-of-print books, picture books, chapter books, films, homeschooling helps (i.e. materials from the Institute for Excellence in Writing and Signing Time), and more. When the library doesn’t have something that we want, I request that they buy the title. They usually do so and we end up being the first family to check it out. Subsequent “check outs” usually require a slight wait due to the fact that other people are also interested in the library’s recent acquisition. However, I have learned that if there are an absurd number of holds on an item, pointing this fact out to a librarian usually results in another copy or two or three of said book, etc. being added to the library’s collection. Now, I tend to only buy books if they are Catholic and/or a title that one of the children really wants (the latter is typically reserved for a birthday or Christmas gift).

We also use our library for printing purposes. Yes, I did say printing. Our library allows us to print 75 credits worth of pages a week (25 laser color copies, or 75 laser black and white copies, or a combination of the two) free of charge. This means that I can easily print the children’s lesson plans, our monthly chore charts, and various offerings from Pondered in My Heart, and other websites. Unfortunately, the library does not permit us to print double-sided documents. However, I am simply thankful for the resources that are available to us.