November 22, 2010
To become a card-carrying learner
“To be the holder of a library card is to take an early step towards citizenship. Before the bank account, before the drivers’ license, before the legally purchased beer, or the opportunity to vote, comes the chance to advertise one’s curiosity about the world. To become a card-carrying learner. Is there not something noble, something irreplaceable, in that?” –Susan Olding, “Library Haunting” in The New Quarterly 116. (Photo of Harriet, aged six weeks, the day her card was granted. Please excuse the baby acne. It was fleeting).
BC women and children’s hospital has a cool children’s literacy program where they give you books and give you a form to sign up for a library card when your child is born. My friend Arthur told me all about it when his son was born 🙂