Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Searching

Today we went to the library to find some books, primarily for some to get me through the hours I'll be spending at the mechanics tomorrow. As soon as we got there, Lily hopped up on the stool in front of the database computer and said she needed to search for something. I convinced her to come with me first to find my book and then we went back and she got a bit of paper and a pencil and wrote "history" on her paper. (History was the general topic of the books in a nearby aisle, posted on the end of the aisle.) So she searched for history and it came up with a lot of books about wars. I told her the titles of some and she said, "No, I want good history. History without wars." So we searched "good history" and it came up with some juvenile books on ancient Rome and ancient Egypt. The chapter book she started reading tonight is about Egypt, so she picked the Egypt one. She wrote the call number down on her paper and then I sent her down the aisle to follow the numbers to her number.
They are getting the hang of it, but I had to help her narrow it down. Also showed her how if we find a book that is shelved in the wrong place, to put it on the side of the shelf so the librarian can reshelve it properly.
Then it was Lukasz's turn. His first choice was BMX racing, but we'd searched for that last time so this time he chose parkour. And they had a book on it! He wrote down the call number and off we went again. His book was on the top shelf, but we found it. It was total bliss, watching them hunt happily for a book on a subject they picked, and seeing how excited they were when they found that book. Simple pleasures!
After they had found their books, we went to the kids' fiction section so they could pick out some stories, but they got too involved in reading through Lily's book to pick any other ones out. We were at the library past their bedtime! I couldn't get them to leave and I finally gave up. :) It was the perfect way to spend an evening. And in this age of wikipedia and instant information, it makes me so very happy and proud to see them discovering all the wonders that a library holds.

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