Having fun isn't hard, when you've got a library card!

"No eating or drinking and shhhhhhhh!" This is the usual message conveyed at any library you visit. Of course, Harold (BYU Provo's library. Yes, we're on a first name basis.) added the phrase "going into a room with no natural light and studying till your brain explodes" to my library phrases. 

But not at the Jerusalem Center library. I broke all three of the cardinal no-no's in one sitting. Gasp! It's different here, I guess, because there's just 82 of us and there's only one tiny library to study in. So you always know the people in the library. This leads to talking and laughing and music and sometimes dancing. Seriously, if youtube wasn't blocked we would get nothing done here. And then people start breaking out the snacks and water bottles to survive the long hours of studying and reading, because no one really monitors the place. Tonight, an FHE group even brought in cookies for us poor library kids. As you can see, the library dynamics here are different then normal. I'm starting to miss the good old Holladay and Harold B. Lee libraries, which prompted me to write my "10 things I love about the H&H libraries" list.

1. The music section of the HBLL--studying with background music makes everything better. Plus, it's hilarious when people stumble across the section that have never heard of it before. They get this confused look on their face and I want to tell them "don't worry, you're not the only one hearing the music." 

2. Finding a place in the library that's exclusively yours, and going there, studying really hard and feeling really good after accomplishing a hard paper or assignment. 

3. Becoming friends with the librarians. I'm still working on this one, but I like talking to the librarians at my home library and asking their advice on really good books.

4. The restocking of movies at the Holladay library. Such a good feeling to race into the library and realize there are movies there other then random foreign films or 15 copies of Sons of Provo.

5. Becoming a regular at the library. You know your way around and can find books without walking around like a confused, lost child. 

6. Going to library parties. Confession, I went to the Harry Potter library party this summer and I enjoyed myself. I went to potions class, planted a magical plant in herbology, and dueled with several young wizards. Jealous?

7. Going to the library not knowing what you're looking for and leaving with an amazing find.

8. Meeting friends at the library. It's where all the cool kids hang out.

9. Books for free! Thank you Benjamin Franklin for yet another awesome invention.

10. Using a library card. My favorite part is when the machine spits the card back out, and my brothers and I try to grab the card the second it pops up. It never gets old. Plus, Arthur approves of library cards.

source here.

When I got my library card, that's when my life began.

~Rita Mae Brown