My post in which I whine related to libraries, plus Clematis vines and cat book ends

 

Above photo shows the Boston Public Library.

I don't often whine here but I got something in the mail today, the alumni newsletter from where I graduated with an M.L.S., which provoked this post. As some of you know I am a retired librarian, a career I enjoyed. A nice career for a book lover, at least in earlier years. Now it is very much involved with computers. What annoyed me in the newsletter was when I read that the university where I got my Masters Degree in Library Science has dropped the word Library from its school name. When I graduated it was School of Library and Information Sciences.

I know, don't push the river, but my alma mater's new school name is Information School. Not a whisper of Library to be found. I guess nowadays we Information Workers (formerly known as Librarians) could be working in a drafty warehouse surrounded by computers and nary a book or library user in sight. I wonder when the term librarian will disappear, replaced by something like IS Worker. Information School worker. To my mind, librarian is a noble calling and a word that evokes the joy and the power of books.

Being a librarian I researched and see that 7 well known American universities have made the school name change to Information School with the nickname of iSchool. There is now an international group of 77 universities that have made this name change to iSchool, dropping the word Library.

 

Public libraries often still value physical books, and putting those books in the hands of people. But the wave of the future has arrived in many universities. The one where I worked threw out all the books on one floor to turn the floor into study areas. I am glad that happened after I retired, I would have refused to do that, staff had to throw the books into dumpsters.

Enough of a whine on this subject. Thanks for listening, I feel a teeny bit better. To thank you for reading the above, here are some photos I took in my garden today. The first photo of my purple/red clematis shows my hand so you can see the flower size.

Above is my orange Clock Vine (Thunbergia), from India, and my purple clematis. This clematis has two petals on each flower vs. six petals on the red/purple in the other photos. I pulled out my graceful cat bookends as I am decluttering books, and put them on display on my kitchen table. Have a great week and stay well, my friends.

Little Free Libraries in my neighborhood

Do you love libraries and books and free, like I do? Well, the Little Free Libraries trend embraces all three of these delightful things.
There are three that I know of in my neighborhood. All you need to do to have one is to build a container with glass doors to protect the books and put up words on it that say "take one, give one".
The photo above is a very cute Little Free Library, don't you agree?

Here is the second one in my neighborhood, just a short walk from my home.

I wonder if every country has these little free libraries. My blog friends can tell me, do people in Indonesia, Germany, Kuwait, Australia and more have them? I hope so, they are fun and encourage folks to read.
This photo was taken on a dark wet morning as you can tell, and the books are safe from the rain in their snug library with glass doors that close securely.

To the left is a second Free Library for children. Isn't that thoughtful? They built it a lower height so children can reach it.
These libraries are all about giving and seem like a Christmas themed post to me.