Did you know that this is National Library Week? And, since today’s A to Z Blog Challenge letter is K and libraries are great depositories of knowledge, I’d like to share 10 facts about libraries and librarians you should know.
1. You can check out seeds from the seed collection at the Pima County Public Library in Tucson, Arizona.
2. The Library of Congress has a copy of Old King Cole, the world’s smallest book.
3. The lions that lounge at the entrance to the New York Public Library’s main branch at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street are named Patience and Fortitude.
4. America’s first lending library was established by Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia in 1731. It was called The Library Company and patrons had to pay to borrow books.
5. Some famous past librarians include Jacob Grimm, Giacometti Casanova, Mao Zedong, Golda Meir, Laura Bush, Lewis Carroll, Beverly Cleary, and Madeline L’Engle. (p.s. Today is Beverly Cleary’s 101st birthday!)
6. Batgirl was a librarian, too. Her day job was being the head librarian at the Gotham City Public Library.
7. Dolly Parton owns a library. She sends free books to children aged birth to five years old.
8. Lucille Baldwin Brown was the first African American woman county public librarian.
9. The Ireland’s oldest library, Marsh’s library in Dublin, has three cages patrons used while reading rare books so that they wouldn’t steal them.
10. The Guinness Book of Records hold the record for being the most stolen book from libraries.
I live in a town that begins with a K – Kingsburg, California and I love our library. Here is a picture of the murals on the side of the Kingsburg Library depicting some of the town’s history and heritage:
and a closer view of one of the panels:
Do you Know any other interesting library information?
Great set of factoids! i certainly didn’t know that about Batgirl (maybe because I’ve never read any of her stories?). But I certainly know that librarians can be more than meets the eye!
The Ninja Librarian’s Favorite Characters
Hi Claire – K for knowledge is a good one .. and to link it to Libraries too … well done. I didn’t know most of those facts – we had travelling libraries early on pre buildings for libraries, and now we once again have travelling libraries in places, and libraries on open shelves, in post boxes etc – to true ones perhaps … but bringing books to the populace – cheers Hilary
http://positiveletters.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/l-is-for-legendary-beasts-of-britain.html
I like the addition of your own town library with the letter K, Claire. We depend on our local librairies where knowledge is often so close.
Some interesting facts! What an irony, that record of the Guiness Book of Records.
Isn’t that funny! The book of records has its own record.