Keep Reading Fun Day: Why We Love the Library (and How I Figured Out How to Make Our Library Trips Awesome!)

Yay! It's another Monday/ "Keep Reading Fun Day"! And today I can't wait to write about one of the places in the world that does the most to keep reading fun... the library!

One of the Seattle Public Library's
awesome new options for library cards!Right now, I am lucky enough to live within a few blocks of the library I went to when I was a child. I remember how excited I was when I was old enough to sign up for my first library card. And I remember the book I checked out week after week. (How I loved "The Shy Little Girl"!)

Now I take my children to the library I used to go to as a five-year-old. It is a pleasure to see them get excited by the treasure trove of books they can check out there. What an incredible resource!

But, now that I am "Mommy," our trips to the library started to come with their own set  of challenges.


And then there were the times I got myself I got myself organized enough to list some books we were hoping to find. Sometimes these times got even more frustrating. We were all excited to find those books, but, more often than not, they were already checked out. (My friend explained that our local library is one of the busiest in the whole system. Which is wonderful! Yay, Seattle readers! I just had to figure out how to get us the books we wanted.)

Finally I figured it out! And our library trips have been amazing ever since! The solution is probably obvious to you, but it took a while for this sleep deprived mommy to figure it out...

We started putting books on hold!

I know, I know. It's not rocket science but it has made a dramatic difference in our family. We are able to take advantage of the Seattle Public Library's awesome online resources.

Now, whenever we think of a title or an author or a category we're interested in, we head to the library's online catalog and do some pre-library-trip searching. This searching is so much fun as we have the entire city's library books at our disposal.

We get to think about which titles sound the most intriguing or the most helpful. And then we put them on hold. Often we get an email that these are ready for pick up quite quickly, but even when we have to wait a bit, we know we will be able to read the books we are waiting for soon.

It is such fun to go to the library and pick up an awesome stack of books (both print books and audio books) from the hold shelf. My oldest is always super-excited to make a trip to the library to pick up the books he has chosen.

And now that we have happily arrived at the library to pick up a whole pile of wonderful books, it is a pleasure do some relaxed browsing together and pick out several more books to add to the pile. My oldest with his sharp eyes always manages to spot an extra construction book or two. Or more books by a favorite author or from a favorite series. And my youngest loves to pick out fun board books from the library's collection for us to read together.

I even get to pick out some wonderful books for myself. Yay! (Super-important for me, the mom who as a young teen wanted to get my driver's licence so I could drive to the library. :o) )

Yep! Now our library trips are awesome! And they definitely help keep reading fun for our family!

So how do you use the library? What kind of library visits do you find works best with kids? How about when you're visiting the library on your own?