The 35 Libraries of My Life

It started as this tiny whim. In the course of cleaning up my RSSeseses, I subscribed to the Google Sightseeing blog. Every day or so, the author shows you cool new things to look at in Google Earth.

Meanwhile, I have my genealogy wiki thing (still very very very much in progress, both in content and design - it even has anti-search engine tags) that I putter with, and when I first started messing with it (2006?), I made tiny Google Earth files so future visitors could see where the cemeteries and stomping grounds of these ancestors were. But then the easy-peasy free Google Maps plugin came along for Media Wiki software, so I switched to maps, and goodbye GE files.

So I half-jokingly got this tiny whim the other day: a tour of the libraries of my life. You may say, "Who the hell would care about that?" But then you'd have to explain all the other stuff on the Internet that nobody cares about, and I bet you have better things to do.

I thought it would just be a single blog post with some Google maps embedded for a bit of dash. But, after two or so maps, they all look samey, don't they? Trees, no trees, that's about it. Plus Google maps screws up non-HTML editing mode in Typepad.

So, I made a Google Earth file of the 34 libraries of my life.

Which sounds dead simple. Here's a spot. Add a tack. Here's a spot.  Add a tack.

Except, no, after I added the virtual pushpins, I started writing about memories associated with that library.

Blah blah blah, blah blah blah, and what I ended up with was 34 blog posts in Google Earth format.

If I'd written this entry half an hour ago, it would've been 33, but I suddenly remembered the Trinity College Library in Dublin. Hopefully that won't happen again... like the three times it has happened already. You might be surprised at the number of libraries in your life, once you really think about (and sleep on) it.

(If I were a powerblogger, I would totally make "Blog about all of the libraries of your life using Google Earth, then share the file" the hot meme. Then someone would compile them all and society would have a new GE layer that was nothing but library stories from around the world. And because of this project, someone would be inspired to combine Google Earth with an RSS reader, so you could open GE and read the latest location-related posts. Is this the next step in travel literature? Gimme-gimme!)

The only library of note that I left out is the one at the school where I teach now. And by "of note" I mean libraries that conjure at least one distinct memory. (Oops, another synapse just fired. Okay, we're now up to 35.)

(Wait, did I go to the Library of Congress on the 8th grade field trip? I guess if I can't remember, it doesn't count. Kind of like a few university libraries I chose not to mention. Holding firm at 35, captain!)

So! If you want to read a bunch of library-inspired posts via Google Earth, just click on this link.

Now, if you don't have Google Earth installed, that's not really going to work. (Likewise, some fussy computers prefer that you have GE open already before you click on the link.) If you need a copy of (free, amazing) Google Earth, get it here.

Once you're in Google Earth, you just click on the links, like this:

Now, pretend I'm Dooce and pretend this is the latest buzz in blogging. Make your own library tour. It's fun and therapeutic! Plus, the world needs more library-based nostalgia. When did you first leave the children's section? Check out your first racy novel? Sheepishly pay your first fine? Were you around before bar codes? Ever find anything good in a library book? (I've found photos, bookmarks, and Jack Chick tracts.) Ever lose a library book? Ever have a library lose the book and blame it on you? Best librarian? Best library program? Best library display? Reader-geeks unite!

(Gosh, I just realized I didn't even write about the time I was kicked out of a library... maybe this file is an ongoing project.)

Comments

[Heather in PA]

For the record - my mom AND sis are both librarians. I'm sending them a link to this post. Beware.

This is fantastic!

A flood of memories are coming back - the library my mom volunteered in that was in a one-room school house, the 'library' of my (catholic) grammar school that was in the rectory basement...

[Heather in PA]

... and then there's the bookmobile that I hitchiked on in Northern Ireland...

[Shari]

See! You get started and more keep popping in your head. Like eating Pringles... sort of.

Okay, you have the Art History degree. Your mother and sister and librarians. Who in your family is the archaeologist or the astronomer? Make my fantasy complete!

I'll be checking LPS for *your* Google Earth library memoir. (cough cough, prod prod) The world needs to know why the bookmobile was picking up hitchhikers!

[Heather in PA]

Sadly, no astronomers or archaeologists. Though, I did WANT to be an archaeologist. And my husband's college buddy is one. Does that count? And the archaologist's brother is an astrophysicist... really.