In Search of {Good} Books That Need A Good Home

***If you have books you'd like to donate to this growing lending library, please send an email to bbookslending@gmail.com Thanks!***

Have you heard of a lending library? Not those little libraries that are popping up outdoors, where one can take a book or leave a book. Those are really neat but I mean a house, or other building, that houses books that are from a personal library but can be checked out by others.

I don't honestly know where the idea first was presented to me, but perhaps when I went to CMI and sifted through the crates and boxes of books that Kerry Forney had brought. Or listening to the Cottrills talk about their library.

However the idea was planted in my head, it is there and growing. Now I need books to fill the library! I have been making book purchases here and there when I can but now I'm in search of those who would be willing to donate the books to this endeavor. You can see our growing library (which is not open yet) at Libib.

Why would someone want to have a lending library out of their home? It's a good and legitimate question. Where I live, the library system is really good. Really good. I can get a book from just about anywhere in the state. But something I am noticing is that the older books are disappearing from the library shelves.

Have you noticed as well?

It's not to say that there are no good books at local libraries but it seems that too often it is 'out with the old, in with the new.' On a Yahoo Group I am a part of, I found a letter detailing why someone started a lending library. Here, in paraphrase, is just a small bit of why it's a good idea to open a lending library.

Public libraries are not the "archives of all that is good in literature." According to the letter writer (an individual who had researched extensively about children's literature) the libraries actually make it policy to discard fiction books at the five year mark and non-fiction at two years. It appears holding onto these books perpetuates obsolescence. Another note is that during a period of time many good books were written (what she refers to as the "Golden Age of Children's Literature"): 1930-early 1970s. These books are definitely way past the keep date of libraries.

Going back to the paraphrase and that "Golden Age of Children's Literature:" During this relatively short span, the books were written from a Judeo-Christian perspective even if the author was not himself professing to be a Christian. Books written from this perspective rightly put man in a wonderfully different position in life. Books today are from evolutionist mentalities, putting man next to monkeys or simply chemical reactions. Where the former stirred the hearts and minds to noble things, the latter simply attempts to speak to the brain, and logic, to move the reader. It doesn't drive one to do what is right. The difference of these books, those written in that Golden Age and those written more recently, is also evident in the writing style and visual appearance of the story. Older books were truly stories; today they are textbooks and facts filled with bright colors. The older books reached the reader through a true story that engaged; newer books simply are filling up a fact sheet.

I have been browsing on the Children's Legacy Library blog for suggestions and ideas (and talking with Robin). On the site, there is a page that shows other lending libraries "near you."

I think I will end with that bit but I do think I will be back soon to talk more about why I want to open a lending library.