National Library Week: How libraries change lives!

When I was little, I loved Roald Dahl’s Matilda, her voracious appetite for books and her unflagging nature. Nothing was as life-changing for Matilda as the day she set out on her own in search of the public library. I adored the relationship Matilda made with the sweet librarian Mrs. Phelps. She gave Matilda her first "grown-up book" to read, Great Expectation by Charles Dickens, but Matilda's education in literature didn't end there. ". . . books transported her into new worlds and introduced her to amazing people who lived exciting lives. She went on olden-day sailing ships with Joseph Conrad. She went to Africa with Ernest Hemingway and to India with Rudyard Kipling. She traveled all over the world while sitting in her little room in an English village." – Roald Dahl, Matilda Though Matilda was quite the "out of this world" reader, and her appetite for literature was a little out of my reach, the relationship between her and Mrs. Phelps inspired me. I have always been a bibliophile, but never knew how to connect my love of books with a future career until I went to school for my master's in library science. Libraries have literally (pun intended) become my life. I hope every adult or child can claim to have known a Mrs. Phelps in their life. I cannot thank Matilda enough for her inspiring story and to all libraries and librarians who commit themselves to changing the lives of others one book at a time. Happy National Library Week! Here’s saluting you, the library staff, for changing lives.

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