If you have not been taking a break from social media this winter, or maybe even if you have, you have likely encountered social influencer Mychal Threets, who is known on TikTok, Instagram and other platforms as a person dedicated to documenting and spreading what he calls “library joy.” For Threets, a 33-year-old award-winning librarian from California, the library is an essential space for community that offers something for everyone: books, of course, and essential resources like computers and Wi-Fi, but also a place to relax, convene with neighbors or be alone, or find support.
And while Curtis Memorial Library’s practices to achieve support for as much of our community as possible have changed a bit over time — we no longer fine patrons for overdue materials, for example, so don’t be afraid to bring back books that were due in 2023! — it is relevant to consider that the earliest iterations of our community libraries in Brunswick and Harpswell had many of the same goals we have today and clearly sparked library joy.
A paper given by Miss Mary G. Gilman to the Saturday Club, a women’s social and civic club in Brunswick, on March 12, 1904, and reprinted in the Brunswick Record, commented on the vital necessity of the library to small-town communities. One of her best anecdotes was surely repeated for years: A little girl returned a book to a library but notified a library assistant that she had lost her mother’s library card. When the librarian told her that she must wait two weeks before getting another book, she rebutted, “I can’t … my mother told me to come right home to supper!” That’s library joy in a nutshell.
Fortunately, February is Love Your Library Month, so there is much to spark joy at Curtis Memorial Library right now. For example, a great way to stay positive during this time of year is to get your green on. In conjunction with the Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust, the library is offering two workshops per month through March to promote “growing literacy.” This month features a conversation on invasive jumping worms as well as a demonstration on how to process elderberries.
If connecting with neighbors is more your jam, the library will be hosting a facilitated series for the next two months with Building Bridges Maine, affiliated with Braver Angels, which is dedicated to promoting civic engagement and resolving community challenges through addressing some of the divides that separate us.
Moreover, as per usual, there will be plenty to entertain families with February vacation activities. For details about library events, go to curtislibrary.com.
In addition, there will be ample opportunities to support the library through events such as the Curtis Contemporaries co-sponsored fundraisers with Brickyard Hollow and Gelato Fiasco. Great news is that Booked for the Night will be making a post-pandemic return to an in-person gathering in March. So much library joy!
“Library Connections” is a monthly column that rotates among the three libraries serving Harpswell: Cundy’s Harbor, Orr’s Island and Curtis Memorial.
