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Monthly Spotlight: Library Lovers' Month

Library Lovers Month

When in doubt, go to the library quoted overtop a stack of books

Why Come to the Library?

There are many reasons why people should value and use libraries! Here are a few reasons to note:

  • Help build communities
  • Break down boundaries
  • Connecting people and ideas
  • Provide access to books and other materials
  • Value the individual
  • Offers a safe space
  • Nourish creativity

 

An animated green person looking through library shelves

What Does the Library Offer?

Most libraries are able to provide:

  • Internet access
  • Library instruction
  • Printing
  • Homework help
  • Career services
  • Databases
  • Information services
  • Material for borrowing
  • Interlibrary loans
  • Geneology

The cast of Community going into the library to study for their biology final

Check Out Some Cool Things We Provide Too!

The NICC library offers you:

  • Access to Printing & Mobile Printing
  • Access to Computers
  • Wifi for public and school use
  • Multiple Collections
    • Books, movies, audiobooks, databases, newspapers, magazines, and more!
  • Interlibrary Loans
  • Cozy Seating 
    • Chairs, Sofas, and Bean Bags
  • Study rooms
  • A fun group of librarians willing to help
  • Materials and activities from the Dubuque County Library (Peosta)
  • Library Instruction
  • Information Services

A group of students studying in a library and one pulls out a head of lettuce to eat

Fun Library Facts

  • The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world
    • Has more than 167 million items
    • Approx. 838 miles of bookshelves
    • It was founded in 1800, making it the oldest federal cultural institution in the nation
  • There are more public libraries than Starbucks in the U.S.
    • About 16,568 including branches
  • Academic libraries (like ours!) benefit everyone on campus, yet receive fewer than two cents of every dollar spent on higher education
  • Academic librarians provide information services for almost 38 million people each year
  • On August 24, 1814, British troops burned the Capitol building (where the Library was housed) and destroyed the Library's core collection of 3,000 volumes.
    • On January 30, 1815, Congress approved the purchase of Thomas Jefferson’s personal library of 6,487 books for $23,950.
  • Approximately half of the Library’s book and serial collections are in languages other than English.
    • The collections contain materials in some 470 languages.
  • The smallest book in the Library of Congress is “Old King Cole.” It is 1/25” x 1/25”, or about the size of the period at the end of this sentence.
  • The largest book in the Library of Congress is a 5-by-7 foot book featuring color images of Bhutan.
  • The oldest written material in the Library of Congress is a cuneiform tablet dating from 2040 B.C.

Hermione's cat in Harry Potter sitting on a stack of books in the library

Statistics on Libraries

  • In the year 2022, the Library of Congress...
    • Welcomed about 370,000 onsite visitors to its Capitol Hill campus
      • recorded more than 151.6 million visits
      • 520.3 million page views on the Library's web properties
    • Circulated more than 22.3 million copies of braille, audio, and large-print items to blind and print disabled patrons
    • Circulated 243,700 physical items for use inside and outside the Library
    • Recorded more than 175.77 million items in its collections
  • From CNN, facts on librarians:
    • Around 1.3 billion people visit public libraries every year
      • More than 1.24 billion movie theater admissions in 2017
    • There are about 126,800 librarians in the US
      • New York has the most, with 12,360 librarians
    • At the CIA, you can earn up to six figures working in their library
    • The Library of Congress has been preserving recordings in the National Recording Registry since 2002
      • The latest additions included hip-hop group Run-DMC’s 1986 album “Raising Hell,” Fleetwood Mac’s 1977 album “Rumours” and the soundtrack to “The Sound of Music.”
    • Employment of librarians is expected to grow 9% by 2026
    • Former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, author Lewis Carroll, former first lady Laura Bush, and China’s Mao Zedong all worked as librarians or in libraries.
    • 78% of American adults feel that public libraries help them find reliable sources.
    • At the end of the 19th century, library work was considered to be too overwhelming for women
      • In 1900, the Brooklyn Public Library Association proposed building “a seaside rest home for those who had broken down in library service.”

RuPaul stating the library is open

What Our Librarians Think About Libraries:

  • What's your favorite part about working in a library?
    • My Favorite part about working in a library is the unique creativity and teamwork. I love that I am able to use by background skills in new and interesting ways and I enjoy how the work is collaborative while still allowing individual voices to shine.
  • If you weren't a librarian what job would you have?
    • Either in Museum/Conservation or Linguistics
  • What's something that surprises you about the library or its services?
    • The amount of resources we have that the patrons don't know about
  • If you were a book in the library, what one would you be?
    • The Bald eagle: the improbable journey of America's bird / by Jack E. Davis.
  • What's something most people don't know about the library?
    • We do more work than people know, we don't just get to read books!!
    • How expensive databases and library materials are today.
    • What all we actually have access to for your use. Thousands of books, both physical and online, skilled librarians whose primary job is to help people find that information and local/national/international communities of scholars and librarians who are dedicated to the art of learning and accessing information. Libraries are like Google on steroids, mainly since all of us are trained in bias recognition (making your job easier) and we cannot be bought, unlike Google results.
  • If you could change one thing in the library, what would it be?
    • The only thing I would ever change is the amount of people who use the library. I just want people to use and support libraries whether that be the NICC campus libraries or your local libraries.
    • Cozy comfy seating with a fireplace to sit in front of to relax and read
  • If you could add one thing (book, object, movie, etc.) to the library collection, what would it be?
    • Books by Lynn Hunt
    • The Backyard Birding Bible: How to Attract, Record, Identify and Photograph Birds in Your Garden | Including DIY Bird Houses, Feeders, and Baths by Rowan T. Wiedemann
    • The After Series books and Movies
    • Witches and Neighbors: The Social and Cultural Context of European Witchcraft by Robin Briggs
  • Would you have a library cat or an office dog?
    • 66.7% cat
    • 33.3% dog
  • What is the most important thing in order to have a happy workplace?
    • Flexibility and respect
    • Good communication
    • Positivity
    • Friendly and understanding coworkers