Our Libraries
June 26, 2008
Learn About Your Interests at the Library
There's something about girls and horses. I noticed it when I was a librarian in an elementary school. Every year there was a group of girls who became fascinated with horses. Most didn't own horses and some had never even ridden one. But for them there was something compelling about horses. I was always on the lookout for new horse books, both fiction and nonfiction, because I knew these girls would devour them. "Misty of Chincoteague" by Marguerite Henry and "Black Beauty" by Anna Sewell were perennial favorites. For older girls there were many Black Stallion books by Walter Farley and the books by Mary O'Hare including "My Friend Flicka"
When my granddaughters, Elizabeth (age 5) and Charlotte (age 3) visited last winter, they wanted to go riding. Not being a horse person myself, I appealed to my colleague Kay Schlumpf who owns a horse.
She very graciously invited us to visit her and her horse, Prince, at the barn where he lives near Silver Lake, Wisconsin under the watchful eye of Dawn Atlas, their trainer. We spent a delightful afternoon riding, grooming, and providing treats for Prince and his friends at the barn. We also enjoyed talking to Ms. Atlas and her energetic group of young women, all accomplished equestrians, who work at the barn. During the conversation, it became clear that a compulsion to read about horses is part of being a horse fancier. Every single one of these women knew all about interlibrary loan!
For the uninitiated, let me explain that most public libraries will endeavor to obtain books for you that are not owned by the library. Through a complex but efficient series of relationships, most every library will lend most everything they own to any other library. So if you wanted to read an obscure Walter Farley book, say number 19 of the 20 or so that he wrote, the library would be able to get the book for you. My new horse proficient friends were experienced users of interlibrary loan, a skill that will serve them well as college students.
Another colleague, Judy Scarnato, told me a story about how the library helped her granddaughter at her first riding lesson. It seems that Selena was visiting and grandma took her to the library. Knowing of the child's interest in horses and the upcoming riding lesson, Scarnato borrowed a DVD on how to ride a horse. At home, the two enjoyed watching it but not much was said. A week or so later, on the date of the riding lesion, the instructor was amazed that little Selena knew so much about grooming, tending and even riding a horse. Selena remembered what she had seen and heard on the DVD!
The love of horses has not been lost on those who create products for girls. Back in the 1980's when Plesant T. Rowland, a former educator and publisher of education materials got her amazing idea to create period American history dolls complete with companion books, it wasn't long before one of the dolls had a horse. Felicity Merriman, a doll from 1774 had two horses, Penny and Patriot. Since then other American Girl dolls have had horses. In 2005 a made-for-TV movie, "Felicity: An American Girl Adventure" was issued featuring Penny and Patriot.
Whatever your interest, whether it's for fun, for information, or as background for a new interest, pursue it at your library. Don't see what you want or need? Ask the librarian about interlibrary loan! The whole world of books and other library materials is available to you at your local library.
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Sarah Long's weekly column, Our Libraries, is published in the 