An unidentified library. Image courtesy of Unsplash.

As I looked for something yesterday I came across my school reports from my middle school. Along with them was a letter thanking me for a donation to the school library, the year I left middle school, which was 1981.

The middle school did not have a library. I know that sound crazy, especially when I have said I made a donation to it and if no library then why this post? I cannot recall if the school was short on space, but the books that you would have expected to be in a library were on shelves which ran around the walls on the landing, opposite the stairs.

The book I donated to the book was about the Philippines. The school had a very good selection of books that were about numerous global locations. I seem to recall having to create a worldwide project for geography, which likely explains the book I selected.

In comparison, my senior school did have a library. It was not huge, but the school only had 1200 pupils. I spent quite a lot of time there, especially over the lunch period clutching my school diary which I have written about before. It was the beginning of my journal writing journey; and if you are interested you can read that post HERE. It was here that I developed my writing strategy, which at this point was not perfect, but it has developed further, over the years, whether that was homework, lesson notes, reports, thesis planning and post graduate work. I would head to the library and quickly scope out what work I needed to do and when it was to be done by. I would have preferred to remain in the class room, but that was not an option, so the next best place was the library as that was relatively quiet. I assume there was a librarian, but I don’t recall one.

Of course I was at school before the days of smart phones, actually it was the days before mobile phones now I think about it, given that, it is little wonder that I have no photographs of the library and today’s image is from the image site Unsplash.

#LibrariesWeek

Libraries Week takes place in the UK from 5 – 10  October. You can read more HERE. You can become a lifelong library supporter – more details HERE