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Books and cakes

When I was 10 the pretty little library at the Mulberry in Goring by Sea was built. Every Saturday morning would find me there for a couple of hours then across the road to the bakers to spend my pocket money on four of yesterday's cakes for 1/- or perhaps to a jumble sale in the nearby St Mary's church hall (where I was married and held my reception nine years later). Although I'm not at all musical I remember particularly liking a series of books on the lives of famous composers with music printed on every other page.

Libaray Tickets

I remember going to Bognor Library in the 1970's with my Mum. We had flexible orange Tickets that were fed into a slot on the desk whenever we borrowed or returned a book. These tickets contained holes punched in that the computer would read. It will have been my first interaction with a computer and today I still wonder what sort of huge machine was behind the scenes.

My life in libraries

The photo of the member of staff flicking through the card catalogue brought back so many memories. I have been a library user for more than 50 years, starting out with those thrilling voyages of exploration in the children’s library at Doncaster public library as a child (books and rhyme & song – what is this place of wonder?). I then moved up to the adult library, wrestling with those card catalogues to help with my homework, and then my first Saturday job as a library assistant at 16. I was further delighted to encounter my first ‘OPAC’ machine at…