The other night, when checking on 4-year-old Bee as she slept, I found her sleeping with at least 10 books. 

This number is actually low. I have counted as many as 26 books surrounding her inert body some evenings. Bee’s addiction to books began when we first brought her home from Ethiopia. Once she figured out what a book was, she often sat and flipped pages for up to an hour, intent and quiet. She drank up books, like a parched nomad trying to satisfy an unquenchable thirst.

Here we have libraries. In Ethiopia, libraries are scarce. Can you imagine our country and cities without libraries? I can’t.  We have a history of public libraries that goes back to our political beginnings.

Benjamin Franklin formed the first public lending library. A man with a far-ranging intellect and vision, Franklin made it possible for people who lacked the money for books and private school educations to become more broadly read and literate. Now our family checks books and videos in and out of the library every week. We learn about sea horses and butterflies, zebras and unicorns. We can scan a variety of news journals and papers, gleaning what we can about issues that matter to us. We have a chance to learn more than we might otherwise know, because of public lending libraries--institutions that are fundamental in our national “republic.”  

Our political forebears were more familiar with the meaning of that word “republic” and its Latin origins -- “res publicus” -- than most of us are today. In a republic, all of us “public” members are guaranteed the right to learn about the things that we care about:  the causes, places, and ideas that harken to the original Latin’s “res.” Our kids’ learning and our public’s life and vitality are connected to our access to information, our taking advantage of libraries and their resources. And libraries continue because of our public investment of tax dollars. Round and round the resources flow.

And now the library is going digital. I am not an iPod owner, nor familiar with the new Kindle technology available through Amazon.com or the Sony alternative. I like paper books opened in my hand. Nevertheless, some people and kids live in front of computers and are constantly “plugged in." I’m already seeing my kids, 4 1/2 and 6 years old, master the mouse and intuitively navigate web sites. With books, audio and video materials all becoming available for digital download, I have new territory to explore at the library.

Citizens and parents have some immediate opportunities to explore this new territory, too. Tomorrow (July 2), the digital bookmobile is coming to Madison on its national tour.  A 74-foot, 18-wheel high-tech tractor-trailer, this “bookmobile” is equipped to help people get up to speed on ways we can download digital materials from our South Central Library System. (Check out www.DigitalBookMobile.com to see this amazing tractor trailor.)

Also, the Wisconsin Public Library Consortium (WPLC) is offering digital downloads to all of us at its web site (http://dbooks.wplc.info). Via the internet, I can choose among hundreds of library books, videos, and audio files to download to a computer, MP3 player, or iPod. It’s just one more way that adults and kids can have access to books.

Opportunity.  Access.  Ease. In this digital age, many kids will grow up feeling quite adept at finding and paging through books by clicking a mouse. Many high-schoolers will feel perfectly comfortable perusing The Grapes of Wrath on a blue-lit monitor. My kids will get a real kick out of mousing through The Cat In the Hat with me at their side.

Ben Franklin would say, “Any chance you get to learn, take it.”  Digital downloads are just one more venue for public lending libraries to carry out their mission.  If more and more kids and adults learn about ways to navigate all the books and resources that can enrich us. . . If school librarians and teachers help kids learn how to bask in the rich language and liberating ideas that exist in print or on file. . .then we all gain individually and publicly. 

I’m sure our public librarians are up to the task.  Every time I have a question, they seem to have an answer ready. 

Susan Lewis, a mom of two adopted daughters, is a free-lance writer and stay-at-home mom.  She contributes to this blog as a way of reflecting on and recording some of the funnier, poignant moments of parenting young children as an older mom (late forties and holding).  She has changed her children’s names and her own name for confidentiality’s sake.  April, now six, was adopted from China.  Bee, now four, was adopted from Ethiopia.  And Charming, her husband, is an introverted Norwegian-American, who most definitely wants to remain anonymous.  You can contact Susan Lewis at SuLew4blog@gmail.com.