I LOVE LIBRARIES

RED Hearts are guest posts on I Heart Daily from the authors of RED: Teenage girls in America write on what fires up their lives today.

Today’s RED Hearts post is from RED author Carey Dunne, 23, in NYC who extols the many virtues of the public library:

Libraries get a bad rap. They’re dismissed as fusty nerd havens or avoided in post-traumatic student disorder as exam study hellholes.

Unfortunately, it is not well known that they are actually fun, and also, cool.

I love libraries: They are cathedrals of free knowledge. I got my first library card when I was five, from the New York Public Library on 42nd Street. White marble lions sit guarding this library, with Lego lion replicas just past the entrance. (Amazon.com is not guarded by lions, and also does not have a big ceiling painted with cherubs.) I knew that cards of this size and shape were important objects usually meant only for grown-ups. I flashed it at all who walked by on my way home, so they would see that I held the key to infinite wisdom and power.

Most public libraries also have various free programs, say, an anime club for teens, story readings for kids and film screenings. Libraries also happen to be the best places to get new releases of DVDs -- you don’t have to buy them or wait months for them to be available on Netflix.

In the tradition of great storytelling, we present some of the Coolest Fictional Libraries:

In Buffy the Vampire Slayer: At the Sunnydale High School Library, Giles, like many librarians, is only disguised as a fuddy-duddy. In truth, he possesses ancient mystical wisdom. Buffy goes to him for vampire-slaying guidance and books about werewolves and demon eggs. The library is her main hang, aside from the cemetery.

In The Breakfast Club: Being stuck in the library goes from punishment to party.

In The Music Man: Marian, and the song about loving her madly, is proof that “librarian” is one of the world’s most desirable jobs.

In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: Hermione Granger’s discovery of gillyweed in the “restricted section” means that Harry Potter would have died in book four if it weren’t for libraries.

In Party Girl: I mean, this is the story of a broke dance club queen (Parker Posey) who discovers the seductive allure of the Dewey Decimal System. If you’re not convinced, watch Posey dancing epically on library tables:

Three whispered cheers for libraries.

RED Hearts guest poster Carey Dunne is an author of RED: Teenage girls in America write on what fires up their lives today, which is out in paperback.