As the summer winds down, it's time to reflect on all the amazing things that went on at the Main Library. Here are a few:
- 173 Teens read 965 books as part of the Teen Summer Reading Party
- 284 Teens attended programs at the library like Movie Matinees, Go Game! and Crafts
- 350 people attended the Harry and the Potters concert on July 6th (and how cool was that, by the way?)
- 30 Teens came to the Teen Summer Reading End of Summer After-Hours After-Party (which was also really amazing -- I hope you all had fun!)
- Approximately a million fabulous conversations about books, music, movies and life were carried out between teens and librarians
- 0 tears were shed. That I know of, anyway.
It's a bittersweet kind of thing...a new school year is very exciting, but we're going to miss seeing you every day! I hope that you don't forget to come visit! We're a great place to do homework, too.
One person we're really going to miss is our teen volunteer, Lily, who's been coming in twice a week all summer long to shelve books, make displays and help with programs. Lily wrote us a great essay about what she thinks about being a teen volunteer at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, which is reproduced here for your reading enjoyment:
How Do I Feel About Being A Library Volunteer? Well…
By: Lily
When someone asks, “How do you feel about being a volunteer at the Carnegie Library?” what am I, an average Pittsburgh girl, to say? Only 65,000 words exist in my dictionary to describe the feeling, and the majority of words like rancid, compunction, or defenestrate would fit the situation as well as a XS floral bikini would fit cow.
Thousands of years of linguistic evolution cannot provide the proper answer, but what about chemistry? Yeah Chemistry. The mixing and combining separate entities to create a new whole. If I approach the question from different perspectives, as different people, I should be able to rearrange the essence of their answers to form the perfect one for me.
Okay. I’m ready. Ask me again, in the words of Sergeant Sarah Brown, “ ‘Ask me how do I feel…’ about being a library volunteer?”
Well, if I were a cheerleader, I’d be cheering:
I’M A VOLUNTEER! WHAT DO I DO?
I SHELVE BOOKS! WHY DON’T YOU?
(above: Chant to the beat of I’ve got spirit)
THE LIBRARY IS THE BEST PLACE TO VOLUNTEER,
SO MUCH TO DO, BET YOU WISH YOU WERE HERE.
YOU COULD DESIGN ON WINDOWS, WALLS, AND MORE
WITH PENCILS AND PAINTS AND SHARPIES GALORE.
SO MUCH SHELVING, STICKERING, AND LAUGHING TO DO,
COME TO THE LIBRARY AND THIS COULD BE YOU!
(above: Say it anyway you like. As long as you’re peppy it works)
BE A LIBRARIAN
B-E A LIBRARIAN
B-E A-L-I-B-R-A-R-I-A-N
YEA!!!!!! (toe-touch) WAHOO!!!!!! (cartwheel)
(above: Scream to the beat of Be Aggressive)
If I were a poet, I’d be writing:
Once upon a noontime airy, I began to wander, though worn and wary.
After many a quiet and solemn hour, I happened upon a library tower.
As I approached, nearly falling, I thought I could hear a faint voice calling.
Tis only tiredness that is talking, yet I still followed, slowly walking,
All the way to the wooden door.
Ah, I vividly recall, it was season not yet fall.
Each paneled door swung out revealing a light, so bright, from the ceiling.
Swiftly fled was all my sorrow, in its stead a golden morrow
Of laughter and life and lore, of tomes that nestle across the floor
A vision that continued forevermore.
If I were a French chef, I’d be cooking:
A baguette, Monsieur. Les baguettes symbolizes the food of the people, les gens.
We en France buy many a day, eat with every meal. It nourished us, our bodies.
And I, one of the select, makes the baguettes, takes my place among the
nourishers of them, I say my fellow countrymen. I have a points, mon cher. Sois
patience.
Books , les livres, are the baguette for the mind. I proud to feed the body
and the community mind. I come, put the books, les journals, how do you say the
“magazins” upon the shelf and I feel proud. I smile at the shelves and shelves of
food. What fun, what an aroma, and I, my friend, I smile.
Ask me how do I feel about being a library volunteer. Well, if I were just me, I’d answer:
It makes me feel like jumping off a human pyramid and doing flips in the air, all while shouting about the marvels of the library. Unfortunately, acrobatics is something that is beyond me (or should I say, behind me), but volunteering makes me feel like I can do what I cannot. The experience motivates, invigorates. It never bores, only soothes. The sight of rows upon rows of shelves filled with books just fills me with a sense of awe. It is not a frequent sight, rare although not expensive, but worth more than all the jewels in the world. It is the sight of joy being given out for free. Nothing is better. The books themselves make me smile. They send up bubbles that pop out of mouth as a laugh. Some books stand majestically on their bases silently waiting for fate while others lean so far out that they practically fall off the shelves, seeming to innocently plead, “Look a little higher. No lower. Come on. I know you see me. Yes. Yeeessssss… Here I am. Pick me. Pick me. NO, you don’t want that one.” Every time, I put one of those books up on a shelf, or a handmade poster on a wall, I feel proud because I am adding to what makes the library so amazing to me and making it better for others to enjoy. The library, volunteering or not, just makes me feel happy. If I were a bell, I’d definitely be ringing Ding Dong Ding Dong Ding!
**Editor's note: That bit above about zero tears being shed? Not quite so true anymore. Thanks, Lily**
Family Tree
Macaroni Boy
North by Night
South by Southeast by Anthony Horowitz
The Ballad of Cauldron Bay by Elizabeth Honey 
