By Ronald W.
我的第一个前往公共图书馆是我的避风港东CT，在“Hagaman纪念图书馆”的家乡。那是在小学实地考察，我并不比7年长我还记得的经验，从入口到大楼的时候;领导到巨大的门，一旦大理石地板，巨大的楼梯，橡木家具和墙上的画像里的步骤。我知道我是一个特殊的空间内。
The class attended “story hour” that day in the Children’s section; we were told that “story hour” would occur every Wednesday after school for those who wished to sign up to attend. The whole class received library cards that day.
幸运的是，我和其他一些邻居的孩子谁住在街对面是幸运的，他母亲的时间表，每星期能买得起我们参加，我们的妈妈交替驾驶星期。我们都喜欢那个故事讲述小时极大。在等待我们回家，我们都会挑选出书退房带回家，请阅读并返回下面的一周。8周后“的故事小时”结束，这是夏天。
The trips to the library have never ended and only gotten better. Summer reading lists through middle school, using the Hagaman reference room for writing research papers in high school and then onto local colleges utilizing my student ID to access local university libraries including New Haven Public Library, Southern CT State Library, University of New Haven, Quinnipiac College Library, and Yale Cross Campus Library.
Upon graduating college in 1978, I took a job with a local micropublisher. I soon discovered that not only could I make money to pay off my college loans but I would be able to have a working environment that could keep me in and around libraries and I enjoyed photography. I had become a traveling microfilm operator capturing source documents for my employer. I had found my dream job.
Microfilm assignments took me on a journey which kept me working in world renowned libraries. I started with image capture of American Poetry collections at the John Hay Library at Brown University. Next up, was the Theatre Collection at the “Pusey Library” at Harvard. While onsite at Harvard I will never forget the main entrance steps to the “Widener Library” just across the walkway, I couldn’t help but to think – steps on steroids. Looking from ground level a person at the top entering this monumental building appeared quite small. I couldn’t wait to get inside and once inside the stacks, it was just incredible. I obtained a library card due to my work affiliation and spent many lunch hours utilizing the resource. Onsite assignments at the Bodleian Library at Oxford University, The Kinsey Institute Library at IU, Boston Public, New York Public and most recently setting up imaging vendors at the British Library ST. Pancreas, the National Archive at Kew to name a few along with many others have all broadened and fulfilled my attachment to libraries as that special space.
现在在我的六十年代和思考后，我将永远不会忘记在这一切开始。我不记得这个故事这么多的经验，永远不会忘记“Hagaman纪念图书馆”和所有美好的人谁在那里工作。