“If thou followeth a wall far enough, there must be a drawer in it.” Well, that’s not an exact quote from Marguerite DeAngeli’s Newberry-winner. She uses the word, “Door.” A Door in the Wall.
But the phrase works for our castle–Albany Library–where books, magazines, DVDs, CDs and Books on CD return to the fold via two metal drawers. (Fourth Grade students will remember this medieval dungeon from their tour of the library.)
No busy library can function without a “Book Return.” Some are rooms, bins, small tanks on wheels–you name it! Once materials are dropped off, our job has just begun. Getting books from floor to shelf is the stuff that days are made of . The drop is emptied three times a day. It takes persistence, muscle power and, as Paul shows below, a certain joie de beaver. See the fine dam of books built on the threshold of the book drop.
In the medieval novel of A Door in the Wall, Robin learns the virtue of persistence. He keeps on trying and never gives up in his effort to regain physical strength lost during an extended illness. In fact, the young hero saves his castle from Welsh Invaders by putting his new-found strength to the test. Here at Albany Library, staff shows the same tenacity at our “Drawer in the Wall.”