I thought this article was interesting, being a former assistant librarian, librarian, and then a board member at Rippey. Gladys was the mother of Walt Anderson and Marjorie Vannatta.
In the process of “decluttering.” or “purging,” as I call it, I came across this article by Gladys (McDowell) Anderson, who was on the board from 1960 to 1962 when she was appointed librarian in Rippey from June 1962 until shortly before she died on March 12, 1969. It seems the libraries still struggle to defend their importance to their communities across our country.
Gladys (McDowell) Anderson, June 1965
The remark was made to me one day that the reading of books seemed to be a waste of time. That when one did fancy work or hand work that one had something to show for it.
I thought about that for some time and wondered if I could be wrong, maybe one didn’t have much to show for the wealth of good reading, except, having our names on the cards in the book.
I remembered the quilts and the boxes of crocheting, tatting and knitting that is done by so many. I’ve done a little myself and realize that it, too, has its place in the woman’s world of self-entertainment.
I began to think of the education I had received from books. I thought of all the wealth of information one acquires from them. I tried to imagine what my life would have been without the wonderful world of literature. It, to me, would have been drab indeed.
We can have both. We can have our fancy work around to pick up part of the time and we can also take a little time to read. I really believe that the reason some people do not care to read is because they have never done much of it. They become bored if they have to read a non-fiction book or one that isn’t a thriller. A librarian learns a lot about people by the type of reading they do.
We can accomplish so much through books. We can travel to far-off places. We can learn to understand the ways of people in these other lands. We can learn the geography and history of people everywhere. We can learn to understand history through fiction books.
Books tell the story of the times in which they are written. Right now the books deal mostly with integration, war and sex. We are shocked by some of them but they are indicative of the times in which we live. That is why I stress the reading of some of the older books along with the new ones.
The books on our shelves tell the story of how we live and, be it good or evil, it is our story and to never read books seems like never trying to keep up with the world.
So, along with our knitting and all the pretty things that we want to hand down to our children someday, let’s also enrich our minds with the literature to be found in our libraries. I can’t believe that a well-read person hasn’t anything to show for his time spent with good books.
– Gladys (McDowell) Anderson, 1965