A Wonderfully Happy and Kind of Sad Day…

As my son just literally turned 12 (at 2:10PM, the time he was born), I want to shout to the heavens with joy and weep at the same time….my baby is getting older, and our next life stage is the dreaded puberty!

To make matters even more complicated, my son is moderate to severe on the Autism Spectrum, and while I have gotten a lot of great advice from his doctors and others who have been through this, I still know that each child is unique when it comes to this time we all go through, so I take comfort in knowing that I have made it this far, against great odds, and that this is just the next step in my son’s life, and we will cross that bridge when we come to it!

We definitely enjoyed our Monster’s University cake, and all of the presents, including the many wonderful books that we were given, thank you to all of our family for that! It was not too long ago that my son didn’t enjoy books at all….I actually wrote a different blog about that (found here) if you would like the backstory…..

So as I type this, fear not, my friends, my tears are tears of joy, with just a touch of melancholy, because as every mother (and father) since the dawn of time knows, watching our kids grow up is both the greatest and saddest event in our lives….. 🙂

Library and Book History

As I am sitting here finishing up an assignment for another class, concerning the history of our beloved books and libraries, I came across a little snippet of information I had never heard before, and wanted to share here:
From Dahl’s History of the Book, 3rd English Edition, edited by Bill Katz, 1995, pg. 3:
“An example of what literacy could mean to a specific people is found in the history of Israel. Both for religious and cultural reasons, reading and writing, unlike in other parts of the Near East, were stressed, often against great odds. A religious Hebrew, whether man, woman or child, should be taught the basics of literacy. This total shift from the customs of the Near East is due to the attachment the Hebrews had (and have) for the written word, for the book.”
This passage just seemed to resonate with me, as it is a new understanding to the way the book, and the written word, have affected so many cultures, from antiquity to now. It even sounds like the kind of system we employ today, with our free public education, our emphasis on public libraries as places to educate the masses, etc. So radically different from the more common “scribe and royalty/wealthy” system that was in place in the neighboring cultures of that time!

Hello All!

My name is Melodi Pulliam, and I am an (Almost) Librarian, meaning I only have 9 hours of classes to take, then I am awarded my Masters of Science in Library & Information Science….bet you didn’t know that you needed a Masters degree to “technically” call yourself a Librarian, did you? Well, now you know (and for those of you who grew up in the 1980’s, like myself, and you watched a certain cartoon show, will know how to finish that statement)!